Hokkien Style Blue Butterfly Pea Zongzi (Bakcang)
Hello Kindness,
Zongzi, the delicious rice dumplings stuffed with sweet/ savoury fillings depending on regional style is synonymous with Dragon Boat Festival. The practice of eating zongzi on the Summer Solstice is concretely documented in literature from around the Late Han (2nd–3rd centuries), which was later made official during the Jin Dynasty ( 266–420 AD).
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Although the popular myth amongst the Chinese is that Zongzi, a food offering made to commemorate the death of Qu Yuan, a famous poet during the Chu Kingdom, I have always known Zongzi as the food to consume/ give to others during the Qing Ming festival- an Ancestor’s day. On this day, people who observe it visit their ancestor’s tomb to clean, and pay respect. Even though we don’t observe the ritual, every year my grandma would prepare countless amounts of Zongzi / Bakcang as we called it. The homemade dumplings are distribute among the families and relatives to enjoy. Like many Chinese Festival food, Bakcang have auspicious meanings! I learnt that the 4 sides of Bakcang hold beautiful outlook and philosophy.
The first side zhi zu symbolizes contentment, the opposite of greed. The second side gan en points to being grateful for what we have. The third side, shan jie stresses on seeing goodness in others, and positive thinking. The last side bao rong calls for tolerance- keeping togetherness between people. How beautiful!
There are so many varieties of shapes and filling from different parts of China. This particular Bakcang recipe is of Hokkien style, with a triangular pyramid shape. Unlike Chinese Zongzi which is mostly made of glutinous rice, in South East Asia, particularly Indonesia, rice Bak Chang is more popular than its glutinous rice counterpart. When Bak Chang is made with glutinous rice, we use long-grain glutinous rice that resulted in a smoother, blended texture. Chinese Zongzi uses short-grained glutinous rice which keeps its granular form when cooked.
Like many Zongzi from the South of China, Bak Chang is filled with savoury ingredients. The rice is normally seasoned with soy sauce (sweet and salty). Hokkien style Zongzi is normally filled with salted egg yolk, shiitake mushrooms, chestnut and braised fatty pork with five-spice powder and sweet soy sauce, giving a rich, decadent, umami flavours. I substituted the chestnut with peanuts, an ingredient that my grandma used in her Bakcang.
It has been years since I moved to Canada. I have been contemplating trying my hands at making Bak Chang. I have always heard how difficult, tedious and intimidating is the wrapping of Bakcang, deterring most people from making them. Due to the different variety and unique flavours of each type of regional Zongzi, store-bought Zongzi can’t appease my food memory of my grandma’s Hokkien style Bakcang.
When the opportunity arise to make this Blue Butterfly Pea Bak Chang with my partnership with Suncore Foods, I challenged myself to learn to wrap them! After watching an endless amount of tutorials, I finally did it and am ready to show the methods to you! The result is so rewarding, beautiful and of course so delicious!
It was certainly an intuitive process- one that requires feelings, lots of patience, and coordination but it is worth trying! When the logic clicked, it was easy! So fear not, I will help you to make sense of the process through my instructions and video shared here. You will be rewarded with the most delicious treat!
HOW TO MAKE BLUE BUTTERFLY PEA SAVOURY HOKKIEN STYLE BAK CANG/ ZONGZI
Hokkien Style Blue Butterfly Pea Zongzi/ Bak Chang
Ingredients
- 12-16 dried bamboo leaves
- 16 @ 60 cm twine
- 450 g sweet glutinous rice
- 1 Tbsp Suncore's Blue Butterfly Pea
- Water ( enough to soak the rice)
- 1 tsp salt
- 11/2 tsp mushroom bouillon
- 1 Tbsp of oil
- 3 garlic minced
- 300 g fatty pork belly ( skin off)
- 21/2 tbsp sweet soya sauce
- 11/2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp of five-spice powder
- 1 tbsp of Shaoxing wine
- 1/4 tsp white pepper
- 4 garlic minced
- 1 1/2 tsp of oyster sauce
- 2-3 Tbsp of dried shrimps, soaked in water for 30 minutes
- 1/4 cup of boiled peanuts
- 8 egg salted egg yolks
- 8 medium-size dry shiitake mushrooms, soaked in water for 30 minutes
Instructions
- Boil the bamboo leaves in boiling water for 15 minutes to rehydrate and sanitize.
- Pick the nice and perfect leaves for wrapping. Clean and wipe, cut the stiff end then set aside.
- Wash the glutinous rice under cold water and rinse it 2-3 times until the water runs clear.
- Soak the rice with 2-3 inches of water, and add Suncore Butterfly Pea Powder. Let it sit for 3-4 hours until the rice picked up the blue colour. Remove excess water.
- Heat some oil and sautee garlic in a pan, then add rice, mushroom bouillon, and salt.
- Cook for 2-3 minutes until the rice is a little sticky. Remove from heat and let it cool down
- Cut the pork belly into a 1-11/2 inch chunk.
- Marinate with sweet soya sauce, soy sauce, five-spice powder, Shaoxing wine, white pepper, garlic and oyster sauce for 2-3 hours.
- In a pan, cook the marinated pork on low medium heat until the pork is cooked through.
- Take two good leaves that have no holes/ tears. Cut off 1” from the stiff end.
- Face the shiny sides up with the wider base sides facing away from each other,
- There should be 3-4” of individual leaves sticking out beyond the overlap on each side. A third of the way from the bottom of the strip, pinch the side opposite from you and fold it into a cone shape, with the leaf sticking out from one end. Hold the cone using one hand.
- Add 2-3 tablespoons of rice to the cone, and press it up against the sides to create a well in the centre. Add some shrimp, peanuts, whole egg yolk, and fatty pork belly. Add some fat/ sauce from the pork belly then cover it with 2 tablespoons of rice. Press evenly to compact the zongzi.
- Use your left hand to hold the cone, and pinch your thumb and index finger to make a slight indentation on the cone Then use the right hand ( thumb and index finger) to fold the leaf on top of the rice. Press both hands and turn the cone up.
- Keep your right hand steady and shape the cone to a perfect triangle using your left hand as a guide, tightening your thumb and index finger to create the third triangle point. Once you have a good shape, use your right hands ( thumb and index fingers to fold the side flaps up to secure the sides of the cone.
- Shape the flaps into the triangle and wrap the leftover leaf tail around tightly to seal it. Wrap the zongzi using a piece of twine, making sure to tighten the loose area.
- Cook the zongzi in a pressure cooker, submerged in water for 40-45 minutes or in a regular pot for 2.5 hr.
- Let it cool down before serving. Enjoy!
Hope you challenge yourself to make some Zongzi this year!
Xx,
M
