Nonya Rice Dumpling (娘惹粽子)

My mother used to prepared nonya chang for the Dragon Boat Festival and she usually spend few days to complete all the dumpling needed. Although most of them were ordered by my mother's friends, but we still get afew bites here & there.

Nowadays, she rarely make nonya chang anymore, but she do alot of kee chang (an alkaline rice dumpling, which is normally eaten with honey or syrup) which were specially prepared as an alter offering to the gods.

Here's all you need to make your own Nonya Chang (娘惹粽子)

Ingredients
• 500g glutinous rice
• 1 tbsp pandan essence to provide green colour and flavour (normally the indigo blue colour is extracted from the butterfly pea flower is used in this recipe.)
• 2 tbsp cooking oil.

Seasoning
• 1 tbsp pepper
• 2 tbsp coriander powder
• 8 cloves of grounded garlic
• 1 tbsp galangal powder
• 350g mince pork
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 150g candied winter melon (tung kwa) coarsely chopped
• 100g roasted peanut coarsely chopped.
• 30 dried bamboo leaves, soaked till pliable

Others
• Hemp strings
• 2 pandan leaves cut into 3cm length.

Instructions
1. Soak the 350g glutinous rice overnight in water.
2. In a separate stainless steel bowl, soak 150 with water and add pandan essence, overnight.
3. Heat oil in a wok and fry seasonings till fragrant. Add minced pork and fry well. Stir in candied melon, peanuts until well mixed. Set aside to cool.
4. Depending on the size of the bamboo leaf, fold one or two leaves in to a cone as shown in drawing.
5. Fill the cone with one tablespoon of glutinous and 1 teaspoon of pandan green-coloured glutinous rice. Add 1 tablespoon of fillings and covered with another 1 tablespoon of glutinous rice.
6. Top with a piece of pandan leaf. Wrap dumpling into a pyramid shape as shown in drawings and tie securely with hemp string.
7. In a large stock port, bring water into a rapid boil just before putting the dumplings to boil for 2 to 2 1/2 hours until cooked. Keep an eye on the water level by topping up the water in pot with hot water during the cooking process.
8. Remove dumplings when cooked and hang to cool and dry.