Name: Zongzi (Chinese Sticky Rice)
Prep time: 90 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 135 min
Ingredients: 2500g glutinous rice; 800g pork belly; 40 salted egg yolks; 200 coriander leaves; Candied dates; Dark soy sauce; Salt; Chicken essence; Edible alkali; Cotton thread

Zongzi is one of the traditional festival foods of Chinese.

What is Zongzi

Zongzi is made from glutinous rice, fillings, and coriander leaves (or bamboo leaves). Due to the different habits in different places, zongzi has formed north and south flavors. In terms of taste, zongzi has two types: salty zongzi and sweet zongzi.

The origin of Zongzi

Zongzi is appeared before the Spring and Autumn Period and was originally used to worship ancestors and deities. It is also said that Zongzi was born in honor of Qu Yuan, an ancient patriotic poet. In the Jin Dynasty, Zongzi became traditional food for the Dragon Boat Festival.

The custom of eating Zongzi in the Dragon Boat Festival has been prevailing in China for thousands of years and spread to North Korea, Japan and Southeast Asian countries.

Typical Zongzi Fillings

According to extra different ingredients in fillings, Zongzi can be divided into many types. Such as:

1. Ribs, salted egg yolk, sausage, scallops and shiitake
2. Various beans, dried dates
3. Dried osmanthus, red bean paste

4. Dried plums, pork belly, black sticky rice
5. Dried bamboo shoots, smoked duck leg
6. Floss, salted egg yolk

7. Purple sweet potato, lemon
8. Smoked bacon, broad bean
9. Chestnut kernel, salted egg yolk, pork belly

10. Braised sirloin, quail eggs
11. Sticky yellow millet, various beans, candied fruit

What kind of food is suitable to serve with Zongzi?

1. Sweet filing Zongzi(Such as date puree, red bean paste) can be served with mint tea and green tea. This can increase glucose metabolism.

2. Particularly greasy filing Zongzi (Such as meat, ham, sausage, etc.) are suitable for serving with puer tea, chrysanthemum tea or hawthorn tea. This helps the digestion of food.

Besides, Zongzi also can be eaten with papaya and pineapple. This can alleviate the greasy feeling in the mouth after eating zongzi, which has both cosmetic and digestive effects.

Tips of wrap Zongzi

You can tie a white cotton thread to a fixed point, and then add different colors of cotton on the basis of the white cotton thread. In this way, you can distinguish different flavors of Zongzi, or you can save more effort than directly binding the Zongzi with both hands.

Zongzi recipe:

You’ll need:

2500g glutinous rice
800g pork belly
40 salted egg yolks
200 coriander leaves
Candied dates
Dark soy sauce
Salt
Chicken essence
Edible alkali
Cotton thread

How to make Zongzi

For the Zongzi filing

1. Wash and soak the glutinous rice for 5 hours, then drain it. Soak dried coriander leaves in water for one day in advance, then wipe both sides.

2. Cut the pork belly into 2-inch cubes and put in a bowl. Add ginger, garlic, salt, dark soy sauce, light soy sauce and cooking wine in the bowl. Marinate it for 1 day.

3. Sprinkle edible alkali and dark soy sauce on the glutinous rice. Add 1 tablespoon of chicken essence and 1 teaspoon of salt in the wok and mix well.

How to wrap Zongzi

1. With the middle top of the coriander leaves as a fulcrum, surround the leaf toward the middle into a conical shape. And the conical bottom must be folded together, otherwise, it will leak rice (if it is a narrow leaf, use two pieces at the same time)

2. Add one-third of the glutinous rice and insert it a few times with chopsticks to make sure the glutinous rice fills the bottom of the glutinous rice tube. Then add the salted egg yolk and pork belly.

3. Continue to put the glutinous rice until the top of the glutinous rice is 1 cm away from the top of the glutinous rice tube. And squeeze the glutinous rice. Then, hold the corpus callosum with your left hand and cover the extra lobes.

4. As shown by the dotted line, use your right index finger and ring finger to fold down the extra leaf blades on both sides. At the same time, hold down the thumb and index finger of your left hand to obtain a triangular plane. Fold the extra coriander leaves in parallel along the triangular surface, pinch them tightly, and bind them with thread as shown in the figure.

How to cook Zongzi

Put the Zongzi in the pressure cooker and pour water just to cover the Zongzi. Then cook it for 45 minutes. Serve.