Kee Chang 鹼水粽

I believe I am the only one in the family that likes Kee Chang 鹼水粽.  I think kee chang is a hokkien dialect.

When I was young, I love to eat the plain ones rather than the one with red bean or mungbean fillings.  My favourite way is to sprinkle a generous amount of sugar over it and eat it.

Now you can have it with kaya, gula melaka (which is quite similar to lopes) and many other accompaniment.

I was watching a documentary the other day and this lady actually include sweet potatoes in her kee chang.  I was curious how it taste like as I love sweet potatoes so this morning, I went to the wet market to grab some sweet potatoes and try my hand at it.

I have also include a video so that in future, my kids can use this as reference if they want to make their own dumplings.

If you are new to wrapping a dumpling, the best way to learn is to start with kee chang.

What you need:
Yield 16 pcs

What you need:

32 bamboo leaves
16 grass strings

500g glutinous rice
½ tbsp oil
15g lye
1 tbsp hot water

Sweet potatoes (chunk) - I used honey sweet potatoes

Method:

Wash and soak glutinous rice overnight.

Soak bamboo leaves and grass strings overnight.  Clean leaves and boil in hot water for 5 mins.

Drain rice.

Pound lye into powder.

Dissolved lye powder with 1 tbsp hot water.  Stir until powder dissolved.

Mix lye water into the rice.  Mix well.

Using two pieces of bamboo leaves with smooth side facing you.  Fold into a cone.

Place 1 tsp of rice into the cone.

Add a piece of sweet potato

Cover the cone with 2 tablespoon of rice.

Fold and wrap into a pyramid shape.

Tie securely with grass string.

Bring a big pot of water to a boil.

Lower the bundle of bak chang and cook on medium heat for 2 hours.

Test doneness by trying out one sample.  If uncooked, boil for another 1/2 hour.

Cool thoroughly before eating.

Serve with sprinkle of sugar.

Nonya Rice Dumpling 娘惹粽子

My sister wanted to eat Nonya Rice Dumpling 娘惹粽子.  

My attempt on this for last year was a big disappointment, so we decided to try the recipe mom had in her file.  

Verdict: We really love the filling flavor except we must remember to put more fillings.  I think 2 tbsp is better than 1 tbsp as recommended.

I think we need to balance our strength and not bind the dumplings too tightly, it looks strangled.

What you need:

1.5kg glutinous rice, soak overnight

60 pcs of bamboo leaves (I took from the same packet that I made the savoury dumpling)

Pandan leaves (cut into 30 small pcs)

Blue pea flowers (a handful of dried blue pea flowers)

600g pork (五华肉)

200g winter melon strip, diced finely

300g onion, sliced thinly

7 pcs garlic, minced

2 tbsp ground peanut

3 tbsp coriander powder (buy from medical hall for better quality)

Seasoning

3 tbsp white pepper powder

1 1/2 tbsp fine sugar

1 1/2 tbsp salt

Method:

Steam pork until cooked.  Diced finely.

Boil blue pea flower in 1/2 cup of water until it turns deep blue.  Discard flower and set aside to cool.

Drain rice.  Remove some and add blue colouring to it.  Set aside.

Add 7 tbsp oil and fry onion until golden.  Remove and set aside.

Fry minced garlic until fragrant, add in coriander powder, fried onion, diced pork, winter melon and ground peanut.  Stir fry until it is evenly combined.  Set aside.

Using two leaves, shaped them into a cone.  Add in 1 tbsp rice, 1 tbsp fillings and then 1 tbsp of rice, 1 tsp of blue tone rice and 1 slice of pandan leaves.  Bind dumpling with raffia string.

Fill half a pot of water, bring to boil and add in the dumplings.  Boil for an hour or until cooked.

Savory Dumpling 炒米粽子

Hubby likes Savory Dumpling 炒米粽子 better than Nonya Rice Dumpling which is sweet.

So this year, I attempted this one for him.  I took this recipe from Mom that she learnt during her younger days.

The instruction were pretty vague and mom's memory on this recipe was long gone.  So I need to work on this one by instinct.

Verdict: Overall the flavor of the fillings was good but unfortunately the flavor from the rice was lost in that pot of water while cooking.  So disappointed.

