Bak Chang(glutinous rice dumpling)
Soon will come the time to make and eat this sumptuos dumpling wrapped in pandan leaves(screwpine).Four more days to go but I'm already making it.What to do,cos a good aunty next door gave me the leaves.She's making this "bak Chang" business.Not all are for free though,some buy,some free.
It is not very easy to make. U have to master the skill of wrapping before you can finally wrap one. First, cut one long strip of leaves into three equal lengths. Then cut away the thorns that might prick the hands with the back of a knife, and gently scrape the center at the back of the leaves. Then, wash the leaves with a clean cloth inside a basin of clean water. Put aside for later use.
Read the history of Bak Chang here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zongzi
The recipe is just agak-agak, which is estimated only, depending on yourself how much you want to cook the filling and how many you want to make. Here, I make a larger portion, around 80.
Next prepare the necessary ingredients to make the filling.
2 kg glutinous rice/pulut(soaked overnight or at least 2 hours)
25 leaves
1 can button mushrooms
10 pieces dried mushrooms(cut into strips)
100g dried shrimps
4 garlic
4 onions
2 tbsp five-spice powder
2 yams(optional)
100g chestnuts
2 shallots pounded
2 tbsp light soya sauce
1 chicken stock
enough black soya sauce(according to your taste)
1 tbsp sugar
5tbsps of oil
2kg pork belly
First, boil the yams until it turns tender. Take it out and mashed it with a fork. Then, boil the chestnuts in a pot, and cover them with enough water. Prepare the Kuali for cooking. Put the cooking oil into the Kuali and fry the onions, garlic, shallots, and dried shrimps until aroma. Put the five-spice powder with 2 tbsps of water and put it in the meat. Stir, put in the dried and button mushrooms. Continue stirring. Pour in a little bit of water again if it starts to turn dry.Put in black soya sauce,light soya sauce,chicken stock and the sugar in. Keep on stirring for a few more minutes. Cover to simmer. Turn the fire when it is done, and take it out to cool.
Second, fry the glutinous rice. In a wok, put 3 tbsps of oil. Throw in the onions and then the rice. Put in 6 tbsps of salt. Fry till it turns yellow in color. Cool it.
Start wrapping into a triangle shape
Take one leaf, overlap, like a corn shape, put one tbsp of rice in, put one tbsp of filling and cover the top with another 1 tbsp of rice, seal the sides and cover completely. Tied it with string.
After all has finished, bring to boil in a large pot, cover with enough water for 11/2 hours.
Bak chang is best to eat when overnight or when it turns very cold. When it's warm, you can't really taste the flavor. Sorry, I can't really illustrate here how to wrap the Bak Chang because I'm not good at illustrating and my lame English. You can simply go to Youtube to watch.
And................haiaa!It's past midnight and I'm still waiting for my Bak Chang to get cooked while writing this blog. This is my second-day making it. Yesterday,I also made and this is just the leftover ingredients.
On the left, rice looks more brown(cooked by me) and on the right, rice looks more white(cooked by my son)but both are also delicious.
Okay! now!Time to turn off the fire and take out my Bak Chang. It's 12.25 AM.Way passed midnight!
