Skill of making bak-chang / chung

Had my first opportunity to learn how to make bak chang (Hokkien for savoury glutinous rice dumplings).

Even though you may know the theory of making it, not until you actually tried and made it yourself do you realize how much skill is required to make a perfect chang/dumpling! Of course, practise makes perfect.

What is the ‘perfect chang/dumpling’? Well for one thing, the filling must not leak out. Also the shape of it is very important – must not be too pointy but round and fat. The filling must be compact and not too lose. So may rules ya? That is why you need to make it yourself and understand the technique of wrapping a perfect dumpling. After a few, you will be more expert in making big bunches of dumplings at a fast-er pace. Erm, I'm still holding L-license status!! ha ha ha

First of all you need to prepare ahead:

1. The night before making the dumplings, soak glutinous rice, beans and dried chestnuts.

2. Prepare the bamboo leaves and hemp strings. In a large pot of hot water, boil the bamboo leaves and hemp strings for about 10 minutes. Turn fire off and let the bamboo leaves and strings soak in the same water overnight. Remove leaves and strings from water before using them.

3. Cook the fillings. The most common ingredients are glutinous rice, beans, shrimp, Chinese mushroom, dried oyster, salted egg yolks, chestnut and pork. Of course if you don't like a particular ingredient you can either omit or substitute with something else or add more of something you like.

The technique of folding the bamboo leaves requires a lot of practice and patience. Don’t know how many dumplings the expert aunties made before I finally got a nod of pass on my leaves and allowed to proceed ahead!!! For every 10 being made think I was still struggling with my 1, lolz!!

Note in the picture marked ‘A’ – length of leaf need to be folded up slightly, otherwise all the fillings will fall out!!

Note in picture marked ‘B’ – the stem of the leaf should be folded such that they end up at the back and slightly longer than the softer side leaf (without the stem).

Start filling your empty bamboo leaf cone with some rice. Spread the rice out to the sides before putting in the other fillings of your choice. Then top with more rice. Try not too be too greedy ya otherwise may have difficulty in wrapping them tightly.

Make sure you firmly compress it down before folding the excess leaves down, pinching the sides and folding the long leaf to the side (for a nicer, neater and more sturdy fold). Then tie your dumpling tightly with some hemp string (which are tied together in a bunch of 6 - 8 strings). Don’t laugh but there is also a technique of tying it up. Very important step otherwise if the string losen during the cooking process, your fillings will float out!! Try to keep the dumplings tied evenly in height for a neater presentation, i.e. not some high up and some way down. Also for more even cooking, try to wrap the dumpling size as evenly as possible.


Usually, 2 bamboo leaves are used to wrap one dumpling. However if there is a hole or tear in the leaf, you can ‘repair’ it by adding another bamboo leaf. But note that if you add too many leaves, you risk uneven cooking time.

For neater presentation, trim the excess leaves before cooking them.

Because of the long cooking time involved – the dumplings are boiled in hot water for about 4 hours or more, it would be more energy efficient if you cook them in a pressure cooker or over charcoal fire. Oh ya, don't forget to replenish the water in the pot from time to time, otherwise not only will you get a black dry pot but also blacken dumpling!!! Definitely something to avoid after all the hard working of wrapping them :-)

Tedious and long winded as this post may seem, I would like to say that I really do love a good dumpling dipped and eaten with some spicy sambal!! Btw, overnight dumpling taste better than those made on the day itself.

Now I understand why families/relatives group together to make dumpling and in big batches - more fun and with extra hands, definitely speed things up....erm, except if there are more than one head chef...ha ha, things get even more interesting!! ;)

Happy 'Zong Zi' day for those celebrating!

ps. HUGE thanks to SL's aunty for patiently teaching us the skill and art of making dumplings. A lot of time & effort is put into making dumplings, with so much 'love' no wonder they taste great!

For more information about how to wrap or recipe for bak chang, do mosey over to Jo's place.