Zòngzi Cooking Video and Recipe

This is week #2 of Tiny Chinese Homeschool’s Dragon Boat Festival Virtual Celebration! Dragon Boat Festival or 端午節 would not be complete without these delicious triangles of rice steamed in leaves. It is an ambitious recipe, but worth a try. My kids are picky eaters, but the novelty of this dish interests them to get involved and try it. It’s one of my son’s favorite dishes.

Zòngzi Recipe

Ingredients

• 2.5 cups sticky rice
• 1/2 cup peanuts
• 1/2 package dried bean curd
• 1/2 lb pork belly
• 4 shiitake mushrooms mushrooms
• 4 shallots
• pinch of salt
• 12 or more bamboo leaves
• string

Seasoning A

• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tsp sugar

Seasoning B

• 4 tsp soy sauce
• 1.5 tbsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp Chinese five-spice powder
• 2 dashes of sesame oil

Steps

1. Rinse sticky rice. Stir in peanuts. Set aside.
2. Dice pork, then marinate in Seasoning A for 5 minutes.
3. Dice dried bean curd.
4. Soak mushrooms, remove stems and slice.
5. Pare and slice the shallots.
6. Soak bamboo leaves in water. Then rinse and dry.
7. Fry pork, dried bean curd, shallots, mushrooms, Seasoning B, and a dash of a water with 2 tbsp oil until fragrant. Add a pinch of salt. Spoon it into a bowl and pour the remaining sauce/liquid into the sticky rice for flavor. Mix well.
8. Take one bamboo leaf and fold it into a cupped triangle. Spoon some rice/peanut mixture to fill the bottom of the triangle. Add a heaping spoonful of pork/dried bean curd/shallot/mushroom mix. Pack more rice on top to fill the triangle to the top. Fold over and bind with string.
9. Steam the zòngzi for 1 hr. Enjoy!

Zòngzi is so delicious! The rice has a special flavor from being steamed in bamboo leaves. The rice breaks open with a curtain of steam and sweet aroma of meat and mushrooms. The peanuts are softened but still add a chewy crunch to the dish. What better way to celebrate this holiday than with this savory treat? Hope you and your family love it!