Besides adding salt to the water, is there any way to retain the flavor?  I wonder where went wrong.  Haiz... try again next year.

Yield : 30 pcs
What you need:

1.2kg glutinous rice, wash and soak overnight
1kg pork belly
100g dried shrimp
100g dried mushroom, wash and soak overnight, cut into two.
200g dried chestnut, wash and soak for an hour.  Split open and remove membrane 
300g small onion, fried to become shallot
100g minced garlic

50g small onion, sliced thinly

60 pcs bamboo leaves, soaked overnight (one packet is sufficient)

Raffia string, 3 metres fold into half and knot it. 


Seasoning for meat

1 tbsp salt
3 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp sesame oil
2 tsp five spice powder
2 tbsp dark soya sauce
1 tbsp light soya sauce
pepper


Seasoning for rice

1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp sugr
1 tbsp light soya sauce
4 tbsp dark soya sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
pepper


Method:

Cook the bamboo leaves for 10 mins in a pot of boiling water.  Cool and then drain and washed.   Before use, use a damp cloth to wipe off the excess water.  Always keep the leaves wet.

Parboil the soaked chestnut for 15 mins, remove any impurities or remaining skin.

Heat 6 tbsp oil and fry the garlic and onion. 

Add in glutinous rice and mixed well.  Set aside

Heat 2 tbsp oil and add in seasoned pork belly and shallot.  Mixed well.  

Add in the mushroom and mixed further.  Set aside

Remove bits of shells or impurities from dried shrimp.  Add a little oil and fry dried shrimp until fragrant.

Shaped 2 pcs of bamboo leave and scoop 1 tbsp rice, add chestnut, dried shrimp, mushroom and pork belly.  Add another 1½ tbsp rice.  

Shape and tied with string.

Add completed dumpling into boiling water and cook for 1 hour or until cooked.
(I needed 1½ hrs)

Alkaline Rice Dumpling 碱水粽

There are so many varieties of rice dumplings these days that people are spoil with choices.  

For me, I am still very traditional and not too adventurous when comes to such festive goodies.  Besides the savory ones and the sweet Nonya version, another that I love is the Alkaline Rice Dumpling 碱水粽. 

Some comes with sweet red bean fillings, some comes with sweet mung bean fillings or even just plain.

I love the red bean and the plain best.   I still remember eating the plain with plenty of fine sugar when I was young.

A simple snack but with greatest enjoyment.

Mom told me some pointers when making Alkaline rice dumpling are:

• One needs to pick up the rice grain from the glutinous rice grain to ensure the Q texture.

• Do not add too much alkaline as the dumpling will become too bitter.  Also personally, I don't like the alkaline to be too intense as well.  

Could it be, become I have smaller hands?  Well I love to console myself with this reasoning.

For first timer who decide to try their hand at wrapping rice dumpling, this version is the best to start with.  

Practice makes perfect.  For me, I think my sister fare much better than me when wrapping dumplings and she is faster too.  

What you need:

500g glutinous rice, soak overnight
12g lye (available in supermarket)

Sweet Red Bean paste or Sweet mung bean paste (Optional)

50 pcs bamboo leaves, soaked overnight (one packet is sufficient)
Raffia string, 3 meters fold into half and knot it. 

Method:

Drain rice.  Set aside in a big bowl.

Pound the orange lye with a pestle until it breaks into small pieces.  Add 1½

tbsp hot water, stir until it dissolved.  Pour approx 4 tsp of lye water into the rice and mix thoroughly.  (Do not add too much or else your dumpling will have a bitter taste)

Using two leaves, shaped them into a cone.  Add rice and bind dumpling with raffia string.

Fill half a pot of water, bring to boil and add in the dumplings.  Boil for an hour or until cooked. (I needed 1½ hrs)

Nyonya Dumpling (娘惹粽)

I heart Nyonya dumpling a lot, actually more than the Hokkien or the Cantonese variety.

I remembered when young, my granny will organise a family affair for this dumpling wrapping session.  Mom and aunts will gather round to wrap dumplings.  

We will then partner with our neighbour who has a huge pot that is as tall as a 7 years old girl and we will cook our dumplings together in this huge pot over charcoal at the back alley.  Oh don't ask me how they can differentiate the different families' dumplings for all I was interested in, was to eat them.  

