A few days ago, I ate vacuum-packed zongzi, and I also ate freshly packed and boiled water zongzi at my mother-in-law's house, which brought me a huge shock, it turned out that zongzi is the same as dumplings, and it is much better than the quick-frozen zongzi in the supermarket.
Here's how it happened:
There are still nearly 2 months to go before this year's Dragon Boat Festival, and now the festival delicacies such as zongzi, mung bean cake, and salted duck eggs in the supermarket have been put on sale. I couldn't resist the temptation, so I bought a few sweet rice dumplings filled with bean paste and red dates, vacuum-packed, and steamed on a steamer at home, which can only be said to be delicious, but that's all.
On Sunday, I accompanied my daughter-in-law back to her parents' house, and my mother-in-law made zongzi at home, according to folk practice, the package was only glutinous rice with clear water zongzi, which was quite fun to watch, but I remembered the taste of the zongzi bought in the supermarket, and I really didn't have much appetite.
At noon, I served a large plate of freshly wrapped zongzi, and my mother-in-law asked me to taste one very much, but there was really no way, I couldn't live up to the second elder's heart, and before I picked up the zongzi, it was really a hundred unwilling.
When I gently peel off the green zongzi leaves, a smell of zongzi fragrance comes to my nose, revealing milky white glutinous rice, dipped in white sugar, and take a bite, although it is a clear water zongzi, but the taste of the zongzi is like basking in the sun outdoors in winter, it is really sweet to the heart. The lubrication of glutinous rice and the fragrance of zongzi leaves are a feeling I have never had, and it is not too much to describe it with the word "relaxed".
This rice dumpling is so delicious, how the hell do you make it? It's even better than the brand rice dumplings I bought at the supermarket.
The old man smiled and took a bite of the zongzi and said: The zongzi in the supermarket are either vacuum-packed or quick-frozen, how can your mother's freshly packed food be delicious. Although the frozen and vacuum zongzi have a long shelf life, they are really not as delicious as the fresh zongzi, but the shelf life of this zongzi is short, and when you go home at night, take some of it home, and I can't finish it with your mother at home, and it will be bad if you put it away.
After lunch, when chatting about family life, I asked my mother-in-law to "learn" how to make zongzi so delicious, is there any skill and secret?
1. Why can't you just use water to cook zongzi?
Zongzi is a delicacy, because everyone makes less, so from wrapping zongzi, cooking zongzi, processing zongzi leaves, etc., are facing difficulties, without mastering the skills, home-cooked zongzi may not be delicious. Take the matter of boiling zongzi as an example, it is definitely possible to use water to cook zongzi, but only use water to cook zongzi, and the zongzi cooked at home may not be soft and glutinous and sweet.
1. Boiling zongzi, boiling in water is definitely not the most suitable method, you need to add a little salt to the water, salt can "set off" the sweet taste of glutinous rice, so that the cooked zongzi will be more delicious, this is one of them.
2. When boiling zongzi, you need a pot under cold water, the benefits of cooking zongzi in a pot under cold water are more obvious, with the increase of water temperature, the fragrance of zongzi leaves can have enough time to penetrate into the glutinous rice, so that the cooked zongzi will taste extra sweet, and it is not easy to appear pinching.
3. When cooking zongzi, everyone usually uses an ordinary steamer at home, and it is recommended that you use a larger steamer, because the cooking time of zongzi is longer, and the water in the steamer should be as much as possible to avoid boiling dry. At the same time, after the zongzi is put into the pot, it is necessary to cover a layer of grate, and then press a heavy object, the zongzi are easy to float in the steamer, and after pressing the heavy object, the zongzi will not be squeezed into each other because of the boiling of water in the process of cooking, and the zongzi floating in the steamer will squeeze each other and leak rice, similar to boiling dumplings and breaking the skin, so for example, everyone should be able to understand it.
To sum up: In fact, we have answered the method of cooking zongzi in this paragraph, you need to add a little salt to the clear water, so that the cooked zongzi will be more sweet, you need to put more water, use a larger steamer, because the cooking time of zongzi is longer, so it is not easy to dry the pot, and the third is that you need to use a grate to press heavy objects, which can prevent the zongzi from leaking rice.
2. How to cook zongzi?
Every year after the Dragon Boat Festival, eat zongzi every year, everyone is now accustomed to go to the supermarket, snack bar to buy zongzi, will wrap zongzi, want to wrap zongzi people are less and less, the reason, one is not, the second is troublesome, the third is not enough understanding of traditional customs, it may also be that everyone does less, all the skills of wrapping zongzi and cooking zongzi are completely unknown, the following will tell you about some skills of cooking zongzi?
