Bamboo Leaves Savory Sticky Rice/Glutinous Rice Dumplings
(How to make savory sticky rice wrapped in bamboo leaves)

Photo of completed Bamboo Leaves Savory Sticky Rice/Glutinous Rice Dumplings

Bamboo Leaves Savory Sticky Rice/Glutinous Rice Dumpling aka Zongzi or Joong is made of sticky rice/glutinous rice and is very popular nowadays and is eaten all over the world, especially in Asia. They are wrapped in bamboo leaves with savory fillings such as mung beans, shiitake mushroom, salted egg yolk, chestnut, scallops, dried shrimps and many more. These dumplings are cooked in a crockpot, instant pot, pot over the stove or even in a pressure cooker. There are many ways to cook these dumplings and our all time favorite method is crockpot. People celebrate and make/eat ZongZi during the Dragon Boat Festival. Dragon Boat Festival 2021 falls on June 14 this year. You don’t have to celebrate the event to make the dumplings. We all should simply try and enjoy cuisines from around the world.

Ingredients A:

  • 1 - 1 ½ Cups Sliced Pork (optional)
  • ¼ Teaspoon Light Soy Sauce
  • ⅛ Teaspoon White Pepper
  • ⅛ Teaspoon Sesame Oil
  • ⅛ Teaspoon White Sugar

Ingredients B:

Instructions To Prepare Ahead of Time/Day (Overnight):

  1. Rehydrating dried bamboo leaves - Soak bamboo leaves in water overnight.
  2. Preparing dried shiitake mushroom - Soak shiitake mushroom in water overnight in the fridge until softened.
  3. Preparing the Split Mung Beans - Rinse and soak split mung beans in water overnight.

Instructions For The Next Day:

  1. The soaked bamboo leaves - Remove the water from the bamboo leaves. Pour hot boiling water into the soaked bamboo leaves. Let them soak for ½ to 1 hour. Carefully clean & wipe leaves thoroughly in water with a kitchen cloth. Trim off both ends of the leaves and set aside for wrapping later on.
  2. Preparing the shiitake mushrooms - Squeeze off the water from the shiitake mushrooms.Use as whole or cut in half. Set aside.
  3. Soaked Split Mung Beans - Drain the water and set the soaked mung beans aside.
  4. Preparing the sticky rice - Rinse and soak sticky rice in water for 1 hr. Drain the water. Add light soy sauce, mushroom flavored dark soy sauce, sesame oil, vegetable oil, white pepper, Chinese five spice powder, Chinese cooking wine and salt into soaked and drained sticky rice. Mix well until combined, set aside.
  5. Preparing the pork - Clean and cut pork into medium thick slices. Add all the ingredients A and mix to combine with the pork slices. Let pork marinade in the fridge while you prepare the rest of the wrapping ingredients.
  6. Separate the yolk of the salted chicken or duck egg. We need the yolk only for wrapping. You may keep the white for stir fry or other recipe if you prefer.
  7. Prepare the chestnuts and set aside.
  8. Remove the Chinese sausages casing and cut the sausages into slices. Set aside.
  9. In a crockpot, pour in 5 cups of hot water and switch on to HI for 4 hours for now. Let it slowly boil while we wrap the dumplings.

Assembling & Wrapping The Dumplings:

  1. Stack two to three bamboo leaves together. Folding the leaves together to form a cone as demonstrated in the video
  2. Fill the cone with 1 or 2 tablespoons of sticky rice and then follow by salted egg yolk.
  3. Add ½ to 1 tablespoon of split mung beans, 1 chestnut, 1 shiitake mushroom, 1 or 2 pork slices and 1 or 2 slices Chinese sausages.
  4. Lastly fill with additional sticky rice and press down to flatten all the fillings with the back of a spoon as shown in the video.
  5. Then, as demonstrated in the video, fold left side and right side inward. Next, fold over the long part of the bamboo leaf all across the fillings.
  6. Secure the dumpling with a long piece of food grade kitchen twine multiple rounds and tightly tie a knot or two to secure the wrapping (pardon my ugly wrapping)
  7. Repeat the process.
  8. Put all the wrapped dumplings into the crockpot. Top some water if necessary or remove some if it fills to the top. Use your judgement here.
  9. Cook on HI for 4.5 - 5 hours or until is cooked.. From time to time, you might need to add more or extra hot boiling water into the crockpot if the water level is low. Try to submerge the dumplings if possible to ensure they cook evenly.
  10. After 4.5 half, take out one and test for doneness. If you are happy with the result, turn off the crockpot and remove all the dumplings out to a colander.
  11. Enjoy while they are still warm. Any extras can be stored in the fridge for up to a week and/or in the freezer for up to one month or two. Reheat the dumplings by steaming them in a steamer.
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Video

Tips & Notes

  1. Alternatively you can cook this in a pot over the stove (3 hrs +) or an instant pot ( check the standard time for your instant pot setting in the manual booklet)
  2. For meatless versions, omit pork and Chinese sausage.
  3. Substitute pork with chicken for those who can’t eat pork.
  4. Omit alcohol for non-alcoholic dumplings.
  5. You can use or add peanuts, black eyed peas, dried shrimps, scallops, etc for the fillings.
  6. They are varieties of ingredients you can add in savory sticky rice dumplings depending on your personal preferences. This is what we prefer in the recipe (Ingredients) when it comes to Bamboo Leaves Savory Sticky Rice Dumplings. So please do adjust accordingly.
  7. Dried bamboo leaves can be found in most Asian grocery stores.
  8. You can buy salted egg in most Asian grocery stores or make your own. Check or refer to our “Homemade Salted Chicken/Duck Egg” recipe here.
  9. When you want to top up water into the crockpot in the middle of the cooking process, do not use cold water or room temperature water. Use hot boiling water only.
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