Peranakan Food - Nyonya "Chang" (bamboo leaf wrapped glutinous rice dumpling)

[leo]

A classic Chinese dumpling given a Peranakan twist to it.

Basic ingredients are glutinous rice, coconut milk, belly pork, candied winter melon, roasted small peanuts, coriander seeds, cekor root (kaempferia galanga).

Blue portion of the rice is obtained from an infusion of the pea flower (clitoria ternatea) of which the rice is soaked overnight in it before being steamed for an hour.

This is the Malacca version of this (I like it better than the Penang one), and features the blue rice and a tastier, more moist pork filling wrapped with a small piece of Pandan (screwpine) leaf for added fragrance.

The Penang version does not require the addition of coconut milk or blue colour to the glutinous rice after steaming.

I made it for the first time a couple weeks ago (a 2-day affair) and I have seriously underestimated how much work goes into one of these babies.

Needless to say, results were sublime.

[phaleesy]

Looks yum, Leo.

How many of these babies did you make?

Where did you get the pea flower? How did you distill them to get the essence/infusion?

[leo]

Thanks! It was yum indeed.

Made altogether 16 of these. Planning on another round in the near future given the abundance of leftover bamboo leaves.

The pea flower was harvested around 10 years ago (believe it or not) by my late grand mother who had a bumper crop. She then dried it and gave them away to my mother, who then passed them to me - family heirloom, you could say. Stored in an airtight zip-loc bag in the refrigerator.

No distillation needed to obtain the blue, just bring a pot of water to the boil, throw in the dried flowers, remove from the heat and let it steep till the blue seeps out from the flowers. The solids are then removed, and the liquid is cooled to room temperature before being used to soak the rice overnight.

The particular fragrance and hue of blue definitely beats any artificial colouring available in the market.

[Pinkfloyd]

Making. Me. Drool.

[phaleesy]

Leo, where did you get the bamboo leaves from? Market?

Definitely family heirloom! Is it something easily obtained from a shop/market? I have never seen the pea flower before but have read about it in cookbooks.

Do you still have the pea flower plant in the garden? Stupid question... is it a flower from a pea plant? How does the flower look like?

So the flower essence imparts a smell too? I thought it was purely decorative and used for its colour only. WHat does it smell like?

I have never had a peranakan chang before. Really hungry now!

The whole process of preparing the ingredients and wrapping the chang up, then steaming it must take you ages! You must be really patient. I don't quite follow what you meant about adding coconut milk and colour after steaming. Do you mind going through the steps you took to make one baby?

Many thanks.

[leo]

The bamboo leaves (from China, in dried form) are obtainable from any Asian supermarket (if you are outside East Asia), otherwise just head on to the nearest (to be read in Cantonese) Zhap For Pho to get them. They come with strings made from some water reed/grass which are used to secure the completed dumplings.

The pea flower might be a little harder to source. Probably access to a wet market where there are large Indonesian/Peranakan communities - the only people I know that use these flowers in cooking - would be best. The place where I live does not allow me to plant creepers (which the plant is).

The flower imparts a lovely yet subtle fragrance to it; something similar to very very light jasmine.

Basically, the work flow is like this.

1. Preparing the blue infusion. Washing the rice and soaking it separately in water, and the blue infusion overnight.
2. Trimming the screwpine leaves to size.
3. Soaking the dried bamboo leaves and grass strings overnight in 2 changes of water. Wiping the leaves individually when soaking to remove dirt.
4. Prepare ingredients for filling (this means, roasting and skinning the peanuts, cutting - not mincing - up the pork, candied winter melon, pounding the spice paste, etc);
5. Cooking the filling and leaving it to room temperature.
6. Draining and steaming the soaked glutinous rice for an hour separately, and stirring in the coconut milk thereafter.
7. Wrapping the dumplings with the bamboo leaves and securing them into a bunch with the grass strings.
8. Steaming - as opposed to boiling for the other styles of dumplings - them once more for 2 hours.

