Red Beans Savory Rice Dumpling

I only started making my own rice dumpling since last year, just after started blogging. Haha... I'll have to say I have improved alot within this whole year of time. I'm really proud of myself. I've learned so much and I'm going to keep on the good work. Frankly, my mother has never made any rice dumplings before, nor any baking! But she cooked well for us. This rice dumpling is actually my in-laws' traditional recipe. And I'm honoured to make them this year and many more years to come. This is yet a very simple recipe, not much ingredients are used. Mainly are glutinous rice, beans and just a piece a chicken meat.

And here's the recipe as follow.
Ingredients :
1kg glutinous rice, soaked overnight
1-1/2 cup cooking oil
a few shallots, chopped
3 cloves whole garlic, skinned & slightly smashed

Seasoning for glutinous rice :
2 tbsp sesame oil
3 tbsp vegetarian oyster sauce/mushroom sauce
3 tbsp light soy sauce
1/2 cup water
2 tspn five spice powder
2 tspn coriander powder
1 tspn white pepper powder
1 tspn salt

Method :
- steamed the soaked glutinous rice for 20 mins without additional water.
- by then, fry sliced shallots & garlics with all the cooking oil.
- remove the garlics and place the oil mixture to a big bowl.
- stir in all the seasonings to mix well.
- once the rice is ready, immediately stir in the seasoning mixture and mix well.
Red Beans & Mung Beans Fillings :
1/2kg red beans, soaked overnight
water to boil
100gm sugar
1 tspn salt

- combine all ingredients and boil untill the red beans became tender soft.
- drained and then keep chill.
(I normally make this a day before and keep chill before used, much easier to handle)

200gm mung beans
1/2 tspn salt

- washing mung beans thoroughly and then soak with salt and water for 3 hours.
- drain and leave aside.

Ingredients for Fried Chicken meat :
2 boneless chicken thigh meat
salt & pepper to taste
3 tbsp corn flour

- marinade chicken meat with all the ingredients and then deep fry untill cooked.

TO ASSEMBLE :
- prepared at least 40 cleaned 'zhong'/bamboo leaves and some strings.
- fold a piece of bamboo leaf into cone shape.
- fill in a tablespoon of rice then some red beans & mung beans and then a piece of meat.
- top with glutinous and then cover & shape into triangle.
- secure with a string untill finish the whole process.
- boil the dumpling for 1-1/2 hours and then leave cool before serving.

Maybe because life has never been easy in the past and for those are not so rich, they only used simple ingredients in this kind of dumplings. I think this is much healthier since mainly are beans and the best thing was not much animals' fat added in. I love the sweetness of the beans and it really does make it so unique. Btw, a Vietnamese friend told me that they normally used fresh bananas and fresh coconut shreds in it. I think that is pretty cool too! Maybe I should try it some time. Hope you all will have a great weekend!