粽子 Galore 6: Pillow Bak Chang

一个又一个不停的吃

Sleeping on soft fluffy pillow gives you a thousand sweet dreams. It doesn't happen when you eat a pillow dumpling stuffed with roast duck, stew belly pork, chinese sausage, thick flower shitake mushrooms, salted yolk, mung beans and lotus seeds. But don't be despair, the richness of its taste, you'll immensely gratified and truly an experience to be savoured. However, do be aware if you're planning to eat one of this alone, a little overnight side effect of gluttony  may tag to it. The fatter one pictured , I reserved.

we're in the dumpling

The over zealous bak chang enthusiasm is treading into dangerous zone, the gang now wanted the biggest-fattest the-better dumplings. The Hongkong zong perfectly fits into this category. The fatness of it possibly would satiate our palate so the race is on. The shopping list and tasks list for pillow dumplings were longer than the others, nobody wavered.

Two kinds of leaves are used in the making - lotus and bamboo leaves. A day ahead, they are blanched in boiling water and soak overnight. The hard stem portion in the middle of the lotus leaf is cut off and the leaf divided into two . Lay the half piece flat in a shape of a fan.

Also snip off the hard end of one bamboo leaf and cut into two pieces. Read steam bak chang on bamboo leaves preparation.

Lay the two pieces bamboo leaves in centre of lotus leaf, scoop two big tablespoons quick-fried glutinous rice and spread evenly around the centre. Top with mung beans and followed by all other ingredients. Read multigrain bak chang for cooking of pork stew . Scoop another 3 big tablespoons of rice on top and spread all over and press them down with spoon.

Lift the right end over to the centre, follow by the bottom end and then the left end. Roll it up tightly.

Use string to go around the dumpling once and tie a knot. Go around it again with the remaining string and tie another knot. Tie the both loose ends .

The use of Australian calrose rice and a weaker glutinous rice only require 2 hours of boiling. When glutinous rice break out too easily after soaking, cut down the cooking time. Test out one dumpling first after 2 hours cooking and judge for yourself the texture you like.

Ingredients List:

Rice :

200g Australian calrose rice          - soak 2 hours

800g glutinous rice                        -  soak 4 hours

5 cloves garlic                                - chop fine

6 shallots                                        - chop fine

3 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar

1/2  tsp white pepper

4 tablespoon cooking oil

**Stir the rice in hot garlic shallot oil and season with pepper, salt and small amount sugar

Fillings:

400g belly pork                 - cut into 24 pcs

6 pcs shitake mushrooms  - cut into 12 pcs
50g dried shrimps             - rinse
12 pcs dried chestnuts      - soak 1 hour and boil half hour

5 cloves garlic                   - chop fine

6 shallots                           - chop fine

2 tbsp light soya sauce

3 tbsp dark sauce

2 tbsp oyster sauce

2 tbsp cooking wine

1 tbsp sesame oil

6 tbsp cooking oil

1 tsp five-spices powder

salt sugar to taste

100g lotus seeds                - soak with hot water 1 hour

100g mung beans              - soak 1 hour
12 halved salted yolks

1/4 cut roast duck              -  chop 1 inch size

4 chinese sausages             -  marinate with little oyster sauce, wine, sesame oil and steam 10 mins.     cut into 12 pcs
                                       
Serving sauce: click here

resteam before serving

Workshop @ Palate Sensations Singapore - 65 64789746