Salted pork and mung bean zongzi
Dragon Boat Festival rice dumplings filled with mung beans, salted pork and egg yolk. Boil a batch ahead and simply re-steam for breakfast.
- 3 hr 40 min
- Serves 4
- Boil
- Medium
Why it suits you: A balanced constitution can simply eat with the seasons, and the Dragon Boat Festival falls around Grain in Ear, so a zongzi is the festive choice. Mung beans clear summer heat and offset the richness of the glutinous rice and pork. Boil one big batch and breakfast is a quick re-steam away — but zongzi are heavy, so one is plenty.
Method
Prep 40 min · Cook 180 min- 1Soak the rice and mung beans separately overnight and drain. Mix the rice with 1 tsp salt and the oil, and the beans with ½ tsp salt. Marinate the pork overnight with the remaining salt, the five-spice and soy sauce.
- 2Soften the bamboo leaves in boiling water and rinse. Overlap three leaves and fold into a cone; layer in rice, beans, a piece of pork and an egg yolk, then more beans and rice.
- 3Fold the leaves over into a four-cornered parcel and tie firmly. Cover the dumplings with water in a large pot, bring to the boil, then simmer for 3 hours, topping up with boiling water.
- 4Cool and refrigerate. In the morning, steam the dumplings in their leaves for 15–20 minutes, then unwrap and eat hot.
Cautions
- Glutinous rice is hard to digest: with weak digestion or diabetes, keep to half to one dumpling.
Chef's tips
- Bamboo leaves and rush strings are sold at dried-goods shops in wet markets; cooked dumplings freeze well for two weeks.
The TCM view
Glutinous rice is sweet and warm, tonifying the middle and boosting qi, but it is sticky and slow to digest. Mung beans are sweet and cool, clearing heat, relieving summer heat and promoting urination. Pork is sweet, salty and neutral, nourishing yin; salted egg yolk nourishes yin and clears heat. The cool beans balance the warm, cloying rice. Those with weak digestion, bloating or high blood sugar should eat only a little.
