The 5th day of the 5th lunar month in the Chinese calendar is the Duan Wu Festival which commemorates the death of Qu Yuan, a renowned Chinese poet in the Chu kingdom. He was a patriot whose advice to the King went unheeded and the Chu capital of Yingdu fell to the Qin Dynasty general Bai Qi in 278BC. Qu Yuan was so deeply grieved that he jumped into the Miluo river after penning a poem “Lament for Ying”
The people made glutinous rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves and threw them into the river to stop the fish from eating Qu Yuan’s body. Some even rowed downstream beating drums and shouting to scare away the fish and it is believed that this is how the Dragon Boat race is related to the dumpling festival.
The rice dumplings (ZongZi) are glutinous rice wrapped in bamboo leaves. They contain pork, chestnut, salted egg, mushroom, mung bean and Chinese chestnut or they can be plain without filling.
The most common shape of the dumpling is the triangular shape with four corners. It looks like a pyramid. There is also the flat rectangular shape
which personally I don’t find attractive.
Dumplings are not difficult to prepare. My grandmother taught my younger sister and I how to make them when we were young.
We had to soak overnight the bamboo leaves which were sold in sheaves.
This is to clean and soften them.
The glutinous rice was also soaked overnight. Then she would fry it in a large kuali ( wok ), adding soya sauce and five-spice powder.
What goes into the dumplings?
Granny usually used belly pork for the filling because the pork with some fat on it tastes better and the glutinous rice would not be so dry. She would fry the pork in soya sauce too. She also sliced the Chinese mushrooms once they were soft. ( The dry mushrooms have to be soaked first ) She used Chinese chestnuts and salted egg yolks too. Instead of beans, she used dried shrimps which were also soaked and cleaned.
She showed us how to fold the bamboo leaves ( we used two leaves as they were not broad enough ) so that there is a hollow funnel, ending in a pointed tip ( like an inverted cone). Then we would spoon some glutinuous rice into the funnel, after which we would put in the fried pork, mushroom, salted egg yolk (such a pretty orange color), dried prawns and chestnut. We then added in some more rice to cover the filling.
After that we had to twist the leaves in such a way that they would cover the glutinous rice and it must be a triangle with four corners, just like a pyramid. Then we would secure the dumpling with the previously soaked straw string.( Kiam chiau. You rarely find this now. Most people use raffia string.) We had to leave a fairly long bit of string so that all the dumplings could be strung together into bunches.
Shaping the dumplings into little pyramids is an art and those who don’t know how to do it find themselves having sticky rice oozing into their hands as it escapes from the bamboo leaves. Thus some just wrap it into the flat rectangular shape which is not as aesthetically pleasing to the eye.
We would make about 100 dumplings as we have a large family.
The dumplings were then boiled in a large tin ( large empty biscuit tin ) over a charcoal fire for about three hours. Once they were cooked, granny would hang the bunches of 12 dumplings on a long stick supported by 2 chairs so that the excess water would drip off and the dumplings could cool to room temperature.
The following day the dumplings would be distributed to family members. ( aunts and uncles and their families )
Granny would do this every year and we would help her. I used to make them too after I got married and had my family but unfortunately I don’t make them now as my grandchildren don’t eat them and it is easier to buy as dumplings are readily available at reasonable prices.
