Honoring a poet patriot
Cantonese mung bean dumplings
Ingredients (makes 30 to 40 dumplings):
2 kg glutinous rice, washed and soaked
500 g pork hock, cut into small pieces
100 g pork fat, cut into small cubes
2 tsp Chinese five-spice powder
100 g dried Chinese chestnuts Salted egg yolk (optional), cut into eighths
500 g split mung beans, cleaned and soaked overnight (or any softened lentil)
Soy sauce, five-spice powder, salt and pepper to taste
2 bundles 10 cm wide bamboo leaves, plus reeds or raffia to tie
Method:
1. Drain glutinous rice and place in a colander. Season with plenty of salt.
2. Marinate pork hock cubes with 1 tablespoon light soy sauce, 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce, salt and pepper.
3. Toss pork fat cubes in plenty of Chinese five-spice powder so they are thickly covered.
4. Make a cone with two bamboo leaves and add a spoon of rice. Add a piece of pork, a piece of fat, a chestnut and a spoonful of split mung beans.
5. Cover mixture with more glutinous rice.
6. Fold over bamboo leaf to make a pyramid and secure with a piece of reed or raffia.
7. Tie dumplings into bundles of 10 or 12 and thread onto a wooden spoon or thick chopstick. Hang over a pot of boiling water and cook for at least two hours.
Keep adding boiling water to keep the heat constant. When cooked, hang dumplings up to drip dry. Serve with dipping sauces of soy sauce.
Food notes:
These bean and meat dumplings are not just eaten only at Duanwu. In Hong Kong and Guangzhou, they are breakfast staples that are offered in the little teahouses catering to the working hordes. Often, they are washed down with a bowl of steaming hot white congee, seasoned with nothing more than a pinch of salt.
