Dragon Boat Festival: Nyonya Bak Chang with Blue Pea Flower

• Preparation starts the night before.

Prepare the rice

• Rinse the glutinous rice until the water runs clear.
• Divide into 2parts.

  1/3 part (300g)is for the blue rice, 2/3 (700g) is for the white rice
• Cover the 700g rice with water and leave overnight.
• Soak the blue pea flowers in 1 cup of water for a long as you can. Macerate and extract the juice.
• Soak the 300g of rice in the blue solution. Add more water to the flowers to extract more colour, enough to cover the rice with 2cm of water above it.
• Leave to soak overnight.

Prepare the wrap

• In a container large enough to hold the bamboo leaves, soak the leaves in tepid water.
• Weigh the leaves down with heavy objects like a mortar and pestle or cans of beans, or other suitable weights.
• Prepare the strings for wrapping by cutting the strings to about 1 metre lengths.
• Gather 5 strings together and make a loop in the centre for easy handling. This will be the strings that you would tie the dumplings and each bunch will have 10 dumplings.
• Make 3 to 4 bunches, as there will be 30+ dumplings
• Gather all the ingredients for the next day.

Prep and cook day

Rice

•  Drain the rice and steam it.
•  White rice:
• You can steam in 2 batches
• Place the rice in a steaming tray and steam to 30 to 40 minutes until cooked, turning once or twice.   Allow extra 10 to 15 minutes if you are steaming it in 1 batch.
• Add in the 350ml of the coconut milk, and stir.
• Stream again for 10 minutes.
• Remove and set aside to cool.
• Blue rice
• Do the same as the white rice, using the remainder of the 150ml coconut milk.

Prepare the filling

• Cut the pork into small cubes.
• Put all the spice paste ingredients in a blender of chopper and chop or blend until fine. Add some water if necessary.
• Heat 4 tbsp of cooking oil in a pan or wok. Add in the spice paste and sauté until fragrant.
• Add in the pork and stir until cook, about 20 minutes.
• Add a bit of water if it becomes too dry. Let the meat simmer until cook.
• When cooked, stir in the candied winter melon and mix.
• Dish out and leave to cool and then mix in the peanuts. Set aside

To wrap the dumplings

• Take 2 pieces of bamboo leaves and place one on top of the other.
• Fold to make a cone.
• Spoon 1 tbsp of the white rice into the cone.
• Add in  tsp of the blue rice. Make a indentation in the centre.
• Add in 1 tbsp of the filling.
• Cover with 1tbsp of the white rice and 1 tsp of the blue.
• Pack the rice tight with your hand.
• Place 1 piece of the panda leaf on top of the rice
• Fold over the leaves to cover the rice and fold and shape into a pyramid shape.
• Tie with the string.
• Repeat until you have 10 dumplings in a bunch.
• Continue to wrap more dumplings.
• You might have some fillings left over.

Steam the dumplings

• Steam the dumplings over boing water for 20 to 30 minutes. Turn once to ensure even steaming.
• If you have small steamer, you can steam 1 bunch at a time.
• A time saving way is to steam the 1^st bunch will preparing the rest of the dumplings
• Remove, leaveto cool and serve.