Chang Festival or Dragon Boat Festival

The Dragon Boat Festival or Chang Festival fall on 28 May this year (2009 )

The Chang Festival marks the death of a Chinese poet and scholar Qu Yuan who drowned in 296 BC in Hunan province in China . When people heard of his disappearance, they scoured the river in boats to rescue him, beating their drums to scare off the fishes from nibbling at his body. Unable to find his body, they made glutinous rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves and threw them into the river in the hope that the fishes would eat these dumplings instead of his remains. Boats were decorated with dragon heads on their bows.


This festival falls on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese lunar calendar. The tradition of making dumplings (called 'chang') is celebrated by the Chinese community in Malaysia with the offering of the dumplings to the gods and their ancestors. The festival is celebrated in Penang annually with an international dragon boat competition which is immensely popular and attracts participants from all over the world.

• Chang Recipe / Chinese Dumpling Recipe at myFood domain
• Chinese Festival
• Holidays and Calendars Malaysia and Singapore

Chinese Dumpling Recipe

The Chinese Chang Festival (Dragon Boat Festival) falls on the 28th May 2009. Here's one of the many dumpling recipes by Amy Beh (at Kuali @ theStar)
Nyonya Rice Dumpling - Nonya Bak Chang
Ingredients

• 700g glutinous rice, soaked overnight
• Some screwpine leaves, cut into 4 cm lengths
• Dried bamboo leaves, washed and soaked for several hoursHemp strings for tying
• 2 tbsp salt1 tbsp sugar
  Filling:
• 5 shallots, minced
• 2 tbsp chopped garlic
• ½ cup oil
• 3 tsp preserved soya bean paste (tau cheong)
• 7 tbsp coriander powder (ground ketumbar), mixed with 170ml water into a paste4
• 50g belly pork, skin removed and cut into very small cubes
• 12-14 dried mushrooms, soaked and diced
• 100g candied winter melon, diced
  Seasoning (combined)
• 3 tsp pepper
• 5½-6 tbsp sugar or to taste
• 1 tbsp thick soy sauce1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 2½-3 tsp salt or to taste½ tsp ground black pepper

Method

To prepare the fillingHeat oil in a non-stick pan, fry shallots and garlic until aromatic. Add soya bean paste and coriander paste. Fry until fragrant.
Add pork, winter melon and mushrooms, and mix in combined seasoning. Fry until pork is heated through. Dish out and set aside.
To assemble the dumplingsOverlap 2 bamboo leaves lengthways then fold into a cone. Fill the cone with glutinous rice. Spoon a heaped tablespoon of filling over. Top up with more glutinous rice and cover with a piece of screwpine leaf. Press down to compress the dumpling. Wrap into a pyramid shape. Tie tightly with hemp string to secure. Repeat until all the ingredients are used up.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add salt and sugar then put in the dumplings and immerse them completely. Cook in rapidly boiling water for 2-2½ hours. Remove the dumplings and hang them to drain off excess water.
More Chinese Rice Dumpling recipes at myfood.mymalaysiabooks.com

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