Joong & Joongzi: The Topic

[Dejah]

Hmmm.... dried conpoy.  Great idea!  I have plenty from my last trip to San Francisco. 

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With dried conpoy, make sure you soak them well and shred before using. My s-i-l uses them instead of dried shrimp. She made her batch yesterday - some with half long half sticky rice, some with just sticky rice. She doesn't use as much liu as I do.

I will be making my joong sometime after June 10. My "special joong" table is on display at a Chinese Restaurant Concept display at our art gallery. As with last year, I will use BBQ duck, salty egg yolks, lap cheung, dong goo, Spanish onion, peanuts, chestnuts, dried shrimp meat, salted pork butte...oh...and...some rice.

Ah Leung: 30 joong? And you're going to share?!

[Tepee]

A thousand apologies...have been very busy. I've to make/decorate 4 cakes this week...2 of them sculpted and reasonably complicated ones. I'll start with the wong geong one first. Recipe is paraphrased.

Turmeric Rice Joong with Dried Prawn Sambal

350g glutinous rice, soaked overnight

150g glutinous rice, washed and soaked overnight with 1T freshly-ground turmeric and 1 piece tamarind peel

1 t whole white peppercorns

salt to taste

1/2 C cooking oil

Spice paste ingredients (ground)

100g dried chillies

320g shallots, sliced roughly

300g dried prawns, washed and roughly ground

4-5 T sugar, or to taste

1 t salt, or to taste (if dried prawns are salty, omit this)

dried bamboo leaves, washed and soaked

hemp string

fresh turmeric leaves

1-2 T salt

Drain rice well. Add salt to taste to the white rice. For the yellow rice, remove the tamarind peel, and add the peppercorns and some salt.

Stir-fry the paste ingred in the cooking oil till fragrant and breaking oil. Add ground prawns and season. Cook till quite dry. Set aside.

Makes 12-15 joongs.

Edited May 24, 2006 by Tepee (log)

[Tepee]

Green Tea Joong with Red Bean Filling

For filling:

200g red beans, washed and soaked overnight

2 pandan leaves, knotted

500 ml water

100g sugar

50g rock sugar or to taste

1/4 t salt

500g glutinous rice, washed and soaked for 2 hours

Green tea marinade:

1T green tea powder

1T green tea paste/emulco *

2T cooking oil

1t salt

1T alkaline (lye) water

green coloring (optional)

Bring to boil the red beans, pandan leaves and water. Lower heat and add the sugars and salt. Simmer till soft, occasionally stirring, till the mixture is quite dry. Set aside to cool.

Drain and put rice in a non-reactive bowl. Mix in the marinade and leave for 2 hours.

Makes 15/16 joongs as the size is smaller than the savory ones.

* green tea emulco - don't worry about this. It's very difficult for me to find this too, so I'd leave it out, perhaps instead of 1T of the powder, take 2.

Edited May 24, 2006 by Tepee (log)

[Tepee]

Ketupat-style Joong with Beef Rendang

1/4 C oil

Ground Ingred:

2 stalks lemongrass, thinly sliced

5 kaffir lime leaves, sliced

80g green chillies

20g bird's eye chillies

60g shallots, roughly sliced

60g garlic, roughly sliced

2 t coriander powder

1 t cumin

200 ml coconut milk

1 t sugar, or to taste

1 t salt, or to taste

1/4 C basil leaves

400g beef, cut into 2cm cubes

400g glutinous rice, soaked overnight

100g black-eye beans, washed and soaked for 1 hr

1 t salt

dried bamboo leaves, washed and soaked

hemp strings

1-2 T salt

Stir-fry ground ingred in oil until fragrant. Add coconut milk, sugar and salt, then beef cubes. For a tender rendang, cook over low heat until the mixture is almost dry. Remove from heat and add basil leaves.

For the rice portion, mix well the rice, black-eye beans and salt.

Makes 12 to 15 joongs.

Edited May 24, 2006 by Tepee (log)

[Tepee]

Had my first joong last week, ham yuk joong courtesy of MIL. It was <mumble, mumble, grudgingly saying> very good.

Ah Leung Gaw, can't wait to 'taste' yours...(with our eyes, of course).

Edited May 24, 2006 by Tepee (log)

[hzrt8w]

Had my first joong last week, ham yuk joong courtesy of MIL. It was <mumble, mumble, grudgingly saying> very good.

