在愛爾蘭包粽子過端午！

端午節快到了，想吃粽子又買不到的海外華人‧‧‧自己DIY巴！！！！

ZhongZi - a glutinous rice dumpling stuffed with ingredients such as pork, dried shitake mushrooms, dried shrimps, bamboo shoots etc wrapped in bamboo leaves - It is meant to honor the patriotic scholar and statesman Cyu Yuan poet at the Dragon Boat Festival on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month

(Makes 10 ZhongZi

1. 20 sheets of bamboo leaves

2. 10 cotton strings

3. 1000 g glutinous rice

4. 200 g pork steak

5. 50 g dried shitake mushroom

6. 30 g dried shrimps

7. 10 red shallot

8. 1 tin of bamboo shoots

9. 100 g dried radish

10. 100 g dried tofu

11. 1 cup sun flower oil

12. 1 cup soy sauce

13. Salt and ground white pepper for seasoning

Preparation:

Soak the rice over night. Wash, rinse and keep them in a colander

Soak the bamboo leaves flat in warm water over night.

Rinse and leave them flat

Soak the dried shitake mushrooms and dried shrimps in boiling water for 30 minutes. Wash, rinse and pat dry with the kitchen paper

Peal the red shallot (mind your eyes) Put the soaked shitake mushrooms, shrimps and red shallots in a food processor for few seconds or until finely chopped. Put aside in a bowl.

Finely chop the bamboo shoots and dried tofu

Chop the pork into small cubes

Cooking:

Heat the oil in a big non-stick wok for 2 minutes, stir in the shitake mushrooms, shrimps and red shallots and fry for 5 minutes or until the shallots turn golden

Stir in the pork cubes and fry for 10 minutes or until it’s cooked

Stir in the bamboo shoots, chopped dried radish and dried tofu and fry for another 5 minutes

Put in the soy sauce and seasoning with salt and ground white pepper to the taste you like (you can put in some chili sauce if you like it spicy)

Stir fry for another few minutes and the stuffing is ready to use.

Wrapping:

Put 2 bamboo leaves together in opposite direction one on top the other, hold the leaves and fold it round in the middle and make a funnel till both ends are laid over each other in one direction.

Put about 1/20 of rice and 1/10 of stuffing on top of it, then cover the stuffing by another 1/20 of the rice.

Fold the leaves up to seal the open side of the funnel and tie the bundle with the string.

Make sure that the bundle is tied neither too tight nor too loose. This helps make sure that the ingredients are well cooked and won’t fall out.

Put the wrapped ZhungZi in a steamer (or rice cooker) and stream for 2 hours.

(alternately, you can put the ZhungZi in a pot and cover up with water and cook for 2 hours)