Fujian Style Rice Dumplings 福建肉粽子 ( fújìan ròu zòngzi) is one of many styles of Chinese rice dumplings. In my opinion, the term “rice dumplings” is a poor English translation for Zongzi 粽子 (zòngzi). It’s difficult to find an English equivalent since it is more similar to a tamale than a dumpling.
The main ingredient in Zongzi is glutinous rice, beans, or tapioca pearls. The filling can be either savoury or sweet. They are wrapped in bamboo leaves and then boiled until cooked. Some common fillings include meat, soy beans, mung beans, red beans, lotus nuts, chestnuts, salted egg yolk, preserved sausage, dried seafood and peanuts. In some regions, the glutinous rice is processed using lye water. It makes the rice into a transparent elastic-like texture and is more of a sweet snack. Although I prefer to call it Zongzi, but to avoid any confusion, I will refer to it as more popular name, rice dumpling.
The rice dumpling 粽子 has a very interesting history…dating back to the Warring States Period (340 BCE), a poet and politician named 屈原 (qū yúan) was a trusted and highly regarded official of the Chu Emperor. This caused jealousy amongst other court officials who then started rumours accusing him of treason. Unfortunately, the emperor’s trust in Quyuan waivered. On the 5th day of the 5th month on the Chinese Farmer’s Calendar, Quyuan committed suicide by jumping into the Miluo River in Hunan province to prove his innocence.
Most civilians have heard of his virtuous character and were saddened by his death. They filled the hollow parts of bamboo internodes with rice and threw them into the river. They hoped that the fish would feed off the rice and hence preserve Quyuan’s body. Eventually, the emperor regretted ever doubting Quyuan and arranged for Dragon Boats with beating drums to row down the river to save Quyuan’s soul by warding off evil spirits. This is how the Dragon Boat Festival 端午節 (duān wǔ jié) came about. For this year, 2021, this date falls on June 14th on the Gregorian calendar.
Using bamboo leaves instead of bamboo stems came later but still has been around for almost 2000 years. Every region has their own specialty rice dumplings. One of my favorites is the Fujian meat and rice dumpling (福建肉粽子, fújìan ròu zòngzi). The rice is first fried in soy sauce and mixed with deep-fried shallots and black-eyed peas. The filling consists of pork belly, chestnuts, shiitake mushrooms, Chinese sausage, dried scallops and salted duck yolk. Wrapping it can be a little challenging at first, but after wrapping a few, you’ll get the hang of it. If you’re a newbie, just have some extra bamboo leaves and string on hand, and you’ll be fine! My step by step detailed instructions will help you achieve success the first time!
Try my Three Reds Digestive Tea 三紅茶 with this recipe, it's delicious & healthy!
Fujian Rice Dumpling 福建肉粽子
Ingredients
- 1 kg Short grain glutinous rice (long grain may also be used but amount will be different since water absorption is less than the short grain)
Approx 75 g of uncooked rice for each dumpling - 150 g Black-eyed peas
- 400 g Pork Belly , cut into approx. 30g chunks
- 4 Chinese sausages , cut into 3 pieces each
- 12 Salted duck yolks
- 12 Cooked whole chestnuts (I get the ready-to-eat packages)
- 12 Dried shiitake mushrooms
- 6 Dried scallops (using 12 would make it extra flavourful)
- 4 Large shallots , sliced
- 4 cloves Garlic , minced
- 50 Bamboo leaves (I use 3 leaves per dumpling plus extra for breakage) and equivalent amount of string (since I am not a skilled wrapper, I use approx. 5 ft of string for each dumpling)
- 1 tbsp Dark soy sauce for rice
- 1 ½ tbsp Light soy sauce for rice
- 1 tbsp Shaoxing wine for rice
- 1 tsp 5 spice powder
- ½ tsp White pepper powder
- 1 c Oil
Ingredients for pork belly marinade:
- 1 tbsp Dark soy sauce
- 1 tbsp Light soy sauce
- 1 tbsp Shaoxing wine
- 1 tsp Sugar
- ½ tsp 5 spice powder
- ¼ tsp White pepper powder
Ingredients for shiitake mushrooms marinade:
- 1 tbsp Light soy sauce
- 1 tsp Sugar
- 2 tsp Cornstarch
- 2 tsp Oil
Instructions
Instructions: Please note that the following pictures were taken when I made a batch of 24 dumplings
- On the night before, soak dried shiitake mushrooms, dried scallops (just enough to cover the scallops by 1 cm), bamboo leaves (if they are dried kind) and black-eyed peas.
- On the night before, cut pork belly into chunks of 30-35 g each. Marinate with 1 tbsp dark soy sauce, 1 tbsp light soy sauce, 1 tbsp Shaoxing wine, 1 tsp sugar, ½ tsp 5 spice powder and ¼ tsp white pepper powder. Mix well, cover and store in the refrigerator
- On the morning of, take the pork belly out of the fridge and let it sit on the counter until it reaches room temperature (approx. 1 hour if the weather isn’t too cold)
- Do not discard the soaking water for the shiitake mushrooms and dried scallops
- Boil the black-eyed peas on low-medium heat for 30 minutes. Drain and set aside
- Measure 1 kg of short grain glutinous rice
- Remove the shiitake mushrooms from the soaking water and pour most of the soaking water into the glutinous rice. Discard the bottom bit where there is sediment. If the water doesn’t cover all the rice, add more water. Let sit for 30 minutes.
