INTRODUCTION

I am having a fever and I will quickly share this no frill post because I have lot of recipe queuing up in the pipeline.

In addition, I have already adequately addressed the background of Kee Chang or alkaline dumplings in this post: Lye Water Dumpling, Alkaline Dumpling, Kansui Dumpling (碱水粽）. If you are interested, you can take a quick look at the recipe that uses lye balls.

In that recipe, I am using the orange alkaline balls purchased in the wet market. However, this pose problem for overseas member who have no access to this alkaline balls.

They have repeatedly asked me about the recipe of using lye water or alkaline water that can be easily obtained from supermarket and bakery. I have therefore decided to test a recipe using alkaline water and ensure that it is not overly bitter before I share to the readers.

Since I have already shared in the previous recipe without any filing, therefore, I take this opportunity to introduce another common variants of this alkaline dumplings with the red bean paste.

For this recipe, I have used the store bought red bean paste but you can always prepare it at home. If you are interested in homemade red bean paste, you can refer to this post: Homemade Red Bean Paste (家居自制红豆沙馅） or clicking the picture below:

If you are interested how to wrap the dumpling, you can refer to the video below or my video at youtube:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dws6mlWhCoM&feature=youtu.be

WHAT IS REQUIRED

Servings: About 20-25 lye dumpling depend on size

• 600 grams of glutinous rice
• 18-20 ml or grams of lye water
• 4 tablespoons of cooking oil
• At least 25 pieces of soaked and cleaned  bamboo leaves
• At least 25 pieces of processed reed strings or cloth strings
• About 250 grams of red bean paste.

You can refer to this post for more details: Lye Water Dumpling, Alkaline Dumpling, Kansui Dumpling (碱水粽）.

STEPS OF PREPARATION

• On the night before the wrapping, soak the glutinous rice and lye water  for overnight or until the finger can break the soaked rice grain . Prior to the wrapping, drain the rice,and lightly rinse the rice with tap water to get rid of excess lye if any. Add 4 tablespoons of cooking oil, stir until well mix and set aside.

• Divide the red bean paste equally into 25 portion of about 10 grams each. You can use more if you prefer.

• Take a bamboo leave and make it in a shape of a cone. Put half tablespoon of rice. Lightly press down.  Make a well in the centre. Put a ball of red bean paste.

• Put another 1/2 tablespoon of rice on top of the red bean ball. Level it and press the tail of the bamboo leaves to cover the top portion and shape the tail like a swallow tail. Twist it side wards to follow the shape of the Chang. By now, your Chang should be in triangular shape and you should be able to hold the Chang in one hand. Take a string and loop around the Chang tie using a live knot. tie it firm. Shake the Chang likely ensure that you hear some rice grain hitting the leaves and if you find that it is too tight, try to adjust it now by loosening the string . After wrapping, cut off the excess leaves and check that there are no holes resulted from rough handling and there are small areas that are not covered with the leaves.

• When enough number of Chang are ready for boiling. boil some hot water. Put the wrapped Chang in the pressure cooker. Add in the hot water and ensure that the water cover the Chang. Close the lid and boil using the pressure cooker for about 45 minutes. After 45 minutes, release the pressure, take out one Chang immediately and open and see if it is already to the texture that you want. If not, continue to pressure cook for another 10 minutes. Add more hot water if desired.

CONCLUSION

i hope this recipe will benefit those overseas reader who have difficulty to get the lye ball.  You can either followed the lye ball method in the other post and purchase from Sheng shiong or wet market. Alternatively, you can get the lye water from most major supermarkets and bakeries.

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