Saturday, May 30, 2009

Nyonya-Teochew Rice Dumpling

It feels great to be at home. For one thing, all my meals are taken care of. This morning, I had Mom's rice dumpling for breakfast. Mom's rice dumpling is quite unique. It has some features of a nyonya dumpling, and yet it is not authentically nyonya.

 A huge rice dumpling

Mom used pandan leaves to wrap the dumplings instead of bamboo leaves. This enhanced the fragrance of the glutinous rice. When I was younger and staying at home, my task was to help Mom soften the leaves. I used to dip the leaves one by one in hot water. After that, I proceeded to wipe them dry before they could be used.

A perfect glutinuous rice pyramid

In our household, we liked our rice to be fluffy or bouncy or "Q", instead of being soft and mushy. Mom preferred to use cooked glutinous rice to wrap her dumplings. I asked her why and she said that using cooked glutinous rice meant that she only needed to steam them for half an hour later on. An added bonus was that it ensured that the rice did not stick to the leaves.

. . . Yum . . . Generously stuffed with filling

Pry open the rice dumpling and find a myriad of ingredients. Mom stir-fried all the ingredients. She used tiny pork cubes, sliced shiitake mushrooms, dried prawns, dried winter melon slices, chopped preserved mustard and chestnuts. She spiced the ingredients with five-spice powder, coriander powder, pepper and soy sauce. She also used yam paste or orh-nee in her dumplings. Orh-nee gave the savoury dumpling a tad sweetness, and makes the dumplings distinctively Teochew. Hence, I like to christen it a Nyonya-Teochew rice dumpling.

Mom's rice dumplings are generously packed. Every mouthful you take has rice and filling. One dumpling and a hot cup of coffee for breakfast. What more than I can ask for.



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