What's up everyone?
Today, my parents are going to teach us
How to prepare bamboo leaves and
How to fold them into Joong (Zongzi),
Or sticky rice dumplings.
There are a ton of variations across Asia, but at its core
It's a pocket of sticky rice with delicious fillings
Wrapped together in beautiful bamboo leaves
The style of joong we'll be learning today comes from Toisan
Where my parents grew up
In their villages, my grandparents used to
Make this for my parents
And my parents still make this for us pretty much
Every year for the Dragon Boat Festival
Which falls on the 5th day of 5th month in the Chinese calendar
This year, it's right around the corner on June 14th,
So I wanted to share an updated excerpt from
Our full recipe guide that we published a while back.
Joong holds a special place in Chinese tradition
That a lot of families will pass down their own recipes across generations.
If you don't already have your own recipe,
Or if you're curious about my family's recipe,
Feel free to stop this video and watch our full recipe guide,
Linked in the corner and in our description.
Otherwise, please enjoy our tutorial on
How to master the trickiest parts of making joong:
Preparing bamboo leaves and folding them into dumplings.
Let's start preparing our bamboo leaves
When you buy them, they're dry, all in a bunch
To prepare them, we'll soak them in water for 30-60 minutes
After soaking, they’ll be softer, and then we'll boil them
Then we'll wash the leaves
Then we can wrap our joong dumplings
Now, let's soak our bamboo leaves
The primary goal for this section is to make sure
That our bamboo leaves are pliable enough
To bend and wrap without cracking
Secondly, we're sanitizing our leaves by boiling them
And scrubbing them with a clean sponge later
For each joong, we'll need 3 leaves to fully wrap the dumpling
So we're looking at preparing at least 60 leaves
Plus a healthy margin of additional leaves
In case they get cracked in the process
Let these soak in water
Fill another bowl with water to weigh down the leaves
Once they're done soaking, we'll boil them in a wok
Add some water. Make sure the leaves are fully submerged
Let's add some more
Next, we'll place a weight on the leaves to keep them submerged
Then, we'll cover the wok, set the stove to high heat
And wait for it to come to a boil
Once it's boiling, we can start washing the leaves
You can also use a big pot for this step instead of a wok
Let's cover the wok
Once the pot is boiling, we can wash the leaves
It should be about 15 to 20 minutes
While we wait, I also wanted to make a special shoutout to thank all of our
Wonderful Patreon supporters to help bring this video to life.
If you enjoy our videos and are interested in supporting us directly,
Head on over to patreon.com/madewithlau to learn more!
For other dishes, you boil water in advance
Can you do that here?
You shouldn't do that with joong
You should let the temperature increase slowly
The main goal is to prevent the leaves from cracking
If you immediately add hot water, it may damage the leaves
And when it comes time to wash, it might break more easily
As the temperature goes up, the bamboo leaves will gradually become softer
First, let's handle the bamboo leaves
The leaves have been boiled enough now
Before it reaches a boil, set it to high heat. Afterwards, turn it down to medium.
Now we need to wash the leaves
We have to wash them
We're not done at boiling, we still have to wash them clean
Let's pour out the water and wash it
Let me tell you - making joong, it's tasty, but a lot of work
Understand?
Using a clean sponge, carefully wipe down and wash both sides of each leaf
Use this, and scrub it clean
We have to do both sides
We have to wash it for it to be clean
Soaking isn't enough
These leaves are really fragrant
If you're planning on marinating your pork belly overnight
And finishing cooking the next day
Then place the leaves in a bucket or big bowl of water
So they stay moist overnight
Since this is a recipe that takes a day or two to prepare
I wanted to give you an overviewed of all of the major steps
Let's say we want to have these ready for dinner on Sunday
Then, on Saturday morning, we'll prepare the pork belly
And let it marinade overnight
We'll also soak, boil, and wash the bamboo leaves
Then let the leaves sit in water overnight as well
On Sunday morning, we'll wash, soak, cut, and flavor
The rest of our ingredients
On Sunday afternoon, we'll start assembling and wrapping
Our joong with our bamboo leaves
Once the joong dumplings are wrapped and tied
We'll boil them for 3 hours
Then, they'll be ready to eat for dinner
If you're pressed for time or if you have a lot of hands on deck
It's possible to do all of this in a single day
By combining the marinating and soaking that occurs
On Saturday and Sunday morning
Here are some other items you'll need:
A big salad bowl or basin for washing
Lots of bowls for soaking
A colander for draining
Cotton cooking twine for wrapping
And a big pot for boiling
Making joong is a long labor of love
And it's a really fun activity to do with family or a big group of friends
If you're looking for a written version of this recipe,
Check out our blog post at madewithlau.com
Where you'll find an adjustable list of ingredients
And step-by-step videos to guide you as you make the recipe at home
Next, Mommy Lau is going to show us how to fill
and wrap our joong with bamboo leaves.
Hi, all our dear friends!
