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Consumers are advised to make their own bak chang (rice dumplings) for the coming chang festival as commercially made ones have been found to contain boric acid.

Once again Bak Chang festival is around the corner, have u eaten bak chang yet ? Make your own bak chang instead of buy but if you are busy then just grab one =) as the festival is on Tuesday. There are different different type of bak chang, small to big, nyonya, cantonese style, square and different different shape and ingredients.

Enjoy.

Ingredients

# 1000g glutinous rice, soaked overnight then washed and drained well
# Bamboo leaves and raffia string for wrapping

Filling:
# 400g belly pork (remove skin) or deboned chicken meat
# 150g dried mushrooms
# 200g dried chestnuts – soak in boiling water, discard the impurities then boil until soft; drain away the water
# 10 salted egg yolks
# 100g dried prawns – soak in warm water, remove the impurities then chop into small pieces.
# 100g split green peas – soak overnight, drain and add a pinch of salt and mix well
# 2 tsp chicken stock granules

Seasoning:
# 2 tbsp Chinese Five Spice powder
# 3 tsp salt
# 2 tsp sugar
# 1/2 tsp pepper
# 1 tbsp rice wine
# 3 tsp dark soya sauce
# 2-3 tbsp oil
# 3 cloves garlic – chopped finely
# 6 shallots – sliced thinly

Method
Soak bamboo leaves in boiling water overnight. Clean and wipe the leaves with a damp cloth.

Heat oil and saute shallots and garlic until fragrant. Add pork or chicken meat, dried prawns, chestnuts, mushrooms and seasoning. Stir well. Add 1/2 cup water and 2 tsp chicken stock granules. When pork is cooked, switch off fire and dish out filling ingredients.

Mix glutinous rice with 2 tbsp oil, 1 tbsp five spice powder, 1 tbsp dark soya sauce and 1 tsp salt. Stir thoroughly. Heat kuali and stir-fry seasoned glutinous rice till heated through. Remove to a big basin and stir in split green peas. Mix well.

Take two bamboo leaves, make them overlap slightly and fold into a conical shape. Put 1 tbsp rice into the funnel base. Add 1 tbsp filling and a piece of salted egg yolk. Cover with some more rice. Fold leaves over rice to form a triangular prism. Tie with raffia string.

Boil a large pot of water and add 2-3 tsp salt. Drop the bundles of dumplings in and boil for 1 1/2 – 2 hours over medium slow fire. Top constantly with boiling water to maintain level of water at all times. When cooked, remove the dumplings and hang to dry.