This year, Dragon Boat Festival is on June 7, which is next Friday. I never tried to make sticky rice dumpling (Zong zi) by myself even though I like them very much. I saw there were bamboo leaves for zongzi on the supermarket’s shelf and thought maybe I can try making zongzi this year.
The preparation should be done on the night before.
From left to right: glutinous rice, red bean, preserved dates, pork & shiitake mushroom, bamboo leaves.
Bamboo leaves should be soaked in water overnight. Cut off the leaf stalk before wrapping.
Because my husband likes meat zongzi, which is salty, while I like sweet ones. So I have to prepare 2 fillings.
I wrapped a lot of zongzi, please feel free to deduct the ingredients.
For the savory ones:
pork belly 200 g (cut into slices)
Shiitake 4 (cut into slices).
Put pork and shiitake into a small bowl. Add in 1 tbsp light soy sauce, 1 pinch salt, 2 tsp dark soy sauce, 2 tsp oyster sauce and 1 tsp five spice powder. Mix them well. Put into fridge overnight.
glutinous rice 500g
red bean 1 cup
Wash them under water. Then soak them overnight. You can mix them before soaking or after.
Drain glutinous rice and red bean. Put them in a big bowl. Drizzle in 1 tbsp light soy sauce and 1 tbsp sesame oil. Mix well.
For the sweet ones:
glutinous rice 500g
red bean 1 cup
Soak overnight too.
Mix them before using. If you want Zong Zi to taste sweeter, you can also add in sugar.
Wrapping sticky rice dumplings is not as difficult as I expected, unless if you want to make them very neat and pretty. My rule is as long as I can wrap the filling , rice inside and I can tie them with twine, it will be a big success. 🙂
For the savory ones with pork inside:
Use bamboo leaves (1 or 2 ) to make a funnel shape at one end. Add into 1 tbsp rice, then 1 or 2 slices of pork and shiitake. Top with another 1 tbsp rice. Cover it with the rest bamboo leaf and wrap with twine.
Please remember to use the light soy sauce and sesame oil marinated rice.
Same procedures are applied to the sweet ones. Just replace the pork with preserved dates and use the normal rice.
Wrap them tightly with twine. You can use different colors of twine to different types.
Boil them for 3 hours. If yours are bigger then mine, please cook longer. Better boil them separately due to different flavor.
Well, my sticky rice dumplings are a bit….. ugly and diverse in shapes. 🙂
Actually, I think zongzi is delicious even if there were only plain sticky rice inside.
So I can never say no to zongzi. 🙂
Cooking For Fun 