Passport & Plate - My Grandmother's Secret
Hong Kong | Friday, March 14, 2014 | 3 photos
Ingredients
700g glutinous rice
100g red beans
100g mung beans
200g pork
100g dried shrimp
100g Chinese black mushrooms
100g dried scallop
3 tbsp soy sauce
40-50 sheets of dried bamboo leaves
Pinch of salt
Cotton string
How to prepare this recipe1. Mix the rice and red beans in a big bowl and cover with cold water to soak overnight.
2. Cut the pork into small cubes and marinate with soysauce and a pinch of salt. Cook for 10-15 minutes and leave to cool.
3. Cut the mushrooms into thin strips. In a separate bowl, soak the dried scallop and break up into small pieces.
4. Take one piece of bamboo leave and bend in half lengthwise, creating a funnel.
5. Fill the funnel with rice and red beans until it is one-third full.
6. Place 1 cube of pork, 1 teaspoon of mung beans, 1 teaspoon of dried shrimp, 1 teaspoon of dried scallop and 2 to 3 pieces of mushrooms on top of the rice and red beans.
7. Fill the funnel with more rice and red beans until the ingredients listed in step 6 above are covered.
8. Overlap the leaves and fold on top of each other such that the ingredients are secure inside the leave. It does not matter too much how the leaves are folded as long as all the ingredients are enveloped inside the bamboo leaves and won’t fall out. Tie the bundle together securely with string.
9. Fill a pot with water and bring to the boil. Place all the tied bundles into boiling water and boil for 2 to 3 hours.
10. Cut the string and unwrap the bamboo leaves to serve the zongzi hot. Any remaining zongzi may be left to cool and can be kept in the fridge for 3-4 days. When reheating, the zongzi should be reboiled for 30 minutes until piping hot.
The story behind this recipeFried rice, more commonly known as ‘flied lice’ amongst the more mischievous amongst us, has long been a standing favourite in many corners of the world, whether as part of our everyday diet, a Friday night in special or even on a first date! Appearing in various guises, ranging from risotto to congee and steamed rice to sushi, not to mention the oh-so-scrumptious sticky rice and the rice pudding that is to die for, this omnipresent grain has infiltrated our diet and changed gastronomy as we know it. Yet, with so many variations to choose from, it is the zongzi, otherwise known as ‘My Grandmother’s Secret’ that I would opt for any day.
As a young girl growing up in what had been a fishing village in rural Hong Kong, my grandmother used to take long walks by the harbour where she would gaze longingly at the sampans bobbing out at sea. She had been at school a year before being forced to give up her studies but one poem was etched in her memory forever. It was written by Qu Yuan, an exiled poet who had taken his own life in the Miluo river. Legend has it that to fend off hungry fish, Qu’s family threw bundle after bundle of zongzi into the waters. This secret parcel of rice cocooned in bamboo leaves came to symbolise for my grandmother the great poet she aspired to be and the many desires and yearnings bottled up within her small body.
To this day, my grandmother continues the tradition of assiduously stringing together zongzi every Tuen Ng festival. As her little helper growing up, I have spent countless summers spooning dried shrimp and mung beans into bamboo pockets. However, despite having grown up with them, the bamboo parcels never fail to cause delight. For amongst those bundles of zonzi, there is always one containing my grandmother’s secret. As I cut the string and fold away the layers of bamboo, I am nine once again, standing waist high by my grandmother’s side, spooning dried shrimp into the bamboo pockets as we recite Qu’s poems late into the night.
