I heart joong!

From when I was little I have fond memories of eating joong (zongzi is the official way of writing it I guess.. maybe mandarin?).  Every year we’d go over to grandma’s where she’d have all the ingredients laid out in bowls and we’d make joong.  Tons and tons of joong.  Back then I was big on rice so always overstuffed my joong with rice, and tying fancy knots so I’d know which ones were mine.  Yet every year after my grandma cooked them all, not one of my joong came back to me.  Family members across Boston were undoubtedly dismayed when they opened an over-large joong only to find it 3/4 full of rice.   Meanwhile I’d get one of my cousins’ mucho shrimp double egg joong.  Color me disappointed!

Today, those joong making parties are sadly a thing of the past.  Grandma is sick of the hassle that comes with making joong.  It’s really a lot of work!  But for a foodtard like myself, who is allergic to shellfish of all sorts,  buying joong is not an option.  Have you tried to buy a joong without dried shrimp in it?  Impossible!

So I decided to make my own.  My parents told me not to bother, that it’s too much work.  That it’s too hard.  But I really wanted a joong SO bad.  I missed that stuffing filled goodness, oh so delicious.   My girlfriend at the time and I decided to try making it.   She decided to stay over the day before, which was quite lucky.  It was even more work than I expected!!!

Anyways, now I have a bunch of foodtard friendly joong sitting in the fridge.

http://www.knowingfood.com/rice/ricezong.html
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/405795

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=88644

From WK Leung via egullet, saved for posterity:

Serving Suggestion: 40

Preparations:
Main ingredients:
- Sticky rice (5 lb bag), use 2 1/2 bags (about 12-13 lbs)
- Mung beans (12 oz package), use 3 packs
- Salted eggs x 18 (3 packs, 6 eggs in each pack) or more
- Dried conpoy, about 30
- Dried black mushrooms, about 30 to 40
- Pork butt or pork shoulder, about 2 lb
- Raw peanuts (12 oz package), use 2 packs
- Chestnuts (ready to eat, 12 oz package), use 3 packs
- Dried shrimp (12 oz package), use 2 packs
- Laap Cheung (Chinese sausage). Use 10 (1 pack)
- 1 bag of dried bamboo leaves, about 150 Qty
- 1 roll of small strings to tie the joong

This is a bag of sticky rice, 5 lb package. Use 2 1/2 bags.

These are mung beans, 12 oz packages. Use 3 packs.

These are salted eggs, 6 eggs in each package. Use 3 packs (or more).

A close-up view of the salted eggs.

Dried conpoy. Use about 30.

Dried black mushrooms. Use about 30 to 40.

Pork Butt. Use about 2 lb.

Raw peanuts. 12 oz in a package. Use 2 packs would be enough.

Close-up view of the raw peanut package.

Chestnuts, already shelled and cooked, ready to eat. Use 3 packs.

Close-up view of the chestnut package.

Note: If you use raw chestnuts, you need to precook them and shell them before wrapping.

Dried shrimp, 4 oz in a package. Use 2 packs.

Laap Cheung (Chinese sausage). There are different flavors. I used the ones made with duck livers. There are 10 sausages in a package. Use 1 pack.

Dried bamboo leaves. Depending on how you wrap your joongs, you use 2, 3 or 4 leaves to wrap each one. I used 4 because my joongs are big. You may use 3 if they are smaller. Budget about 10% extra because some leaves do break during wrapping and cannot be used. Left-over, soaked bamboo leaves can be dried and store away for next year. They are very inexpensive anyway. (US$1.50 for a bag of 150 leaves or so).

Close-up view of the dried bamboo leave bundle.

The preparation of making joong starts the day before because many ingredients need to be soaked in water overnight.

Day 1:

Soak the sticky rice. Make sure you have enough water to cover the top.

Soak the mung beans. Make sure you have enough water to cover the top. They expand quite a bit.

Soak the dried conpoy.

Soak the black mushrooms.

Soak the raw peanuts.

Cut the pork butt into big pieces (1 inch by 2 inches). 1 piece of pork per joong.

To marinate (for 2 lb of meat): Add 2-3 tsp of light soy sauce, 2-3 tsp of dark soy sauce, 1-2 tsp of salt, 4 tsp of Shao Hsing cooking wine, 1 tsp of ground white pepper, 3-4 tsp of five spice powder.

Mix the ingredients well. Store in the refrigerator overnight.

Soak the bamboo leaves overnight in a small water bin.

Use something such as a soup bowl to weigh down the leaves to make sure they are all immersed in water.

Day 2: (1 hour before wrapping)

Soak the dried shrimp. It doesn’t take long for them to become soft.

Drain the water from the soaked black mushrooms. Trim ends and cut mushrooms into thin slices (or dices).

Cut the Chinese sausages diagonally into 1/4 slices.

Break open all salted eggs. Separate the egg white from egg yolk. (Only use the egg yolks to make joong.) I cut the yolks into halves. You may use whole ones if you like.

Open the packages of the ready-to-eat chestnuts.