I just so love such kampong spirit even though I don't stay in kampong.  Those days, neighbours are a much helpful and friendly lots.  We are free to come and go in each other’s house.  Unlike now, they don't even want to make eye contact with you!  

Anyway back to my Nyonya Dumpling making session.  This is the first time I attempted on my own.  Before my mom hits 65 or so, she actually organised one session for us, telling us that she won't be making dumplings anymore and thus we better learn the art of wrapping a dumpling.  Of course back then, I just couldn’t grasp it.

I was happy when I finally assembled all the ingredients together and getting all ready and excited.  The hardest part of Nonya dumpling is the fillings.  Each ingredient needs to cut into exact tiny size.  After all this is my first and I seriously wanted to impress my daughter.   

Then I realised that the leaves seems to be smaller than what mom usually bought.  I did struggled a fair bit especially Nonya dumpling has fillings and it is not easy to get all things together into a small packaging.

Make an emergency call to mom and luckily she was at home.  Rectified the problem and soon I was on my way again.   Then I have to go out and pick up my daughter.  By the time I came home, the leaves “dried” up again and once again, my struggle begins.  I quickly dunked it into water again to soften it and at long last I completed all the rice.    It was a relieved as I was already getting worried for my back.

I also did the traditional way of cooking this in charcoal.  After 4 hours of boiling (in two batches), I managed to yield 39 dumplings.  Not bad for a beginner.

I won’t say it was a smooth learning process but sometime when we are at a dead end, we just got to manage it.

Thanks to jthorge's kitchen for sharing this recipe.

Verdict: 

The fillings was enough for 38 pcs of dumplings buy I yield 39 pcs based on rice usage.  

Tasters felt that the rice is a little too bland so will add in a little more salt the next time.  Also the fillings was not sweet enough.

I need to improve on getting the fillings to be more centred.  

Next time, I will add in 2 tbsp of salt and 2 tbsp of sugar into the boiling water so that the taste will not get lost while cooking.

Yield : 39 pcs

What you need:

Rice:

Ingredients A:

250g bamboo leaves (soaked overnight, washed)

nylon strings as required

10 pieces pandan leaves (knotted) - for the boiling water

Ingredients B:

2 kg glutinous rice

Ingredients C:

60g corn oil

Ingredients D (chopped):

10 cloves shallot

5 cloves garlic

Ingredients E:

4 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

Filling:

Ingredients A (chopped finely):

10 cloves shallot

5 cloves garlic

Ingredients B:

1 kg minced pork

20 pieces dried mushroom (soaked, diced)

250g candied melon (chopped) (I think I will increase this to 300g)

Seasoning:

60g coriander powder (this time I used 50g but will try 60g the next round as I am not sure whether this will intensify the colour of the filling)

1 tsp pepper

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp sugar (add another 1 tbsp next time)

½ tsp dark soya sauce 

Method:

Rice:

Wash and soak glutinous rice for 4 hours. Drain the rice.

Heat up 60g oil, sauté chopped shallot and garlic till fragrant, turn off heat.

Add glutinous rice, salt, pepper, mix well.

Filling:

Heat up 4 tbsp oil, sauté chopped shallot and garlic till fragrant.

Add minced pork and stir-fry till well mixed.

Add mushroom, candied melon and stir-fry till aromatic.

Add seasoning, mix well and cook until thicken. Taste and dish up. Leave to cool.

Fold 2 bamboo leaves into a cone.

Fill with 2 tbsp glutinous rice, make a hole and fill in filling, top with another 2 tbsp of glutinous rice.

Wrap well, secure with nylon string.

Boil a large pot of water, add in pandan leaves.

Add in dumplings, cover and cook with lower heat for 2 hours till cooked and soft. Remove.

Source: Recipe provided by Auntie Irene Tan, from 我的厨房笔记, as posted on May 22, 2008

Note from mom (accordingly to her on how a Nonya aunt done it):

Steam rice
Need real stuff - coriander root - roast in pan and then grind to powder
Pork - steamed and diced before marination
Melon strip needs to cut bigger
After wrapped, steam rice dumpling again with pandan leaves.