Mommy Lau is going to demonstrate the joong in Cantonese
Or, sticky rice dumplings
I learned this when I was a teenager
I grew up in a Taishanese family
I saw my mother, my grandma - they made these dumplings
I was helping on the side, and I observed how they did it
Okay first, for all of those leaves
You can see - the leaves are not the same size
They have big leaves - see this is a big leaf, right?
This is a small leaf
They have a shiny side on the top
The bottom side - it's kind of rough
You can touch, you can see - it's very easy to see the difference
For each dumpling, we'll use 3 leaves
So I put the big leaf, then the small leaf on the top
Before you put the two leaves together, you can check
Like this leaf has a little crack
But the crack is on the side, it's okay
But if the crack is in the middle, you can either
Throw away the leaf, or you can use a second leaf to cover the crack
These leaves have an upper round corner
And the bottom is pointy
I use the big leaf and the small leaf, shiny side up,
Make them opposite - the pointy point with the round head
Put together, and we'll leave about 2 cm between them
Between two leaves, it's 2 centimeters
Fold forward into the center, like this
And then hold it, and then make a second fold in the bottom
The second fold in the bottom is about 1.5 - 2cm
Fold it like this
So you can see, like this, right?
The bottom and the top
So after you fold, you can see the pocket, the 1st leaf, the 2nd leaf here
And the corner here of the pocket
Okay, now, we're going to start to fill it in
First, 2 tbsp sweet rice. Spread it a little bit
1 tbsp mung bean. Spread it a little bit.
1 tbsp peanuts
Also spread in the center a little bit, okay?
Put 1 piece of pork belly
1 piece of Chinese sausage in the center
1 piece of egg yolk in the center
2 pieces of dried shrimp. One piece on top, one piece on bottom.
Two pieces of dried mushroom - one on top, one on bottom
So we're going to fill in one more time: 1 tbsp mung bean
Spread from the top to the bottom
2 tbsp sweet rice - also spread from the top to the bottom
So after you've filled it in, you can use a spoon to make it even inside
Then we use another leaf
For this leaf, it doesn't have to be small or big - they're both okay
So like that - wrap it
First, you fold this side
Fold it, and then fold the other side of the leaf
So after that, it'll become like this, okay?
And then, fold the upper leaf downwards, all the way
All the way like this, fold it
Pretty much just like this. Okay, this is done wrapping
This is the cotton string we'll use
I usually leave about 6 inches from the end
So my finger is holding the string in the middle
Start to wrap - use the string to bind the whole sweet rice dumpling
Make a loop, all the way around
All the way, all the way
So, we're done wrapping here
After that, turn it over, meet with the string I saved at the beginning
Make a double cross
And then make another loop length-wise
We're pretty much done. Now we can tie a double knot
Okay, done!
So we can cut the string
And also, you can see this extra leaf here. We can cut that too.
So with all these sweet rice dumplings,
You don't have to be exact on how big or small
But most of the time, if you use 3 bamboo leaves
It'll be around 5.5 - 6.5 oz in weight
So pretty much, just like this
It's pretty easy. You don't have to worry about perfect wrapping
As long as you have all these delicious ingredients
Inside the sweet rice dumpling, it'll taste pretty good
Thank you for watching Mommy Lau wrap a sweet rice dumpling
Now, we’ll repeat this process until
all of our sticky rice dumplings are assembled.
I know that was a lot of information,
but don’t worry if it’s not perfect.
As long as the leaves and string hold everything together,
it should be totally fine.
Also, this is something that you’ll get better at with practice.
Feel free to rewind as many times as you need,
Visit our blog for more info, or leave a comment if you have any questions.
Speaking of questions, here are answers to
Two of the most frequently asked questions
We got from our previous video on joong.
One: Can you substitute this with banana leaves?
My parents say you can but it'll taste differently.
They've never done tried it themselves,
As my mom said it's not as common in the Cantonese style of joong.
Banana leaves also have a different texture
And aren't as firm as bamboo leaves,
So they're not exactly sure how the preparation
Differs from us boiling our bamboo leaves.
Two: Can you reuse the leaves after you've
Unwrapped and eaten the joong?
My parents said you definitely can,
And that they do this occasionally.
After you eat the joong, you can soak in warm water right away.
Use a brush to wash it off, rinse it again, and dry it in a basket.
The leaves will be a little warped the second time around,
So wrapping will be a little more difficult.
Okay! You will be making this for Cam Cam!
Okay, let's do it!
To end on a personal note, in the past
I used to take these dumplings for granted
But now I definitely realize how much effort and love goes into making them
Both of my parents grew up making these with my grandparents,
Who learned it from their parents, and so on.
As our son and our future kids get older,
I look forward to continuing the tradition with my family
And passing it down through the generations
Yay！ Cam Cam - Mommy's first joong!
Sweet rice dumpling for you!
Oh wow! Okay!
And with that, on behalf of the Laus
We really appreciate all of your love and support
We hope this recipe brings your family and loved ones
Much love and joy in all the years to come.
Cam Cam says, "thank you for your support!"
"See you next time!"
Cam Cam, say, "bye!"