I made dumplings for the Dragon Boat Festival. It was the first time I attempted to made the dumplings myself. Luckily Yvonne was here. She helped me to look after Cheryl so I can concentrate in wrapping the dumplings. I have already prepared the ingredients early in the morning while the sun has yet to rise....You have to make more effort if you have a baby.... I only prepared about 600g of glutinous rice. By the time I finish using all the glutinous rice, I still have lots of pork meat, mushrooms, oysters and nuts left. So I decided to go out and buy another 1/2 kg of glutinous rice. I went to the newly opened minimarket but they don't have glutinous rice. So, I went to the normal grocery store that I always frequented. Luckily they have!!
As this was my first attempt to make glutinous rice dumpling, I think I can be forgiven for some minor mistake. It might not be my mistake though... I made about 6 bundles of dumpling. Out of these 6 bundles (about 40 over dumplings), about 3 to 4 was not properly tied with the hemp string. So, they burst open when they were boiled. I boiled them for almost 2 hours. In total, I used about 4 hours to cook the dumplings as not all of them can fit in the pot. ummph....about the dumplings bursting open, I cannot be blamed entirely...The string also played some part. The hemp strings were so hard that they were very difficult to be bent. They were as hard as "lidi".
When I told my neighbour about the difficulty in tying using the hemp string, she asked whether I was using the hemp string provided in the package (I bought a packet of the bamboo leaves and they come together with the hemp string). She said the hemp string provided in the package cannot be used. She normally would buy loose hemp string for tying. Well, I will remember that the next time I make the dumplings.
Out of the 6 bundles, I gave 3 bundles to Yvonne to bring back to Klang. The taste was superb!! We finished up 2 bundles and I was only left with 1 bundle. So, I only gave 2 dumplings for hubby to bring back to Tangkak. One for his father and one for his mother.
