Foodie

Saturday, June 11, 2005

Peasant Bak Chang

I have to call this bak chang peasant because of the limited amount of ingredients. This type of filling brings back fond memories as these type of chang is sold everyday and not on special occasion like the 5th day of the 5th moon festival.

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Ingredients:

1000g glutinous rice, soaked overnight then drained, add 2 tsp salt and 1/4 cup oil.
Bamboo leaves and raffia string for wrapping

Filling:

400g belly pork (remove skin) or deboned chicken meat
150g dried mushrooms
400 g split green peas - soak overnight, drain , add a 1 tsp salt and 3 tbsp of oil.

Seasoning:

For the Pork:

1 tbsp Chinese Five Spice powder
1 tbsp of light soya sauce
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tbsp rice wine
2-3 tbsp oil

For the mushrooms:

1 tbsp light soya sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tbsp oil

Method:



Soak bamboo leaves in boiling water overnight. Clean and wipe the leaves with a damp cloth.

Marinate pork or chicken meat with seasoning.

Marinate mushrooms with seasoning.

Take two bamboo leaves, make them overlap slightly and fold into a conical shape. Put 1 tbsp rice into the funnel base. Add 1 tbsp of split green pea, a piece of pork and mushroom. Cover with some more rice. Fold leaves over rice to form a triangular prism. Tie with raffia string.

Boil a large pot of water and add 2-3 tsp salt. Drop the bundles of dumplings in and boil for 1 1/2 - 2 hours over medium slow fire. Top constantly with boiling water to maintain level of water at all times.

When cooked, remove the dumplings and hang to dry.

Serves

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Lily
Is there a way to make Bak Chang without having to use the leaves?

Unknown said...

tony

just found your comment. sorry that i missed it.

yes, you could use a cake tin or a bowl. just put the rice, then the filling and then top with rice. the result will not be so good as the rice is not so compressed as when wrapped with the bamboo leaves.

ioyces said...

hi Lily!

i tried to make the bak zhang but didn't know how to wrap them properly!!! Is the water supposed to be clear or brown after cooking? Mine was quite brown and a friend said that i had not wrapped the dumplings tightly enough. They tasted nice but a bit bland..so i guess he was right?? :)

so instead of boiling, can i just steam the dumplings??

In the end, i lined a square baking tin with bamboo leaves and did layers of rice, beans, meat& mushrooms and then rice again....i also added some grated ginger and garlic and oyster sauce & soy sauce ..and steam the whole dish for around 30 minutes...it came out tasting very much like Loh mai ghai!! My friends really enjoyed it..haha!!!

thank you for sharing the recipe!! :D

btw, Tony, my friend commented that his grandma uses Pandan leaves/ Screwpine leaves..perhaps you can give those a try if they r available?? Should impart a very nice flavour i think!!

Unknown said...

joyces

i too am not very good tying the bak chang. For savory ones, they have to be tied tightly so that the filling will not separate from the rice but for the sweet kee chang, it has to be tied loosely so that the rice will have space to expand and it will be soft.

here is a link where there is a video of how to wrap http://eatfirstthinklater.blogspot.com/2006/05/making-chinese-rice-dumpling-bak-chang.html

Reese Darragh said...

Aunt Lily,

Made your bak chang today. Tasted just like my late grandma's. Thank you so much for sharing the recipe. I can give you a big hug now if you are here. Thank you so much. My sis and best friend will be so happy when they get the bak chang from me tomorrow. Happy Dragon Boat Festival!

Love,

Reese

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