DUMPLINGS FESTIVAL

A Happy Dumplings Festival to everyone. 

Bet you know the stories (yes according to Wikipedia there are a few) behind this festival, so no point repeating it. But one thing that strike  me regarding this festival is the way the people react. To protect and to save the one they loved  or admired,  these dumplings were created and stay with us till this day.

Nowadays you can  find all sorts of flavours and ingredients that goes into the dumplings available in the market.  My sister Jennifer used to make those Nyonya-style dumplings too.   

The family that eat together stay together- some dumplings that were given by my brother Chuan who is "the seen but not heard",   ie the quiet member of our family.      

To carry on the tradition and culture lest my children forget, I made some dumplings too- not  many as I cannot stand for too long.  I had omitted the pork belly and used less salt and less oil for a healthier version.

Just chestnut, dried oyster, dried prawns, salted egg yolk and  mushroom with mung beans (split green beans). This is our family- typical Cantonese style:  pre-soaked  glutinous rice (no pre-frying with soya sauce) blanch with boiling water, mix with salt and five spice powder and some shallot oil.   We use to eat these dumplings with sugar- a beautiful contrast of sweet and savoury. 

It took me more than an hour to wrap just 20 dumplings and these are not too pretty either! 

I had purposely asked for the larger bamboo leaves knowing my limited skill,  yet when I opened the package, I found that only the few leaves outside  are large, the rest that are inside are all small ones! However,  I am glad that all the dumplings were intact after the cooking- the previous year, a few of dumplings became loose/open during the  cooking!  

So how do you enjoy eating  your dumplings?