INTRODUCTION

I have an ex-colleague who is presently my wife’s colleague who is a long term vegetarian. For every festival, she would have difficulty to get delicious festival treats such as dumplings or moon cakes or cookies that are pure vegetarian.

Well, I am a vegetarian for at least 1-2 months prior to my marriage, I know that vegetarian food can be much healthier and more tasty than what is sold.. During my vegetarian diet, I was always trying out vegetarian food such as curry laksa and trust me, home cooked vegetarian laksa are much more tasty than store sold..

To prepare vegetarian food is not difficult if you have a good understanding on the ingredients well and the basic principle vegetarian cooking. During my vegetarian diet period, i practically can change  most of the non vegetarian recipes to vegetarian recipes rather easily . Just some quick examples: nasi lemak, mee goreng, mee rebus , curry , sambal chillies and many many more..

Many people are adverse to vegetarian food because they were perceived of eating mock meat or processed food. This is not true , while mock meat make life easier for some long term vegetarians, you can easily omit the mock meat and create a dish based on your imaginations. In this recipe, there is no mock meat being used unless if you consider soya beans products are mock meat including taukwa and tofu.  I have purposely selected tofu sheets and deep fried tofu sticks for the unique texture that I wanted.

I have this sudden urge to issue this special and niche recipe for vegetarian friends and trust me, this recipe used very similar type of texture and aroma as the real meat version, at least like the nonya dumpling that I am currently selling. My wife is especially impressed with this creation as to her it is also a good new as she is never a meat eater. After she tasted it, she had already asking me to reserve this small batch for her god mother, her colleagues and vegetarian friends. ..

WHAT IS REQUIRED

Servings : About 20 dumplings

Fillings

• 100 grams of mushrooms, soaked until soft
• 250 grams of tofu sheets (豆包） or taukee (must soaked until soft) *
• 100 grams of deep fried tofu (豆条） **
• 100 grams of diced winter melon
• 3-4 tablespoons of fried coriander powder
• 1 tablespoon of white pepper powder
• 2 tablespoons of dark soya sauce
• 2 tablespoons of thick dark caramelized soya sauce
• 2 tablespoons of castor sugar

Rice portion

• 1 kg of glutinous rice , soak overnight
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1 tablespoon of cooking oil
• 2 tablespoons of fried coriander powder
• 1 tablespoon of white pepper powder
• 1.5 tablespoons of mushroom concentrate powder (or any vegetarian seasonings)

Others

• 40 pieces of bamboo leaves
• 20 strings (can be nylon, cloth or reed strings) for tying
• 40 pieces of pandan leaves of about 3 cm long

* commonly sold at vegetarian stores and can be substitute with soaked tau kee

** commonly sold at beansprouts stores

STEPS OF PREPARATION

• Soak the bamboo leaves over night using cold water, brush away the dirt and cut off the hard vein at the end of the leaves. This will facilitate the wrapping.

• Soak the glutinous rice overnight, drain and set aside.

• Cut the tofu sheets into small pieces , use a food processor to blend the deep fried tofu into small pieces and cut the mushrooms into small pieces. Set aside.

• In a wok, put 3-4 tablespoons of cooking oil, saute the dice mushrooms until aroma. Add chopped tofu sheets and blended deep fried tofu. Stir fry for 2-3 minutes until the tofu is slightly brownish. Add the dark soya sauce, thick caramelized dark soya sauce, coriander powder and white pepper. Stir fry until well mixed and colour is as desired. Add the winter melon cubes, stir fry until well combined. Before dishing out, take some fillings and taste if it tasty enough. Otherwise, adjust by adding the sugar stated. You have to high handed in the seasonings as after boiling, the seasonings will dilute. Dish out and let it rest at room temperature for at least 3-4 hours (best overnight) before the wrapping starts.

• 1/2 hour prior to the wrapping, in a wok, heat up 2 tablespoons of oil. Add the drained glutinous rice. Add all the seasonings and spices. Stir fry until well combined which shall take the most 1 minute.

• Take two bamboo leaves and make it in a shape of a cone. if desired, put 1-2 pieces of pandan leaves at the side but this optional.  Put one tablespoon of rice follow by two tablespoons of fillings. Press firm downwards. Put another 1-2 tablespoons of rice on top of the fillings.  Press firmly downwards.

• 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 and if you find that Chang are not really  in the shape you want, try to adjust it now.  Loosen the string or adjust the bamboo leaves to shape it to the desired shape. 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.

• Transfer the wrapped rice dumpling using a pressure cooker, add hot boiling water enough to cover all the dumpling. Pressure cook the dumpling for at least 30 minutes. Take out a dumpling and try if the texture is what you are looking for. Otherwise extend the pressure cooking time. For stove cooking, it will need at least 3-4 hours to get a soft glutinous texture.

• The video below is for other recipe but the wrapping is the same.

CONCLUSION

it is my sincerity to issue this recipe for the vegetarians such that they are able to enjoy tastier homemade vegetarian dumplings. Though I know the readership will be low for this recipe , to me it is irrelevant and it is my wish to plough back what I knew to those that are interested.

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