Vietnamese rice pyramid dumplings
Ingredients
50g woodear mushroom, chopped (abt 2 cups)
500g (1.1lb) pork (or chicken), minced
1 tbsp shallot, minced
1 onion, diced
1 tbsp cooking oil
salt, sugar, pepper, chicken stock (0.5-1tsp each)
Making the fillings
Soak woodear mushroom in hot water for 15 mins. Rinse well, remove stem and chop.
Season minced pork with salt, sugar, pepper, chicken stock, minced shallot.
In a large wok/pan on high heat, add cooking oil and sautee onion till translucent, then add pork and stir-fry till cooked. Use a spatula to separate the minced pork, avoid big chunks of meat. Season to taste with fish sauce/ sugar
When pork is no longer pink, add in mushrooms and stir-fry for 1 more minute. Take off the heat and sprinkle more fresh ground pepper on top.
Preparing banana leaves:
Tear banana leaves into 20-25cm (10-inch) square pieces. Soak each piece in boiling water for a few seconds to sterilize and soften. Wipe with kitchen paper towel and stack on each other, inserting one piece of plastic wrap (same size) inbetween every layer. Darker side of banana leaf should face down
Making the dough
**If to serve immediately after steaming: Use recipe #1
2 cup white rice flour
1 cups tapioca/corn starch
6 cups chicken/pork broth (at room temperature)
**If to serve on the next days: Use recipe #2
1 cup white rice flour
2 cups tapioca/corn starch
6 cups chicken/pork broth (at room temperature)
**To make homemade broth, please see Banh Canh recipe
-Dissolve flour mix in pork/chicken broth. You may strain to avoid lumps.
– Add 1 tsp salt and 2 tbsp vegetable oil (**Please adjust based on what kind of broth you use)
– Bring to the stove and cook on high while constanting whisking/stirring.
– When the starch starts being cooked, it sticks to the bottom of the pot, lower the heat and whisk/stir more vigorously, until the batter thickens into consistency of potato mash.
– It could be lumpy, but that’s ok. Take off the heat, continue whisking 1 more minute until smooth.
Wrapping the dumpling:
Please see the demonstration in the video.
Steam the wrapped dumplings for 20 minutes.
Most likely the dumplings will collapse if to be unwrapped right after steamed. So, if you want to maintain the pyramid shape, let them cool completely to firm up. Then microwave 1 min before serving to warm up. Unwrap and serve with ground pepper, soy sauce and chili sauce (siracha).
