in Memory of Our Mother
It was in June of each year that we make this traditional Chinese ZONG TSE. It is glutinous rice filled with marinated mushrooms and tenderloin pork. Some adds anything their family members enjoy - lotus seeds, salty egg yolk for the savory flavor and there's the red beans ones. Every year when the time comes, I can picture my mother (back in Japan) with a tub as large as baby's wading pool filled with softened bamboo leaves and long lines of thread to make hundreds of this delicious meal in a bamboo leaf pouch. They are shared amongst many family friends. It is not so today after we came to America. We make them enough to share wth the family. The joy of sharing is carried on.
Making Zong Tse, year 2013 in America
Year 2022.
The prep work is very tidious when it comes to cleaning the area. Meat need to be marinated serveral days ahead. Glutinous rice washed, cleaned, and soaked overnight. If you have a super large tub to hold the softened bamboo leaves and keep them pliable by keeping them soaked in hot/warm water, then that will be great; otherwise, the sink is washed many times, sanitized, and bamboo leaves soaked in hot/warm water for the duration. *Think ahead to make sure that the sink is not needed for anything else for a couple of hours.
3 to 4 days before, prepare tenderloin pork (that's what I like to use). Cut into cubes and marinate them. Re-hydrate Shiitake mushrooms, slice them thinly and also marinate them.
On the day of - Bamboo leaves are boiled in the hot water for a few minutes to clean - dump, refill, and reboil to clean twice.
Sanitize Sink - wash twice and use Sanitization Towlette to clean, then, wash and rinse again. Fill with cleaned bamboo leaves plus the hot water in the pot to keep the bamboo leave flexible.
Glutinous rice is flavored per recipe.
The ends of bamboo leaves are cut off with scissors.
How to form Zong Tse Part 2 and Part 3 How to form Zong Tse Part 3 see 2013 step-by-step how to form into triangle or rectangle pouch to hold rice and meat.
Boil for 2 hours and Check. ADD only HOT BOILING WATER ONLY to refill the pot. Cook longer, if needed.
TIPS: Practice a few times to learn how to pack seasoned glutinous rice and meats in bamboo leave. And practice how to string them. There should be no tear to the bamboo leaves. Firmly packed and well stringed Zong Tse will assure firm and flavorful result.
Remove from the pot right away when cooked - preferably in a perforated pan to allow water to drip to the bottom. Otherwise, place a round wire rack at the bottom of the bowl to allow water to drip down.
The rice should be translucent all the way through and meat is tender.