Ah Leung Gaw, can't wait to 'taste' yours...(with our eyes, of course).

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Hmmm... yours does look very good! Slurp!

I can't guarantee that I will post pictures on mine...

[sheetz]

Thanks for the very interesting recipes, Tepee! That Tumeric one with the 100g of dried chilies sounds a bit too spicy for me, however. I'll see what types of ingredients are available, and try out one of the recipes if possible. The green tea joong looks promising.

Edited May 24, 2006 by sheetz (log)

[Dejah]

Ketupat-style Joong with Beef Rendang

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This is a version that I will make! I can get all the ingredients listed. These will be a surprise for Po-PO.

Can I use canned cooked black eye peas or will they break up when boiled with the rice?

[Ben Hong]

YOU'RE ALL KILLING ME!!

Edited May 24, 2006 by Ben Hong (log)

[Tepee]

Ketupat-style Joong with Beef Rendang

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This is a version that I will make! I can get all the ingredients listed. These will be a surprise for Po-PO.

Can I use canned cooked black eye peas or will they break up when boiled with the rice?

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Hmm...make sure you go easy on the spice if it's for po-po.

Canned peas? Personally, I've hardly ever used canned peas. Choose the brand which have firmer peas and drain them well, if you must use them.

Post pix and torture Ben-sook more!

I really don't know how I can squeeze making joong in until mid-June.

[hzrt8w]

I found this web page on how to wrap a salty-pork joong (in Chinese, illustrated):

http://www.sc.xinhuanet.com/content/2006-0...ent_7093229.htm

There are a few good points:

1. After soaking the bamboo leaves in water overnight, pour in some hot water before wrapping. This will soften the leaves, make it easier to use them for wrapping.

2. The way the author started with a few bamboo leaves at the bottom to hold the ingredients. I am going to try that.

[hzrt8w]

Had my first joong last week, ham yuk joong courtesy of MIL. It was <mumble, mumble, grudgingly saying> very good.

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Tepee Mui: Your MIL's joong looks kind of dark. Do you know when and where she added soy sauce? Did she mix the "liu" with soy sauce, or sprinkle soy sauce on them separately? Was the soaked sticky rice mixed with soy sauce before wrapping?

Cantonese (Hong Kong) wrap the stick rice and liu without soy sauce added. Soy sauce is drizzled on top of the cooked joong after unwrapping when served.

My joong ingredients are all set. Tomorrow night I will start soaking the ingredients for wrapping on Saturday.

[Tepee]

Ah Leung Gaw, I'm quite sure she adds the dark soya sauce to the liu during cooking. As for the rice, some people pre-fries the soaked rice with the sauce before using it....not long...just a couple of minutes. KL folks like to add dark sauce to everything, for eg. char kway teow.

Forgot to mention, I'll be at my mom's to make nyonya joong together with her and my SIL on Monday. Going to be great fun!

Edited May 26, 2006 by Tepee (log)

[hzrt8w]

Experienced joong makers: how many bamboo leaves do you use to wrap a joong?

1? 2? 3? 4? 5?

I heard of some using 1 leaf. But that's for a very tiny joong.

With the amount of liu I was using, I found it impossible to wrap a joong with 2 leaves. I started by using 3, then I found using 4 was easier. Though I budgeted for 5. Looks like I will have some left-over bamboo leaves.

Edited May 28, 2006 by hzrt8w (log)

[sheetz]

For me, 3 leaves is fine for the regular joong. (Only 2 for the "Gan Sui" variety.)

[Dejah]

For the shape and size of the joong that I make, I use 3 leaves. They are not the "pyramid" shapes, but the " new kok - twist-corner" (as Po-Po calls them).

One leaf makes the " yune kok - goat-horn" joong. Po-Po always makes 2 of these. She saves acouple of the largest leaves for these. Don't know if the number has any significance or not. Maybe just because a goat has 2 horns?