- After 30 minutes, if the rice has absorbed most of the water, add more water until the water exceeds the rice about 2 cm. Let it sit for another 30 minutes.
By adding more water after 30 minutes, the rice would’ve mainly absorbed the shiitake soaking water to make it more flavourful. - Drain the water from the rice and let sit in a colander to dry
- Cut stems off shiitake mushrooms. Marinate them with 1 tbsp light soy sauce, 1 tsp sugar and 2 tsp cornstarch. Once mixed together, add 1 tsp oil and mix again. Set aside
- Cut Chinese sausages to approx. 4 cm pieces which should be 2 cuts per sausage (3 pieces). Set aside
- Prepare 12 salted egg yolks and set aside
- Pull apart soaked dried scallops and set aside. Save scallop water
- Prepare ready-to-eat chestnuts and set aside
- Slice 4 large shallots
- Heat 1 c oil on medium-high heat and fry shallots until golden. Remove shallots from oil and set aside
- Mince 4 cloves of garlic
- Heat wok on high heat, add 2 tbsp of oil (use the oil from frying shallots), add pork belly without pouring the marinade in the wok. Arrange in single layer and let it cook for 30 seconds or until toasted
Save any leftover marinade to pour into the rice - Flip pork belly over and cook for another 30 seconds. Add minced garlic
- Stir-fry pork belly and garlic together for another 30 to 60 seconds or until you can smell the garlic aroma.
- Move contents in the wok to one side and add shiitake mushrooms. Fry each side for 30 seconds and then mix with pork belly and cook for another 30 seconds
- Remove contents from wok and set aside
- Add another 2 tbsp of the shallot oil to the wok. Add scallops and fry for 30 seconds
- Add black-eyed peas to the wok and fry together with scallops
- Add 1 tbsp dark soy sauce, 1 ½ tbsp light soy sauce, 1 tbsp Shaoxing wine, 1 tsp 5 spice powder and ½ tsp white pepper powder and mix well
If you like the rice darker you can add another ½ to 1 tbsp of dark soy sauce - Add glutinous rice, fried shallots, the leftover perk belly marinade and scallop soaking water to the wok. Mix well
- Remove rice from wok and set aside
Instructions for wrapping:
- In a large pot, add enough water to boil the bamboo leaves. Add the leaves to the water and then bring to a boil. Once it starts to boil, you can remove the leaves from the water.
- Submerse the leaves in fresh water
this will prevent them from drying out and breaking - Have string ready.
I take 3 pieces of 10’ string and I fold them in half to find the centre point. then I tie a knot approx. 5 cm from the fold to make a loop. I usually like to tie 6 dumplings together in a bunch so that it will be easy to submerse them in the water and take them out. You can also tie them all separately. Of course, you may use less string. I use more (since I’m not good at it) so that I can bind the whole dumpling tightly to prevent leakage. It would make it easier if you could use the loop on the string to hook onto a cabinet knob or something that is quite sturdy to act as resistance when you tie your dumpling 
- Have all your filling in front of you. You should have the glutinous rice, salted egg yolks, pork belly, shiitake mushrooms, chestnuts and Chinese sausages
- Optional: each dumpling will have approx. 160 g of the rice mixture. So you can take a bowl and measure 160 g to be put into the dumpling. This will ensure you have enough rice for all the dumplings
- Take 2 leaves, wipe dry with a towel to remove any residual dirt, smooth side on top, one on top of another, cut off the hard stem part and make a cone at around the 1/3 point
If your leaves are quite wide, you can use just one leaf. Take a look at my video here to see how I wrap them when the leaves are wide and short 
- Add another leaf in between the 2 with the stem starting where the bottom point of the cone is
This step is optional but I find that for a not so experienced wrapper, it helps to have this 3rd piece as reinforcement 
- Add 2 large spoonfuls of rice to the cone and press in. Add 1 of each filling items
- Fill the rest of the space with rice
- Fold the vertical leaves over to form the base for the cone opening. Use this base to press down on the rice to pack it in.
- Flip over so that the base is on the bottom
- Pinch using the index finger and thumb of the hand that is holding the cone to form a triangle shape
- The sides of the base part should fold over the now triangle opening. The hand holding the base will now grasp onto the whole dumpling, simultaneously enveloping the triangle opening with the vertical leaf
- This will cause the vertical leaf to fold vertically and close off the dumpling. Now hold the dumpling with the other hand
- With the free hand, fold downwards the vertical leaf, finishing off the edge
- Keep folding this vertical leaf following the shape of the dumpling
- Take one end of the string and wind it tightly around the dumpling from one end to the other and tie a knot.
You can always tie another piece of string to it if you feel it’s still loose - Continue until all the dumplings have been assembled
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil.
- Put the dumplings in the boiling water. The water should be enough to completely submerse the dumplings. Let it boil for 15 minutes then turn the heat down to low
I added more water after I took the picture 
- Cook for 3 hours
- Remove from water and serve
- Dumplings can be stored in the freezer. Steam to reheat for best results
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