In a nutshell, downright tedious, but worth every single effort put in.

[jhm]

It looks nice, Leo, thanks for posting. Can I buy one ready made in a market in Malaysia or Singapore ?

I guess they're similar (without the pea flower colour and without the coconut milk) to what Cantonese call "zong" or "jong" ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zongzi

I like them with not only glutinous rice outside but also a layer of soft yellow beans inside (wrapped around the central filling); and a filling of belly pork or Chinese sausage and also salted duck yolk. I don't know about bamboo leaves but I think it's more common (here in the UK at least) to use lotus leaves which you can buy in London's Chinatown. There's also of course lo mai gai available as a staple in most dim sum places.

[jhm]

The butterfly pea flower - its scientific name is "clitoria ternatea". I wonder why it's called that ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clitoria_ternatea

[leo]

It looks nice, Leo, thanks for posting. Can I buy one ready made in a market in Malaysia or Singapore ?

I guess they're similar (without the pea flower colour and without the coconut milk) to what Cantonese call "zong" or "jong" ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zongzi

I like them with not only glutinous rice outside but also a layer of soft yellow beans inside (wrapped around the central filling); and a filling of belly pork or Chinese sausage and also salted duck yolk. I don't know about bamboo leaves but I think it's more common (here in the UK at least) to use lotus leaves which you can buy in London's Chinatown. There's also of course lo mai gai available as a staple in most dim sum places.

Hi jhm, you don't really get to buy dumplings in the Peranakan style on the street (unless you're really lucky). It is usually not made commercially due to difficulty in sourcing ingredients and well, scarcity of skilled people to do this. As with all Peranakan food, it is a delicate balance of sweet, salty and spice - something which is difficult to achieve for the untrained palate.

The dumpling that you are referring to is something that we have here but referred to as "hor yip fan" - lotus leaf rice. A similar "zong" that we have here is called "ham yok zong" (salty meat dumpling, to be read in Cantonese dialect). I like to do it with a generous piece of belly pork, whole salted duck egg yolk, whole chestnut, dried oyster and omit the beans (not a fan of beans).

[phaleesy]

6. Draining and steaming the soaked glutinous rice for an hour separately, and stirring in the coconut milk thereafter.
8. Steaming - as opposed to boiling for the other styles of dumplings - them once more for 2 hours.

Thanks for explaining, Leo.

I had thought there was only one steaming process, hence was wondering when the coconut milk would be added. Now I understand that there is a first steaming stage.

But I still don't understand the first stage. So you soak the rice overnight in the blue infusion, then drain for an hour? Then steam it for another hour?

What steamers did you use for both processes?

[leo]

Thanks for explaining, Leo.

I had thought there was only one steaming process, hence was wondering when the coconut milk would be added. Now I understand that there is a first steaming stage.

But I still don't understand the first stage. So you soak the rice overnight in the blue infusion, then drain for an hour? Then steam it for another hour?

What steamers did you use for both processes?

The rice is soaked overnight in the infusion then drained and steamed (don't need to wait an hour in between).

I used the good old fashioned aluminium multi-tiered gas-powered steamer, passed down from grand mother

[phaleesy]

I used the good old fashioned aluminium multi-tiered gas-powered steamer, passed down from grand mother

Can we have a photo of this steamer when you have time one day? A photo of the frozen flower too? Not in a hurry so take your time. Just being curious.

Many thanks.

[leo]

Can we have a photo of this steamer when you have time one day? A photo of the frozen flower too? Not in a hurry so take your time. Just being curious.

Many thanks.

Here we go...



It comes with a 3-tier stackable steamer compartments, what you see now is only one in use.

[phaleesy]

Thank you, leo. Definitely worth owning a steamer like this!

Made the second batch of dumplings recently?

[leo]

Yup the second batch has been made, consumed and umm expelled LOL!

Cantonese style dumpling with marinated belly pork chunks, Japanese dried shitake mushroom, rehydrated chestnut, salted duck egg yolk, rehydrated dried Korean oysters.

Very very good.