Today I helped my Aunt May to make zongzi (粽子) or choong for the Tuen Ng Festival which falls on 8th June this year. It is more popularly known as the Dragon Boat Festival or Ng Yuet Chiet (festival of the fifth month).
I got to learn about the art of making zongzi which is glutinous rice packages wrapped in bamboo leaves. I usually wait to eat it each year after she has made it but this year I had to help in the kitchen as Aunt May is recuperating from surgery and has to take things easy. This zong is a culinary specialty of the Dragon Boat Festival which ties in with the legend of Chu Yuan 屈原 who committed himself by jumping into the Miluo River 汨罗江on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month in 278 BCE. It was said to be thrown into the Miluo River to prevent the fish from devouring the corpse of the dead poet and also was used as an offering to satisfy his spirit in the otherworld.
I got to learn about the art of making zongzi which is glutinous rice packages wrapped in bamboo leaves. I usually wait to eat it each year after she has made it but this year I had to help in the kitchen as Aunt May is recuperating from surgery and has to take things easy. This zong is a culinary specialty of the Dragon Boat Festival which ties in with the legend of Chu Yuan 屈原 who committed himself by jumping into the Miluo River 汨罗江on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month in 278 BCE. It was said to be thrown into the Miluo River to prevent the fish from devouring the corpse of the dead poet and also was used as an offering to satisfy his spirit in the otherworld.
The ingredients my aunt used were glutinuous rice, yellow beans, garlic, shallots, mushroom, chestnut, dried shrimps, five spice powder, soy sauce, dark soy sauce and salted egg yolks. Since I don't eat pork, she did not put any in for this batch but will do so for the next batch. Bamboo leaves were used to contain the glutinuous rice and other ingredients. I left the shaping of the stuff into a pyramid to her. Try as I could, I don't seem to be able to master the technique. She had earlier soaked the glutinuous rice, chestnut, dried shrimps, mushrooms and beans to soften them. What I did was to fry the chopped shallots first and then chopped garlic in oil. Then continue to stir the mixture after she added the soaked rice and later the five spice powder. When I was stirring, she added dark soy sauce and soy sauce. When the ingredients were cooked enough, they were scooped up and placed in a pot. She later spooned the cooked rice to fill half the triangular cup fashioned from the bamboo leaves and continued to add the beans, dried shrimps, chestnut and salted egg yolk. When she had put enough, she closed the pyramid shape and tied it with some reeds that she bought from the market. The zong has to be steamed until cooked and ta da, the delicious delicacy could be savoured. My Aunt May has just called me to get the zong from her house. Hee! Hee! I gotta go start my car and get my dinner. Ta Ta.
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