For this year's Rice Dumplings' Festival [Duan Wu Jie 2020/ 端午节], again I made these savoury rice dumplings for the family and friends as it is our favourite and well accepted by many especially those who have tasted before.
This year, we have shared some of these 'changs' to some Filipino friends and new friends. There feedback is just 'good and awesome'. One friend commented that when he took the first bite of the lukewarm 'chang', he could smell the nice aroma of it and can't wait to take another bite. The meat is tender, fats has melted to semi-soft and the mushroom is crunchy sweet and tasty. To him, it is so delicious and yummy. All he could say is 'anytime you make these, remember to keep at least '2' for me'. Thank you so much for your description of this 'bak chang'.
This is my previous description of the 'bak chang' - It is tasty, aromatic and the numerous fillings are delicious and yummy'. Again, I like to stress that 'Bak Chang' is best eaten warm [not steaming hot] so that you can enjoy the chewy glutinous rice and fragrant fillings. Some people prefer to eat these rice dumplings with or without sweet chilli sauce. Awesome home-made Kiam Bak Chang.  |
Kimmy's Kiam Bak Chang
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The recipe of this post is similar to my earlier posting 'HERE' but is a bigger portion that yields about:
20 pieces '250 gm' and 30 pieces '160 gm' rice dumplings.
The procedures are the same and if you break up the steps/procedures, it is not difficult at all to make Kiam Bak Chang at home.
1st Part - getting the ingredients
2nd Part - soak the leaves, chestnuts and mushrooms and washing/wiping the leaves
3rd Part - marinate the meat and prepare the shallots/garlic then frying and set aside in the refrigerator until required
4th Part - fry the rice
5th Part - wrapping and cooking the rice dumplings
Ingredients
At least 120 pieces or more rice dumpling leaves or bamboo leaves - soaked overnight with tap water or hot boiling water, washed, rinsed several times and wiped. If using boiling water, it is faster to soften the leaves.
some hemp strings enough to wrap dumplings - soaked and drained or use thick white strings
1-2 tbsp salt to add to water for boiling dumplings
30 salted egg yolks - steamed for 10 minutes, cooled and halved [you can used whole egg yolk for each dumpling - own preference]
Ingredients and Seasoning for Fillings
1.5 kg pork belly [with more fats] - cut into chunky pieces - about 60 pieces or more
60 dried chestnuts - soaked with a drop of alkaline water for several hours, rinsed and boil for about 30 minutes, drained
60 pieces or more dried mushrooms - soaked and keep whole
120 gm dried prawns - rinsed and drained
150 gm chopped garlic
350 gm chopped shallots
100 ml oil
4 tbsp Chinese five spice powder and sugar
3 tsp pepper
3 tsp salt
1 tsp msg or chicken stock granules [optional]
4 tsp sesame oil
4 tbsp oyster sauce
4 tbsp dark soy sauce
- To Fry Fillings - Heat 100 ml of oil, fry shallots until soft, then add in garlic. Continue to fry until golden brown. Dish up, leaving the oil in the wok.
- Add pork, fry over high heat for a few minutes until meat pieces are firm and white with some oil oozing out. Add in seasoning and continue to fry until fragrant and aromatic.
- Add in mushrooms, continue to fry until well coated with seasoning sauce. Push aside, add in chestnuts and fried shallots/garlic.
- Continue to stir fry to mix well for a few more minutes until almost dry but moist. Off heat, remove ingredients by separating pork, mushrooms and chestnuts to separate containers. Set aside.
- Using the remaining oil and seasoning in the wok, add in dried prawns. Fry until dried prawns are well mixed and coated with the seasoning. Dish up, set aside to add to rice later.
Ingredients and Seasoning for Rice
3 kg glutinous rice - washed, soaked overnight and drained
150 gm chopped garlic
350 gm chopped shallots
100 ml oil
3 tbsp Chinese five spice powder [ngoh heong hoon]
3 tsp pepper
3 tbsp salt
1 tsp msg or chicken stock granules [optional]
3 tbsp light soy sauce
3 tbsp dark soy sauce
- Mix drained rice with seasoning for rice [except the shallots, garlic and oil]. Set aside.
- To Fry Glutinous Rice - Heat 100 ml of oil, fry shallots and garlic until golden brown. Dish up half of it. Set aside. Add in the rice mixed with seasoning.
- Fry over medium heat until the rice has absorbed the seasoning liquid. Add in fried shallots/garlic and dried prawns. Stir to mix and combine all ingredients. Dish up into a large container or pot. Set aside.
TO WRAP DUMPLINGS
- To Wrap Dumplings [average size dumplings] - take 2 pieces of bamboo leaves and fold into a cone.
- Add 1 heaped tablespoon of rice, add a slice of pork, a piece of mushroom, a chestnut, a piece of salted egg yolk, top up with 1-2 tablespoon of rice.
- Wrap into a pyramid shape dumpling and secure tightly with a hemp string. Do the same until all the ingredients are finished.
- Put the bundles of rice dumpling in a big pot. Top up with water enough to cover the changs. Add in salt to the water.
- Bring to boil over high heat, then lower to medium and continue to cook for 2 to 3 hours or until rice dumplings are cooked. Replenish with more hot water to the pot when required.
- Remove and hang to let it dry. Best to serve rice dumplings warm.