粽子 Galore 4: Hakka Bak Chang

一个又一个不停的吃

We had happily savoured the Hongkong big fat zong some days ago and no doubt kept us yummily contented . But soon the snoppy noses miraculously found this white diamond in the sand, so unbelievable freaking awesome! Slipped through our eyes all these years, nobody spoke of it not even from our Hakka friends. Better late than never.

The whole making of this dumplings is different from all the rest, they don't use rice grains but glutinous rice flour. Isn't it amazing ? Look at the savoury filling of pork, preserved vegetables (mei chye, chye poh) and mushrooms, makes you want to gobble it relentlessly. I even went a mile further to oven-dry 300g shredded radish . Sprinkle some salt on them and squeeze out the water from the radish.  Dry them in a very hot turn-off oven for half hour otherwise leave them out under the blazing sun.

Frying of the filling is straightforward. Fry garlic, shallots, dried shrimps and mushroom preserved vegetables till fragant. Add in the minced pork and continued frying for 10 minutes over medium low fire. Add in the seasonings. Thicken the filling with potato starch. Set aside.

 

Challenge lies in the preparation of the dough. The texture depends on the proportion of the two flours - rice and glutinous rice . This dough recipe is closer to a springy mochi chew. Both flours are mixed evenly with the use of a whisk. Pour boiling water with salt and sugar all round the flours, followed by tap water and oil. Some adjustment of water is necessary . With help of chopsticks and hands, the flours should come together to form a semi-soft dough. Let the dough rest 15 mins.  Cover dough with cling wrap if single hand working. 

While dough resting, staple the bamboo leaves to form a cone base (about 20 pcs). Get a bowl of oil ready for greasing the dough before placing in the cone. Weigh a small piece of dough 60g and knead till smooth, then flatten between a plastic sheet. Place filling in centre and seal the edges. Grease palm of hand and lightly roll the ball with the oil. Put the ball between two hands and shape the bottom V-like and place it in leaf. Read Indonesian Bak Chang for the wrapping details. Steam them over high fire for an hour. 

woah !

Ingredients List:

Dough:

500g glutinous rice flour

250g rice flour

1 tsp salt

2 tsp sugar

300g boiling water

350g tap water + adjustment

Filling:

400g minced pork

30g chye poh

30g sweet mei chye

50g dried shrimps

1 large black fungus

10 shitake mushrooms

5 cloves garlic

8 shallots

3 tbsp light soya sauce

3 tbsp dark soya sauce

2 tbsp glutinous rice wine or any others

1 tbsp sesame oil
1/4 tsp five spice powder

1 tsp black pepper

1 tsp white pepper

20- 25 medium size bamboo leaves

Workshop @ Palate Sensations Singapore - 65 64789746

food quote: 撿了芝麻，丟了西瓜："In order to pick up a sesame seed, one drops a watermelon"：To concentrate on trivial matters to the neglect of important ones.
Cook as to how you like to eat it, join me if we share the same taste. PaulaCookingFingers

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Korean Bbang with Homemade Azuki Bean Paste n Japanese Chestnut

Contributed by : Yuliana

The many hours of toil in cooking the azuki beans paste is eventful now that Yuliana conquered another popular korean street food in her kitchen this afternoon...d making of bbang. With the guidance from AerisLee, these dreamy beautiful buns are going to make the rest of us drool till thursday for another bak chang making. She had also wrapped the red bean paste with japanese chestnut and that made them even more delectable. These bbangs are staying fresh in the freezer till we devour them. Wait for us !!!

proofing

bake me

be patient, I'll be out soon

gorgeous me

Recipe @ AerisKitchen
Homemade Azuki Bean Paste Recipe

yeast

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粽子 Galore 2: Steam Indonesia Bak Chang

Contributed by: Yuliana

inner goodnes

Chinese likes eating Bak Chang so are the Indonesians, and it's also an annual roaring affair except without the dragon boats race. Being a Muslim country, chicken meat is the ultimate choice, and fried till fragrant with shallot-garlic and their ever-beloved Kecap Manis. Yuliana is introducing the steaming method to this recipe and the use of some calrose rice to reduce the stickiness. The two kinds of rice were soaked: an hour for calrose rice (40%) and five hours for glutinous rice (60%). They were briefly fried with chopped shallot-garlic, dried shrimp and soya sauces for a lovely colour before pouring in water and the chicken sauce. The guide to the amount of liquid to be added to rices is 80% ie 4 cups liquid / 5 cups rices. The rices were cooked over slow fire till the liquid dried up. The full recipe is at Indonesia-Medan. Read post Steam Bak Chang for the rice preparation details. 

Yuliana made some adjustments to suit the rest of the baking kakis" palates. She omitted the kecap manis and fried shallots in the rice and used half of the chicken sauce to cook the rice. Some chicken powder and more water being added to the cooking of the chicken. The sauce is thickened with potato starch. As well , she marinated the chicken overnight with oil, soya sauces and potato starch. For our personal tastes, we helped to stuff our desires - fried yam, salted yolk and chestnut into the kai chang....fun kitchen party! 

multi-racial

**Used the thumb and index finger to create a fold at both sides then bend the leaves over would be a good guiding point to complete the rest of the wrapping process.

phew...1st best looking one

So much time is saved through this method , from three hours to one. Steam 50 mins if you prefer more grainy rice.

Workshop @ Palate Sensations Singapore - 65 64789746

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