Wrapping Rice Dumplings (包粽子)

Rice Dumplings

One of my favourite snacks. Usually I will buy them from the market or at the mall.  The most difficult part is not the ingredients, it is the way it was wrap & how to get all the nice corners & the dumpling has a nice solid shape!!

I have always wanted to learn how to wrap them & decided to take up the challenge a few days ago. I have been gathering information on how to wrap the rice dumplings. 

I found this video (the link below) very informative because she showed you how to get the nice corners. 

http://youtu.be/Hitm0V8unvs

This is my first attempt & I don't want to use expensive ingredients. For this practice session I used glutinous rice, some beans & peanuts soaked overnight then fried with salt & coconut milk. Only made 7 rice dumplings. 

Ta-da!!! My first rice dumpling. :)

A bit skinny, need to get a fuller dumpling next time.

How they were made...

1. Soaked the dried bamboo leaves. Cut away the hard stems from the bamboo leaves. 

Trim of the hard stems they will get in the way during wrapping.

2. With the top side of the bamboo leaves facing you, make a cone & fill up with rice. 

Fill it up with the rice and pressed to firm up the rice mixture.

3. Fold the top flap flat onto the rice filling & press the 2 corners & adjust accordingly until you get a nice pointy corners ( refer to video). Then get the other corner & fold it neatly & tug away the leaves to the side. 

Side View: Fold the top flap down and adjust the 2 corners.

Top View: Need to get into this shape where the top flap were folded onto the rice.

4. Secure the rice dumplings with strings. 

It takes a while to get the hang of it.. Took me a while to secure ONE.

5. Boil for 1.5hr with dumplings completely submerged into water then hung to dry & cool. 

They are heavy after cooked.

6. There were one or two dumplings with exposed rice but all my rice dumplings were still intact! Overall I think it was quite a successful challenge!!! :) 

Oops! An exposed rice dumplings!

Bon courage!!!

Chin's notes: 

1. Use the top side of the leave instead of the bottom. When the rice are cooked, they will not stick to the leaves. 

2. I find that it is easy to wrap if the glutinous rice is slightly cooked compared to raw glutinous rice.

3. I practiced with raw glutinous rice, a bit too loose. It is more difficult to manage the corners as well.