# Fujian Rice Dumpling 福建肉粽子

Cuisine: chinese · Time: 375 minutes · Servings: 12

## Ingredients

- 1 kg Short grain glutinous rice
- 150 g Black-eyed peas
- 400 g Pork Belly (, cut into approx. 30g chunks)
- 4  Chinese sausages (, cut into 3 pieces each)
- 12  Salted duck yolks
- 12  Cooked whole chestnuts ((I get the ready-to-eat packages))
- 12  Dried shiitake mushrooms
- 6  Dried scallops ((using 12 would make it extra flavourful))
- 4  Large shallots (, sliced)
- 4 cloves Garlic (, minced)
- 50  Bamboo leaves
- 1 tbsp Dark soy sauce (for rice)
- 1 ½ tbsp Light soy sauce (for rice)
- 1 tbsp Shaoxing wine (for rice)
- 1 tsp 5 spice powder
- ½ tsp White pepper powder
- 1 c Oil
- 1 tbsp Dark soy sauce
- 1 tbsp Light soy sauce
- 1 tbsp Shaoxing wine
- 1 tsp Sugar
- ½ tsp 5 spice powder
- ¼ tsp White pepper powder
- 1 tbsp Light soy sauce
- 1 tsp Sugar
- 2 tsp Cornstarch
- 2 tsp Oil

