Monday, December 29, 2008

Rice Dumpling with Meat Filling - Zongzi


Pronounced as "joong" in Hakka, these dumplings could be stuffed with all sorts of meat (commonly chicken or pork), mushrooms, brow beans, mung bean, dried prawn, dried cuttlefish seasoned with soy sauce and five spices.

I bought these at a Taiwanese food fair. Unlike commercially sold dumplings at stores and restaurants, these dumplings are nicely wrapped, hence, the rice is soft and retains its integrity but not soggy. They are generous with the filling.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Back in Mauritius (where most of Chinese are of Hakka heritage), the joong does not contain any meat. It is considered more like a snack or dessert and we eat it with sugar ground with peanuts. Yummy. Makes me hungry. My mother is an adept at wrapping the leaves and making the "pyramids" very tight and very symmetrical. We used to make about a hundred whenever it was the harvest time and I would go with them fetch the leaves and wash them. We would boil them outside on a charcoal burner for hours. Afterwards, we would divide them among the family members who visit.

soel said...

Greetings, Gemmellian. I think you're referring to "gun shui joong".
During our childhood days, we spent hours helping mom to sort out long grain rice from glutinuous rice, apparently to make the uniformly soft and chewy. It requires great skills to make dumplings with clearly defined shape and angles. Kudos to your mom. Some like to put mashed red bean paste, green pea, taro or peanuts in the centre of the dumplings.
My Malaysian aunt uses grated coconut, dried shrimp, palm sugar and chilli as filling. Very addictive! But they don't keep as long as purely alkaline dumplings.

soel said...

Check this out : http://hakkafood.blogspot.com/2009/04/alkaline-rice-dumpling-with-bean.html