Otah Sushi

Wrapping of "bak chang" ~ 咸肉粽

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For so many years, my mom will make about 200 "bak chang" (dumplings) each time.
I started to help her with the wrapping of the dumplings since early 90s. This time my daughter, Sue Jean is helping us with selecting and "counting" the ingredients and put them into a ladle. This helps to save the time of the wrappings. We took the entire day wrapping and cooking of dumplings. It's not for sale, every single dumpling goes to our family members and relatives.

Here's a video of wrapping a "bak chang" ~ rice dumpling.

Bak Chang

Steps on how to wrap a Rice Dumpling (bak-chang).

Read more about bak chang

Cabbage Rice

This Cabbage rice (also known as kiam png in hokkien) is very fragrant. I boil the pork belly for a few minutes and rinse it thoroughly with tap water. Cut into strips finely and pan-fry till golden brown. While it's browning, I chopped some shallots, garlics, a tablespoonful of dried shrimps, a bit of ikan bilis (optional) and a thumb size of old ginger. Dish up the golden brown pork strips from the frying pan. Fry the chopped ingredients with heated cooking oil and fry till fragrant (remember to add the garlic later, as it will burn easily).Fry the cabbage (cleaned and cut into big chunks) with chopped ingredients till fragrant, add 1 tsp chicken powder, 1 tablespoon of soya sauce, 1 tablespoon of oyster sauce and a teaspoon of sugar for seasoning. Wash 4 cups of rice and add equal amount of water (4 cups). Stir everything together in a rice cooker and let it cook till done and only serve the rice 15 minutes later when it's cooked through. Remember to use a wooden spoon to stir and mix the rice before serving.
Enjoy!

Quick and easy lunch

Chicken with mixed vegetables fried rice for lunch.

Long Bean Rice for lunch

Just cook this "kiam png" aka "cai dao png" (in hokkien, salted rice aka long bean rice) for lunch today. My 15 months old son likes to eat. He opened his mouth "wide" and ate more than 5 teaspoonfuls. I'm very happy! Sue Jean went to school this morning. I'm going to fetch her at 1pm later.

Long Bean Rice

Ingredients:
12 long beans, cut into 2 inches long
250g pork belly
3 tbsp cooking oil
3 tbsp dried shrimps
4 shallots
2 cloves of garlics
A thumb size of ginger (cut into strips)
2 tsp salt
2 tsp chicken/ikan bilis powder
1 tsp light soya sauce
1 tsp sugar
2 cups of rice
2 cups of water

Method:
Boil the pork about 5 minutes, drained and washed. Cut into strips. Heat the wok and fry the pork till brown (no oil needed, as the pork belly will release some oil when it's panfried)
Heat 3 tbsp of cooking oil, and brown the shallots, then add garlics and ginger slices, fry till fragrant. Add fried pork belly, long beans and the seasonings and fry briefly. Add washed rice and water and stir for a few minutes. Transfer to rice cooker and cook further. When the rice is cooked, stir well. Serve with Hae Bee Hiam.

Bak Chang

Steps on how to wrap a bak chang My mom's Bak Chang

She likes to use charcoal to cook bak chang, and must make bak chang every year.

Every year she will ask my younger sister and me to help her with wrapping of dumplings (bak chang). My sister is my extra pair of hands to pick all the ingredients and put them in the laddle.

Each year we have to wrap hundreds of bak chang and kee chang.

My mom did most of the cleaning of ingredients, cooking and preparation. She had to wake up at 2 am to do the household chores and get ready all the necessary items for wrapping of bak chang.

I always reach her place at around 7am. And wrap till 2pm. We had short break, like 15mins in every 2 hours or so. But this year I was unable to help her with the wrapping. Luckily my sister is able to wrap the dumplings (bak chang) and all the dumplings turned out very "cute". So small and I find that the size matters. Small bak chang is better. We can eat at least 3 of them and don't feel too full.

Here's the recipe.
Ingredients:
Glutinuous Rice
Bamboo Leaves
Raffia Strings (prepare in advance)

Fillings:
Pork belly
dried mushroom
dried chestnuts
salted egg yolks
dried prawns
red beans

Seasoning:
five spice powder
pepper
dark soya sauce
salt
sugar
fried garlic and shallots with some cooking oil