My granny's bakchang recipes

It's that time of the year again, and this year I thought I would blog about it for posterity. There are no quantities - just estimate. Glutinous rice will have some regular rice mixed in. For a better texture, pick out the grains of plain rice (they are translucent) if there are any. My mum has found Sheng Siong's Happy Family brand to be of good quality, with hardly any regular rice grains mixed in. Bamboo leaves have to be boiled and wiped down with a wet towel. Hemp string bundles should be washed. Keep leaves damp until you are done wrapping.

Savoury bakchang

1. Glutinous rice: rinse, drain well, and stirfry lightly with shallot oil, white pepper, five spice powder, salt, light and dark soya sauces. Do not overcook as the rice will get sticky.
2. Pork belly: remove skin and brown bite-sized pieces in shallot oil, white pepper, five spice powder, salt, light and dark soya sauces. Cover and let cook for awhile, but take care not to overcook.
3. Chestnuts: scald. soak, remove skin, and (optionally) brown in shallot oil.
4. Dried shiitake mushrooms: braise with juices from cooking pork belly. Cut into four.
5. Salted egg yolks: clean salted eggs, separate yolks and white and rinse yolks. Add a bit of oil to keep yolks from sticking together. Divide into thirds with thread.
6. Dried shrimp: pick out shell and brown in shallot oil.

Once ingredients are assembled, you are ready to start wrapping. Before cooking, tie a second knot in the bundle at the top, nearer to the dumplings. This is to prevent the excess string from getting tangled up in the pot. Excess string at the other end can be trimmed.

Finished dumplings should be boiled for 3 hours. After 1.5 hours, remove dumplings and replace them in the pot so that the ones at the bottom are on top and vice versa. Be ready to top water up with boiling water, so that it covers all the dumplings. After dumplings are cooked, allow them to cool down first if you intend to refrigerate them. They freeze well. Reheat before eating.


Sweet bakchang

1. Glutinous rice: rinse, drain well, and mix with alkaline water and cooking oil.
2. Red beans: cook in water till mushy in slow cooker, then cook again with sugar and oil till dry enough to form balls.

Procedure as above, but cooking time is a total of 2 hours (swap position of dumplings after an hour).

The wrapping
This seems to be the most intimidating part, but it really only takes patience and practice. Start small and slow. If your leaves are small, it's near impossible to make big dumplings and vice versa. We usually double leaves up for a more solid dumpling. Wrap string around twice before knotting.