Home made Chinese sweet rice wrappings

Just realized it's around Chinese Boat Festival again... I decided to make some Chinese sweet rice wrappings that were traditionally eaten around this time. Long story short, they were originally made to throw into the river for the poet who drowned himself agonized by the rotten government. Hence they were wrapped in leaves so that fishes wouldn't eat them all before he had a chance... (if he somehow survived )...

I first prepared the fillings one day ahead : pressure cooked chicken leg meat, and sauted fresh vegetables (corn, carrot, onions, shiraki mushroom) with some of the sauce from cooked chicken. I added Chinese five spice to both items.



Then soaked sweet rice and bamboo leaves over night. Dried bamboo leaves can be bought at Asian market. It often comes with a plastic bag of plenty. The idea of soaking is to soften the leaves so that they come back to live and flexible to manipulate again... like brain washing? ;D


For salty rice wrappings, I prefer long grain ones, which has a firmer texture; it can be made with sweet fillings too (red bean paste is traditional), in that case I would go with short grain (round) sweet rice instead. Soaking the rice would make it contain enough moisture and be able to cook faster as well. Here the photo was drained and I added some red long grain rice too. (I do this often when I happen to have some variation stuff in hand.)

Almost ready, just needed some cotton thread. I bought it probably at Michale's when I tried to make Roman shade myself. Craft stores, Wal-Mart or even Home Depot could carry it. BTW, I bought my Titanium scissor and really loved it. It made cutting so pleasant! I pre-cut some thread to 2 feet length.


Now ready to roll!

Step 1 : fold 2 leaves like a V with a cone shape bottom.


Step 2 : spread a layer of rice.

Step 3 : add fillings.

Step 4 : cover it with another layer of rice.

Step 5 : now the tricky part... bent the top leaves over while keeping the triangular shape at bottom.


Step 6 : fold the top over completely.

Step 7 : fold the edges.


Step 8 : tie it with cotton thread.

Step 9 : Finished the cute little thing!

Step 10: Send all ready ones to the steamer. Steam them for 30 minutes.


They can be kept in fridge for a few days and months in freezer. It's convenient to heat them up with just microwave. Time to enjoy!




Tips :

1. Do not put too much fillings at first try. Notice we need to fold over the top half of the leaves, so rule of thumb is avoid more than half of the area while doing the filling. Don't do too little either, as it's hard to form the shape without volume :)

2. Make sure the palm holds the wrapping tight, especially during the folding and tie steps. Tie it really hard to keep the shape.

3. Do not over steam for chewy rice texture. If you prefer the other way, cook them in water, and the rice will be soft and sticky.

4. pre-cut some cotton thread could save the struggle while wrapping with one hand.

5. When microwaving it, simply run it through faucet water first to get the leaves all wet, then throw it in the microwave. The rice won't get de-hydrated and hard to chew then.

Comments and questions are welcome. BTW, there are certainly variations of how you wrap them and shape them, even the way you cook them. So it's definitely NOT the ONLY way. Also, does this remind you of making tamale? I have never tried that before, yet read about it online. And felt familiar when I read it. I will post my making of first try of tamale some time in the future, stay tuned!