Chinese Zongzi Sticky Rice Dumplings
Zongzi (or simply zong) is a traditional Chinese food, made of glutinous rice stuffed with different fillings and wrapped in bamboo, reed, or other large flat leaves. They are cooked by steaming or boiling. In the Western world, they are also known as rice dumplings or sticky rice dumplings.
Zongzi (sticky rice dumplings) are traditionally eaten during the Duanwu Festival (Mandarin: Duanwu; Cantonese: Tuen Ng), which falls on the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar (approximately late-May to mid-June). A popular belief amongst the Chinese of eating zongzi involved commemorating the death of Qu Yuan, a famous Chinese poet from the kingdom of Chu who lived during the Warring States period. Known for his patriotism, Qu Yuan tried unsuccessfully to warn his king and countrymen against the expansionism of their Qin neighbors. When the Qin general Bai Qi took Yingdu, the Chu capital, in 278 BC, Qu Yuan's grief was so intense that he drowned himself in the Miluo river after penning the Lament for Ying. According to legend, packets of rice were thrown into the river to prevent the fish from eating the poet's body.
In China, zongzi is closely associated with the festival and celebration, which has more good wish - hit it ! when someone does something. Moreover, zongzi on Dragon Boat Festival reminds Chinese people that the importance of loyalty and commitment to the community because the festival is in memory of the great patriot poet, Qu Yuan.
Zong zi is the traditional food for the major Chinese festivals expecial Dragon Boat Festival and Spring Festival in China. You may see zongzi in different shapes like most popular triangular and pyramidal. Zongzi is a special kind of dumpling with a variety of fillings wrapped in bamboo leaves. It is usually made of glutinous(sticky) rice. The fillings can be pork, egg, beans, dates, fruits, sweet potato, walnuts, mushrooms, meat, or a combination of them. Fresh bamboo leaves are the best for the wrapping since the taste and smell of the fresh bamboo leaves is part of zongzi. Although it may have originally been a seasonal food, zongzi are available year-round in most major cities with a significant Chinese population.
How to make Chinese Zong zi step by step?
You must prepare what you need before you start to wrap
* Cut the pork into the right shape, wash and peel off the mung beans, pit the dates and the like, and set them on some plates on the table respectively.
* Use salt, sauce, preserved beancurd and more you like to flavor the pork and the mung beans and keep for an hour in advance.
* Wash glutinous(sticky) rice and flavor it with salt and edible oil in an bigger container.
* Wash and boil the resh bamboo leaves and flexible plant rope with water for muninutes until it is soft. By far, that is everything you should do before you start to wrap something.
* With apron on your knee, you can sit down to start. Two or three pieces of bamboo leaves are piled up to wider on your palm, use a spoon to put the glutinous (sticky) rice on the leaves as a pad, set pork and mung beans and more, then a layer of rice on the top, at last a piece of leaf as cover and are furled with the leaves below into a pyramidal shap, bundle it up with grasslike rope. That wrapping work is finished and again.
* If you want to wrap it into triangular shape, the order of working is little different with techniques. Before wrapping, the leaves are furled into a tundish shape at first. Then hold it with your hand (not on plam) while you are use the rice and other ingredient to fill it. Once the filling is finished, the leaves are furled again to the shape. More tips are required for it.
* Check it, the wraps must be bundled up firmly before you have them boiled or steamedf for a long time untill they are fully bulged.
* Keep in mind that the size of wrapped zongzi depends on the width of the folded leaves, and how much rice and other ingredient should be filled.
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