Making Glutinous Rice Dumplings (Sticky Rice)

Hey guys, it's Angel. So Dragon Boat Day is coming up soon, which means we're going to be making bamboo wrapped sticky rice. Now in Mandarin we call this zongzi, and in Taiwanese we call this ba zang. And this year I'm going to be making a small batch of ba zang with salted duck egg and peanuts. Now normally grandma and I make bamboo wrapped sticky rice with pork belly and tons of Chinese sausage inside, but this year I'm going to be doing a smaller batch with salted duck egg because salted duck eggs are extra nice, plus you guys asked for. So with that, let's get cooking, shall we? All right, so first off we'll want to start with our dried bamboo leaves. So I have some dried bamboo leaves here, and we're going to prepare them by soaking them in water. Now I highly recommend that you do this the night before because it's going to take an hour to soak. So yesterday I soaked them for an hour in the sink, and I put a plate on top of the leaves, and after an hour you take a gentle sponge or cleaning cloth and scrub both sides gently, and that's just to get rid of any debris or weird bugs because who likes bugs? Next, bring a big pot of water to a boil. You can also add a little bit of vinegar or salt, and that's just going to help with the disinfecting. And then add the leaves and let that boil for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, let the leaves cool a bit, rinse them in cool water, and then put them in a bag like this. You want to put them in a bag, and I put a little piece of wet paper towel in there as well, so that way when I put them in the fridge overnight they don't dry out. I highly recommend that you do this step the night before so that way it makes your job the next day easier. Next, let's prepare the filling. We'll need half a cup of dried shiitake mushrooms soaked in filtered water, a quarter cup of raw peanuts, and a quarter cup of dried shrimp also soaked in water, a quarter cup of dried fried shallots, and of course let's not forget the salted duck egg yolks. We'll also need one tablespoon of cane sugar, an eighth of a teaspoon of five-spice powder, half a teaspoon of salt, and two tablespoons of low-sodium soy sauce. For the meat, we'll need half a pound of pork belly with or without the skin on, and then slice the pork into small bite-size pieces. Finally, for the sticky rice, measure out one and a half cups of glutinous rice, also known as sweet rice. We'll want to wash and rinse the rice thoroughly until the water runs clear. After that, add filtered water and let the rice, along with the other water-soaked ingredients, sit for 20 to 30 minutes. Now we'll prepare our sticky rice. So we're just going to pan fry on medium-low with a little bit of oil for a few minutes, and this will just make our rice more fragrant. After preparing the rice, let's cook the raw peanuts. Bring a small pot of water to a boil and let the peanuts boil for 20 minutes. This will only cook the peanuts partially, and we'll leave the rest for when we cook our bamboo wrapped sticky rice in the end. Now for the meaty part of the filling. Bring a nonstick pan to medium-high heat, and after adding some oil, saute and brown the pork belly. Next, add in the dried shrimp and shallots. Stir fry for a bit, and then we'll mix the sauce. Off to the side, take two tablespoons of the soaked water reserved from the dried shrimp, and add in your cane sugar, salt, five spice, and the soy sauce, and stir to dissolve. Then add the mixture to the pork and continue to saute, letting the sauce reduce. At this time, we'll go ahead and add in the shiitake mushrooms, and finally the peanuts. Once the sauce is reduced, it's done. All right, now that we have the rice, the fillings, and also the bamboo leaves and salted duck egg yolks ready, it's time to wrap. Wait, okay, I almost forgot. There's the string that I prepared earlier, and if you guys want to learn how to prepare the string, there's this fancy knot tying, and we're going to be from here. So you want to learn how to prepare this and tie it. I have an up-close-in-depth video which shows you how to do the string tying, which grandma taught me. So if you're interested in that, I'll post the link in the video description, or you can find that here. Now back to the string wrapping. Start with two bamboo leaves, roughly the same size, and place them partially overlapping in opposite directions. Then fold into a cone shape and hold the bamboo leaves in one hand. With your other hand, start adding a small bit of rice, then the filling, and don't forget the salted duck egg yolk. Finally, add another layer of rice on top of the filling, and that completes it. Press down tightly so the filling compresses, and then fold the bamboo over the top to cover the rice. Next, fold the sides of the bamboo leaves down, and with the remaining portion of the leaves, follow the natural fold. Whichever side folds down the easiest is the way to go. And now we have a triangle-shaped bamboo-wrapped sticky rice. The last step is to tie the rice bundle with the string, and if you need an up-close tutorial on how to do this, check out the link in the video description. I know, I know, it can be intimidating to do this the first time around, but after a while, like grandma says, you'll get the hang of it. See? This recipe makes about six to eight batang, so continue wrapping more until you've used up all your filling. And in the end, you should have something that looks like this. Now it's time to cook. First, bring a large pot of water to a boil, and gently add in the bundle, including the string. We want to cover and let the sticky rice boil for around one hour and 20 minutes. Be patient, because good food always takes time. And when it's done, remove the bundle and place on a plate to let cool for a bit before opening and serving. And that, guys, is how you make bamboo-wrapped sticky rice. Now for the taste test. I'm gonna get a little bit of the pork belly, some sticky rice, and a peanut. Sticky rice is just so comforting. There's the flavors of the five spice, and the peanuts and the sticky nuts are just sticky nuts. I'm Angel, thanks for cooking with me today, and I'll catch you guys in the next video. Bye for now!