必须要吃
The month of May, Baking Kakis' obsession with snack foods snowballed horrendously beyond Singapore shorelines thousands of kilometres to a country in North Asia -Taiwan. It is actually an innate craving when the stores start to display abundunt Bak Chang's ingredients in our presence. The celebration of the Dragon Boat Festival falls in the early month of June. Kaki Yu , in one of her late night goggling, sniffed out an interesting bak chang recipe at blogger Guai Shu Shu which uses calrose rice mixed with glutinous rice. Bells ring merrily for those with weaker digestive system. I, in particular most eager to taste it. What's more drawing to the recipe is the cooking hour of the dumplings requires an hour compared to traditional arduous boiling of three hours.
The very next day after reading the post, we headed to market and packed up the shopping bag: dried bamboo leaves, dried shrimps, dried shitake mushrooms, japanese fresh chestnuts, dried peanuts, salted eggs and the two kinds of pearlescent-grainy-white rice. All these ingredients has to be prepared a day ahead as most needed soaking or boiling. Somewhat, don't know why; the dried peanuts sold here take an hour and half cooking time plus hours of soaking time to soften unlike Mr Guai's, so is the calrose rice from Australia requires soaking time prior to cooking. Whichever and whatever reasons, we carried back the best quality we could possibly scoured at the stores.
The very next day after reading the post, we headed to market and packed up the shopping bag: dried bamboo leaves, dried shrimps, dried shitake mushrooms, japanese fresh chestnuts, dried peanuts, salted eggs and the two kinds of pearlescent-grainy-white rice. All these ingredients has to be prepared a day ahead as most needed soaking or boiling. Somewhat, don't know why; the dried peanuts sold here take an hour and half cooking time plus hours of soaking time to soften unlike Mr Guai's, so is the calrose rice from Australia requires soaking time prior to cooking. Whichever and whatever reasons, we carried back the best quality we could possibly scoured at the stores.
The night before the assembly of the dumplings, 3-hours-soaked dried peanuts and fresh chestnuts were boiled for an hour, drained and kept in the fridge. The freshly-cracked golden orange salted egg yolks were chilled too. **Bamboo leaves were rinsed first, then dipped in boiling water to remove a strong chemical smell that caused a slight burn to my left eye when I tore open the plastic bag . They were then soaked in fresh water overnight, that went for the mushrooms as well.
The next morning, we soaked the glutinous rice for four hours and an hour for the calrose rice (as per instruction on the bag). Seasoning of the pork slices was prepared while the rice were soaking. We chose the "aeroplane" cut of piggy as it gives a fatty springy bite. The cubed yam were fried first and simmered in half cup water till dry. Since we do not enjoy the luxury of having a rice-cooker with a capacity of more than three cups grains, we cooked the yam and peanuts separately and mixed to the partial cooked rice. Anyway, we skipped use of rice cooker totally, confined the cooking to the stove area...cleaning management.
Once the yam were done, the chopped garlic, shallots, thick-sliced mushrooms and rinsed dried shrimps were fried till a aromatic smell filled the kitchen. Then the thicked-sliced seasoned pork were tossed in and fried for five minutes before braised in three cups light chicken stock for 20 mins. Season to taste with soya sauces, sake, white pepper, five-spice powder, salt and sugar. Put them aside and keep the remaining broth for cooking of the rice.
With the use of the same wok (one item less to wash), we fried the soaked drained rice for two minutes and pour in three cups water and a cup pork broth. Season to taste with light soya sauce , white pepper , salt and let all cooked covered over very low fire. Once the liquid being soaked by rice, we mixed in the yam and peanuts. They were scooped to a big bowl to be wrapped.
The grand moment we waited for - wrapping and tying the dumplings. Kakis Qi came to our aid and hastened the wrapping efforts to an hour and the dumplings went to the steamer immediately for an hour. The gong struck..lunch is ready !!!
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| more rice pls ! |
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| dainty knots |
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| alas! |
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| Baking Kakis@Work |
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| labor of love |
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| an hour steaming over high fire |
Besides the garlic sauce recommended, I also enjoy eating the dumplings with sambal belachan, chee cheong fun sesame sauce and goyza sauce with wasabi.
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| a humble lunch |
you'll get 30 small-medium dumplings
Serving Sauce:
1 bottle sweet sesame sauce - choose premium brands
5 shallots - finely chop
2 cloves garlic - fine chop
1 tablespoon cooking wine
1 tbsp light soya sauce
3/4 cup water
1/2 tbsp potato starch
- Fry garlic shallots till light brown.
- Pour in wine and soya sauce
- Stir water with starch and blend with the rest in pot.
- Once thicken, off fire.
Workshop @ Palate Sensations Singapore - 65 64789746
fun quote: 人心齐，泰山移 rén xīn qí, tài shān yí - When people work with one mind, they can even remove Mount Taishan.
Cook as to how you like to eat it, join me if we share the same taste. PaulaCookingFingers
Paula Cooking Fingers is a cooking memoir of a culinary enthusiast group, featuring Straits Chinese and International flavours.
Tan Paula