Drain the water from the soaked dried conpoy. (You may save the soaking liquid for cooking other dishes.) Pul the conpoy into shreds by hand.

Use a pan/wok. Set stove to high. Wait until pan is hot. Add 3 tblsp of cooking oil.

Drain the water from the soaked dried shrimp. Add the shrimp to the pan. Fry for a minute or two.

Add the sliced black mushrooms. Mix well and stir-fry for another 2 minutes.

Dash in 2-3 Shao Hsing cooking wine and 3 tsp of dark soy sauce. Mix well and cook for another 2 minutes. Remove from pan and set aside.

Drain the water from the soaking sticky rice. For each 4lb portion (there are 3 portions total), add 3-4 tsp of dark soy sauce, 1 tblsp of cooking oil and 1/2 to 1 tsp of salt.

Mix the dark soy sauce, oil and salt with the stick rice well.

Also, drain off the water from all other ingredients (e.g. mung beans, peanuts, etc.). Retreive the marinated pork from the refrigerator.

This is how the bamboo leaves look after being soaked overnight. Drain the water from the bin. Boil one pot of water.

Pour the pot of boiling water onto the bin. There are 2 reasons for this: 1) Sterilizatoin – killing off the molds that reside on the bamboo leaves. 2) Makes the leaves soft to make wrapping easier.

(Note: Many recipes call for boiling the bamboo leaves in a big pot or on a wok. Chef Dejah also suggested adding a little bit of vinegar in the water to make the leaves softer.)

Day 2: Wrapping of a joong

There are different wrapping methods. I am showing mine which uses 3 to 4 bamboo leaves.

There is an excellent web page (produced in Taiwan) that shows a video on how to wrap a joong. The page is written in Chinese. Click on the link at the upper left corner to view the video (about 7 minutes). The video was narrated in both Mandarin and English.

They wrap a small joong with only 2 leaves, but form a perfect tetrahedron shape. Perhaps I should do that next year.

http://edu.ocac.gov.tw/culture/chinese/cul…ml/vod14_09.htm

Take one leave. Make it into a U-shape.

Take a second leave. Wrap on the outside of the first leave. This extends the “wall” to surround the joong ingredients. Hold the 2 leaves in one hand. It becomes easier to hold them when you have added the ingredients onto the leaves.

First add a few tblsp of sticky rice.

Add the mung beans.

Add the “highlight” ingredients: salted pork, salted egg yolk (half), 2 pieces of laap cheung.

Add shreds of conpoy, 1 or 2 chestnuts.

Add the stir-fried dried shrimp, black mushrooms and peanuts.

At this stage, add a third bamboo leave to extend the “wall” to hold the ingredients.

Add more mung beans.

Finish off with adding more sticky rice.

You may add a fourth leave to make it easier to close the joong. Just close the side and hold on to it in one hand.

Start to tie the string but wrapping it around the bamboo leaves. Wrap it around by 7 to 8 times or so. Close out the bottom of the joong by folding the leave ends back up towards the center. Wrap the string around the leave ends to secure.

This is how the joong looks like when the string is tied.

Repeat the same process to make more joongs until the ingredients are used up.

Cooking Instructions:

Cooking is the easy part. Just use a big pot. Lay the joongs inside the pot. Fill the pot up with water. Boil the joongs (with lid on) for about 2 hours. Add more water once about an hour into boiling. Reduce the stove setting to medium from high after the initial boil. Remove the joongs from the pot and serve.

You may need to divide the joongs into different batches and boil them one batch at a time, as most of us don’t have a pot big enough to hold 40+ joongs.

Joongs may be kept in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. They also survive the freezing process rather well. If you make a big batch, you may spread it out the next couple of months to enjoy.

Serve each joong individually. Cut the strings and unwrap. Discard the bamboo leaves.

Picture of the finished dish. Serve with some slightly sweetened dark soy sauce.

Egullet ended up being the primary recipe we referenced.  It was great, had pictures and everything.  The various ingredients really take a long time to prepare – it took the two of us a whole day to prepare (well, minus the morning / early afternoon).  It took the two of us all day the next day to assemble them… which did include prepping some lotus leaves for lo mai gai (we had a lot of rice left over).

Things to remember for next time:
* Better to have extra fillings than extra rice, or even extra leaves.  Extra fillings can be used in a variety of different ways.  Extra rice… well, you’re stuck with extra rice
* Grandma added this extra … something to her joong.  I think it’s an alkaline solution – something mine were missing, because mine invariably give me heartburn
* Definitely make sure to boil the leaves first – although not all recipes call for it, I think boiling them clean first is a good thing.  And Grandma always used to do it (can’t argue with Grandma’s cooking!)
* While you can’t really overcook joong, I’ve heard that cooking too long will make them stick to the leaves more when you are done
* Have more than two people assemble joong next time
* Different color string makes it possible to easily differentiate between joong.  Everyone goes home with the ones they made!
* Slip knots are your friend
* You need lots of space.  Including your freezer!