[hzrt8w]

I made my entry last Saturday. I ended up making 40+ joongs. Took me 3 batches. The pot was used non-stop for 8 hours. Imagine the foggy windows at the kitchen... (sounds familiar Dejah Dai Ga Jeah? )

The liu included:

- Mung beans

- Pork butt marinated in five spice powder and soy sauce

- Salted eggs

- Laap cheung (Chinese sausage)

- Chestnuts

- Raw peanuts

- Black mushrooms

- Dried shrimp

- Dried conpoy

I did use a little bit of soy sauce, oil and salt to mix with the soaked sticky rice before wrapping. They didn't turn out as dark as Tepee's MIL's. I poured boiling water into the bin with bamboo leaves already soaked in water overnight to soften the leaves before wrapping. They were pretty soft and easy to work work. My MIL said I should have boiled the leaves in a pot. I don't know if that is really necessary.

P.S.: I am still looking for the perfect way to wrap a joong the size that I want to make. I didn't do a very good job in forming the shape.

Joong still in bamboo leave wraps.

Joong ready to eat. (I broke it in two halves so everybody can see the fillings.) And a few drops of soy sauce added.

Edited May 31, 2006 by hzrt8w (log)

[Dejah]

Looks good enough to eat, Ah leung.

I think your m-i-l's idea to boil the leaves is based on tradition, and perhaps a little bit of good advice. I know Po-Po always reminds me to boil my leaves, and I always do - with some vinegar in the water. This does make them supple and easy to work with.

Another reason is to prevent mold. These days, the leaves that I buy come in plastic bags and look a lot cleaner than even 3 years ago. Perhaps in the past, especially without refridgeration and freezers, whatever was on the leaves , if not boiled, may have caused mold on the joong. It would be disheartening to find a big batch spoiled if not eaten right away.

I know it's a time consuming step and can be messy, but I for one, am not going to tempt fate, even with a freezer!

For your next batch, Ah leung, use a lighter gauge string and try to spread the string out more evenly over the package. Yours actually look like the ones I "used to make". Check out my webpages for reference.

I would also suggest using just mung beans and peanuts, or chestnuts and peanuts, or just one of the three. I find they are too "similar but different". All of these and so many other ingredients may affect the shape of your joong.

Who once said "Wah! So much liu!" when they saw my joong?!

[Ben Hong]

*Sighhhh*

[Dejah]

*Sighhhh*  

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Ben Sook

You too can make these. Can't use the excue that you're the only one who'd eat these in the family. You can always freeze some for your hunting forays.

Today is ng gyut dat ( 5th day of the fifth month celebration), coinciding with Dragon Boat festival. We all ate joong for lunch after Po-Po "by jaw sun".

Now, I am steaming the second of two Mah Lai Goh for a BBQ with our university ESL students. That'll do instead of joong because I haven't made mine yet!

[sheetz]

I made a small batch yesterday, basically the same as Ah Leung's except no chestnuts (couldn't find any) and no soy sauce. Although I don't have a lot of experience making joong these were the best I've ever made. I definitely want to try one of Tepee's alternative versions now that I've essentially mastered the basic version.

[hzrt8w]

Today is ng gyut dat ( 5th day of the fifth month celebration), coinciding with Dragon Boat festival. We all ate joong for lunch after Po-Po "by jaw sun".

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Coinciding? 5th day of fifth month (lunar calendar) = Tuen Ng Geet [Cantonese]. It *is* the Dragon Boat Festival (Hong Kong's translation).

[Dejah]

Today is ng gyut dat ( 5th day of the fifth month celebration), coinciding with Dragon Boat festival. We all ate joong for lunch after Po-Po "by jaw sun".

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Coinciding? 5th day of fifth month (lunar calendar) = Tuen Ng Geet [Cantonese]. It *is* the Dragon Boat Festival (Hong Kong's translation).

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You are correct. What was I thinking?!

[hzrt8w]

I found a very good web page (produced in Taiwan) that shows 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 I think). 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

[prasantrin]

If I wanted to make joong or nor mai gai, but I couldn't get bamboo leaves, banana leaves, or lotus leaves, what could I use instead? Could I use parchment paper?

My mother wants to add this project to the siu bao project we're going to be tackling when she comes. She went to a class (taught by Kathy Man--Manitobans may know who she is) and now she's eager to make them at home (or rather, she's eager for me to make them in my home). Kathy suggested using a custard cup and steaming the product with the cup covered with aluminium foil, then turning it over to serve. Actually, she suggested using aluminium foil, first, but all the Asians in the room (there were only two, I think) cringed at that idea. I'd like to use some sort of wrapper, but am a bit stuck. Any ideas?