Bah-Chàng 肉粽 (Sticky Rice Dumplings)

At Chinese School yesterday, the ladies were doing a practice run for the dumpling making demonstration to show the students how these sticky dumplings are made on 29th June 2013. A group of different ladies volenteer every year and I know my daughter found it really interesting when she was younger and attending this school.

I thought this year I have to video this as my friend is in charge of the demonstration this year. I took a video of her, but she said "Don't put this on YouTube ok?" So instead she video'ed me and the video is here: https://plus.google.com/u/0/107407730754858129625/videos. Sorry I can't embedd it, only You Tube Videos can be apparently, not G+ yet.

Bah-Chang (Hokkien) or Zhong (Cantonese) or Zong Zi (Mandarin) is avalable from the Asian shop at any time of the year, but it traditionally eaten on the 5th day of the 5th month of the lunar calender, which is Dumpling Festival day or Dragon Boat Racing Festival day. I call it Zhong (pronounced Tsung or Chung) but  my husband calls it Bah Chang. There are many different varieties of Zhong, in Malacca we used to get the blueish Nonya Zhong and of course the Zhong which I'll write about today which my grand-aunt used to make. This isn't my grand-aunt's recipe but as I said above my friend's from Chinese School. 

Ingredients

Rice
Glutinous Rice, soaked overnight
Light Soy
Dark Soy
Salt & Pepper
5 Spice Powder
Filling
DriedMung Beans (Without Skin), soaked then drained
Shallots, sliced
Pork Belly cut into thick slices
Dried Shrimp, soaked then drained
Dried Chinese (Shitake) Mushrooms, soaked then drained and cut into quaters
Light Soy
Dark Soy
Salt & Pepper
5 Spice Powder
Wrapping
Bamboo leaves, soaked in water for a few hours
Sting (alright this is not an ingredient it's equiptment...)

Method

Cut 5 very long lenghts of string and fold in half and knot leaving a loop at the top. Now you have a loop with 10 long string tentacles hanging from it. Find a hook and hang your sting thing from a higher point (such as the handle of your upper kitchen cabinets). Leave there to wrap the Zhong at the end.
Rice
Par-Boil the glutinour rice that has been soaked over night then drain and mix through the rest of the rice ingredients. Set aside in a bowl. Par-boiling quickens the cooking process at the end and ensures a better sticky texture than cooking at the end from raw.

Filling
Set the reconsituted mung beans aside in one bowl.
Fry the shallots until softened, then brown the pork bellly slices. Add in the rest of the ingredients and stir fry until cooked through. Set aside in another bowl.

Wrapping
Take two bamboo leaves and overlap them slightly lenght wise to provide a wider wrapping surface. Make sure that the smoother silkier side is towards the food. Make a cone with the bamboo leaves by folding one tip to lie on top of the other. (Watch the video if this does not make sense.) Half fill the cone with rice, then mung beans, then meat, then mung beans then rice. (In the video we ran our of ingredients, you can use a little more.)
Pinch your cone between thumb and index finger and fold the top of the bamboo leaves down over your cone to make a triangle and compress the rice. So the cone will be pointing down like an ice cream cone at this point which is covered by the top of the bamboo leaves. Then topple the cone so that now the cone is like an upside down ice cream cone. Make sure the leaves are packed tightly around the rice, which you may need to compress and fold up the bottom leaves like a boat at the ends. Flip this long bit to the side and wrap around the triangle. (Once again watch the video. It will make sense when you do)
Bring your triangle to the string thing and make a loop around it, then another loop as if you are trying a present. Tied a knot and a bow to secure at the end.
Cooking
When you have finished all your Zhongs, you can boil them for 40 mins or steam for 1 hour. However if you did not par-boil your Zhongs, you have to cook them for much longer.

And to finish with a funny story, when we were younger we used to go to Chan Brothers in Melville quite often and one day when I was going alone, my husband yelled out to get some Bah-Chang. I didn't quite hear him and wondered around the store looking for Belachan, which he also likes. Finally I went to the lady owner of the store and said, "Where's the Belachan?: She said "Hah?!" as she couldn't hear me. I said "BELACHAN, my husband likes it!" She said " YOUR HUSBAND AH?! Your husband wants BAH CHANG not BELACHAN, I always see him buy it!" I was a bit schocked but sheepishly reazlied she was right and went to the box to pick some out. Even the lady owner knows what my husband wants better than me! HA HA