Nyonya Rice Dumpling

The children have not eaten their grandma’s nyonya rice dumlings since she was afflicted by Alzheimer. I can’t remember when it was the last time we had it, but it seems so long ago, so my wife decided to make some for them and for friends. I just wish that the children would also learn to make it so that the skill would be kept alive.

The ingredients:

Finely chopped dried shrimp

Chopped dried winter melon

Finely chopped boiled chestnuts

Minced belly pork

Shallots sliced into rings

Chopped garlic

Glutinous rice

Pepper

Sugar

salt

Of course you will also need the dried bamboo leaves and strings made from reed plants.

Dried chestnuts can be bought from any sundry shop

The chestnuts are boiled until cooked, but the flesh should remain firm to cut into small pieces

Sweetened winter melon chips

The winter melon chips are cut into tiny pieces

The shallot rings are fried until golden brown

Chopped garlic to be fried with minced belly pork

Dried shrimps are cut into tiny pieces and fried

Fried dried shrimps

Frying the chopped chestnuts

Frying the chopped winter melon

Fried winter melon

Frying the minced pork with garlic. Add pepper, salt and sugar to taste

Fried minced pork

The final step is to fry all the ingredients together

Soaking the glutinous rice. This of course could be done earlier

Likewise, the dried bamboo leaves could be soaked earlier

Close-up of soaked bamboo leaves

Putting ingredients and glutinous rice into the bamboo leaves. Usually two leaves are sufficient to make a zongzi

A zongzi tied and ready to be boiled

Boiling a bunch of zongzi for three hours

A bunch of boiled zongzi

Two zongzi after removing the bamboo leaves

The stuffing inside the zongzi