Dragon Boat Festival Zongzi (Mini One-Bite Cones)
How many people nowadays still learn from their mothers and grandmothers how to wrap zongzi for the Dragon Boat Festival? Once you take away industrial mass production, how much of our culture and our memories are left? The taste of factory-made, pre-packaged zongzi is certainly not bad, but what about the taste of home? Across China, the methods of wrapping zongzi, their shapes, the types of leaves, and the flavors are all different. In Jiangnan we’re used to triangular zongzi, filled with pork, red dates, salted egg yolk, red beans, and the like. Plain zongzi dipped straight into sugar is my favorite. Today I’ll teach you how to make a small cone-shaped zongzi using just one leaf. Each one is a dainty little bite-sized cone. How many of you, like me, only love that tiny pointed tip of the zongzi?
Ingredients
Steps
Soak the glutinous rice in water for several hours. Soak the zongzi leaves in clean water as well; this helps them stick together and makes wrapping easier.
Prepare the ingredients for the different flavors you want to make.
If making savory meat zongzi, buy pork belly, cut it into chunks, season with soy sauce and marinate overnight.
I bought wide and short ruo leaves, which are suitable for wrapping one small cone-shaped zongzi with a single leaf. You can buy them vacuum-packed on Taobao; they are very fresh and bright green. My mom bought slender, long zongzi leaves from the wet market; their pale green color is suitable for wrapping large triangular zongzi with three leaves together. Take one ruo leaf: the base is thicker and tougher, and the tip is pointy and soft. Twist the leaf in the middle to shape it into a cone, with the tougher base of the leaf on top.
With the soft, pointy tip of the leaf on the left side, wrap that side of the leaf around the cone so it fits snugly.
This will form a slim cone that fits in one hand, like an ice cream cone. Fill it with the flavor you like: it can be plain glutinous rice, or a layer of rice with a red date in the middle, or red bean paste. If you’re making meat zongzi, mix the rice with the soy-based marinade from the meat, and pack the meat and rice in together. Fill the cone to about nine-tenths full, pressing down lightly with a spoon to compact it.
Now the tip of the leaf is on the right side of the “cone”. Use your thumb to fold this tip together with the edge of the leaf on that side toward the center, pressing down over the rice.
Then fold the higher edge of the leaf on the left side over to cover it as well.
The whole zongzi will now look like a pitcher plant. Fold the excess leaf at the top over like a lid, making sure there are no gaps where the rice can leak out.
Wrap the extra “lid” part of the ruo leaf base around the cone and pinch it firmly in your hand. Start tying cotton string around the middle to secure it.
Depending on the length of the string, you can tie several small zongzi on one piece of cotton string, or vary the number tied together to help you distinguish different flavors.
I also casually wrapped a few simple dragon-boat-shaped zongzi.
Put the zongzi into a pot and add enough water to fully cover them. Simmer until cooked through. You can test one with a long bamboo skewer; the cooking time depends on the size of the zongzi. If the skewer can pierce through easily, they’re done.
Peel off the leaves and enjoy. The green ones are crystal zongzi wrapped with Thai green sago; they’re very pretty and a new flavor of zongzi.
I love those little white pointy-tipped ones the most!