## Steps

1. On the night before, soak dried shiitake mushrooms, dried scallops (just enough to cover the scallops by 1 cm), bamboo leaves (if they are dried kind) and black-eyed peas.
2. On the night before, cut pork belly into chunks of 30-35 g each.  Marinate with 1 tbsp dark soy sauce, 1 tbsp light soy sauce, 1 tbsp Shaoxing wine, 1 tsp sugar, ½ tsp 5 spice powder and ¼ tsp white pepper powder.  Mix well, cover and store in the refrigerator
3. On the morning of, take the pork belly out of the fridge and let it sit on the counter until it reaches room temperature (approx. 1 hour if the weather isn’t too cold)
4. Do not discard the soaking water for the shiitake mushrooms and dried scallops
5. Boil the black-eyed peas on low-medium heat for 30 minutes.  Drain and set aside
6. Measure 1 kg of short grain glutinous rice
7. Remove the shiitake mushrooms from the soaking water and pour most of the soaking water into the glutinous rice.  Discard the bottom bit where there is sediment.  If the water doesn’t cover all the rice, add more water.  Let sit for 30 minutes.
8. After 30 minutes, if the rice has absorbed most of the water, add more water until the water exceeds the rice about 2 cm.  Let it sit for another 30 minutes.  By adding more water after 30 minutes, the rice would’ve mainly absorbed the shiitake soaking water to make it more flavourful.
9. Drain the water from the rice and let sit in a colander to dry
10. Cut stems off shiitake mushrooms.  Marinate them with 1 tbsp light soy sauce, 1 tsp sugar and 2 tsp cornstarch.  Once mixed together, add 1 tsp oil and mix again.  Set aside
11. Cut Chinese sausages to approx. 4 cm pieces which should be 2 cuts per sausage (3 pieces).  Set aside
12. Prepare 12 salted egg yolks and set aside
13. Pull apart soaked dried scallops and set aside.  Save scallop water
14. Prepare ready-to-eat chestnuts and set aside
15. Slice 4 large shallots
16. Heat 1 c oil on medium-high heat and fry shallots until golden.  Remove shallots from oil and set aside
17. Mince 4 cloves of garlic
18. Heat wok on high heat, add 2 tbsp of oil (use the oil from frying shallots), add pork belly without pouring the marinade in the wok.  Arrange in single layer and let it cook for 30 seconds or until toasted Save any leftover marinade to pour into the rice
19. Flip pork belly over and cook for another 30 seconds.  Add minced garlic
20. Stir-fry pork belly and garlic together for another 30 to 60 seconds or until you can smell the garlic aroma.
21. Move contents in the wok to one side and add shiitake mushrooms.  Fry each side for 30 seconds and then mix with pork belly and cook for another 30 seconds
22. Remove contents from wok and set aside
23. Add another 2 tbsp of the shallot oil to the wok.  Add scallops and fry for 30 seconds
24. Add black-eyed peas to the wok and fry together with scallops
25. Add 1 tbsp dark soy sauce, 1 ½ tbsp light soy sauce, 1 tbsp Shaoxing wine, 1 tsp 5 spice powder and ½ tsp white pepper powder and mix well If you like the rice darker you can add another ½ to 1 tbsp of dark soy sauce
26. Add glutinous rice, fried shallots, the leftover perk belly marinade and scallop soaking water to the wok.  Mix well
27. Remove rice from wok and set aside
28. In a large pot, add enough water to boil the bamboo leaves.  Add the leaves to the water and then bring to a boil.  Once it starts to boil, you can remove the leaves from the water.
29. Submerse the leaves in fresh water  this will prevent them from drying out and breaking
30. Have string ready.  I take 3 pieces of 10’ string and I fold them in half to find the centre point.  then I tie a knot approx. 5 cm from the fold to make a loop.  I usually like to tie 6 dumplings together in a bunch so that it will be easy to submerse them in the water and take them out.  You can also tie them all separately. Of course, you may use less string.  I use more (since I’m not good at it) so that I can bind the whole dumpling tightly to prevent leakage.  It would make it easier if you could use the loop on the string to hook onto a cabinet knob or something that is quite sturdy to act as resistance when you tie your dumpling
31. Have all your filling in front of you.  You should have the glutinous rice, salted egg yolks, pork belly, shiitake mushrooms, chestnuts and Chinese sausages
32. Optional:  each dumpling will have approx. 160 g of the rice mixture.  So you can take a bowl and measure 160 g to be put into the dumpling.  This will ensure you have enough rice for all the dumplings
33. Take 2 leaves, wipe dry with a towel to remove any residual dirt, smooth side on top, one on top of another, cut off the hard stem part and make a cone at around the 1/3 point If your leaves are quite wide, you can use just one leaf.  Take a look at my video here to see how I wrap them when the leaves are wide and short
34. Add another leaf in between the 2 with the stem starting where the bottom point of the cone is This step is optional but I find that for a not so experienced wrapper, it helps to have this 3rd piece as reinforcement
35. Add 2 large spoonfuls of rice to the cone and press in.  Add 1 of each filling items
36. Fill the rest of the space with rice
37. Fold the vertical leaves over to form the base for the cone opening.  Use this base to press down on the rice to pack it in.
38. Flip over so that the base is on the bottom
39. Pinch using the index finger and thumb of the hand that is holding the cone to form a triangle shape
40. The sides of the base part should fold over the now triangle opening.  The hand holding the base will now grasp onto the whole dumpling, simultaneously enveloping the triangle opening with the vertical leaf
41. This will cause the vertical leaf to fold vertically and close off the dumpling.  Now hold the dumpling with the other hand
42. With the free hand, fold downwards the vertical leaf, finishing off the edge
43. Keep folding this vertical leaf following the shape of the dumpling
44. Take one end of the string and wind it tightly around the dumpling from one end to the other and tie a knot.  You can always tie another piece of string to it if you feel it’s still loose
45. Continue until all the dumplings have been assembled
46. Bring a large pot of water to a boil.
47. Put the dumplings in the boiling water.  The water should be enough to completely submerse the dumplings.  Let it boil for 15 minutes then turn the heat down to low  I added more water after I took the picture
48. Cook for 3 hours
49. Remove from water and serve
50. Dumplings can be stored in the freezer.  Steam to reheat for best results

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Source: auntieemily — https://auntieemily.com/fujian-style-rice-dumplings/
Page: https://findfood.fun/en/recipes/7810
Language: en