1. Wrapping zongzi is actually not simple, the first problem is to deal with zongzi leaves, then to process glutinous rice, and then to wrap zongzi and how to cook zongzi?
2. There are two kinds of glutinous rice, one is indica glutinous, the other is japonica glutinous, indica glutinous rice is elongated, japonica glutinous rice is round, the south loves to eat long glutinous rice, the north loves to eat round glutinous rice, from the perspective of nutrition, the two kinds of glutinous rice are comparable to half a catty.
The characteristics of long glutinous rice are more suitable for making glutinous rice balls, glutinous rice, and snacks such as three fresh bean skins, glutinous rice chicken, glutinous rice wrapped fritters and other snacks that southerners love to eat, are crystal clear, the taste is elastic, and they can also wrap zongzi, but the long glutinous rice is relatively loose after cooking. Compared with round glutinous rice, everyone prefers sweet and soft glutinous zongzi, so round glutinous rice is relatively more suitable for wrapping zongzi, because round glutinous rice is softer, easier to digest, and sweeter than long glutinous rice.
There are still some differences between the north and the south on the taste of zongzi, the north loves to eat sweet zongzi, the south loves to eat salty zongzi, meat zongzi, therefore, the use of round glutinous rice to wrap zongzi is mostly sweet zongzi, soft and glutinous sweet, dense and full, not easy to disperse.
Long glutinous rice is suitable for making salty zongzi, such as all kinds of salted meat zongzi, everyone likes to ask, which glutinous rice is most suitable for making zongzi? In fact, this depends on personal eating habits and tastes.
However, the most important thing is whether the products are abundant, the south is planted with long glutinous rice, rich in products, and the Dragon Boat Festival wrapping zongzi is naturally the long glutinous rice planted on their own farmland, because in ancient times, farmers in the south could not buy round glutinous rice in the north.
3. After talking about which glutinous rice is more suitable, let's talk about the processing method of glutinous rice? Glutinous rice is not easy to cook, when making glutinous rice and glutinous rice porridge, it will be soaked in advance, and when we wrap zongzi, glutinous rice also needs to be soaked. In addition, in the process of boiling zongzi, several layers of zongzi leaves are wrapped, and it will be more difficult to cook them, so they need to be completely soaked.
How long is the right time to soak glutinous rice, it depends on the taste that everyone likes, it is softer and glutinous, and the soaking time is naturally longer, but more diners do not like too soft and glutinous zongzi. Therefore, when you soak glutinous rice, it is more appropriate to choose to soak it for 4-6 hours, which can allow the glutinous rice to absorb enough water, and at the same time, it also achieves a soft and glutinous taste, and the cooking time will not be too long.
4. The time to cook zongzi should not be too short, when my mother steamed glutinous rice at home to make glutinous rice chicken, it took more than 40 minutes to steam the glutinous rice, so everyone should cook zongzi in the steamer for at least 2-3 hours to prepare, if it is meat zongzi cooking time will be longer.
When cooking zongzi, the water in the steamer should not be too little, the zongzi will be boiled for a longer time, and more water will be absorbed and evaporated, so everyone should add as much water as possible to the steamer.
Keeping in mind the "3 can't 3 tricks", let's first summarize the "3 can't", glutinous rice can't be used directly, it needs to be soaked; when cooking zongzi, the water can't be too little; in addition, when cooking zongzi, you should reserve enough time.
5. The trick of cooking zongzi, sweet zongzi and salty zongzi should be cooked separately, not to worry about the two kinds of zongzi to cross flavors with each other, but that sweet zongzi and meat zongzi are cooked at different times, and meat zongzi are cooked for a longer time. If these two kinds of rice dumplings are cooked together, by the time the meat rice dumplings are cooked, the sweet rice dumplings may have been cooked very soft.
6. After the zongzi is cooked, it can't be eaten directly, it needs to be soaked in the steamer and soaked for 1 night, so that after processing, the zongzi will be more soft and glutinous, which we should keep in mind.
7. The zongzi are boiled and completely cooked after soaking, and when they are heated again, we should keep in mind that we cannot take the method of boiling the zongzi to heat, but need to put the zongzi into the steamer and steam it, so that the heating method can retain the fragrance and nutrition of the cooked zongzi.
3. How to wash the dumpling leaves?
The dumpling leaves sold in the vegetable market are actually dry, the dried dumpling leaves are convenient for logistics and transportation, the transportation and sales of each sales link, after the consumer buys, it is also easy to preserve, the only inconvenient thing is that when the zongzi are wrapped, they need to be soaked and processed in advance.
The treatment of dried zongzi leaves is actually more troublesome, and it needs to be soaked in salt water first, then soaked in water, boiled, and soaked in cold water. Soak in salt water for about 10 minutes, play the role of sterilization and disinfection; the purpose of soaking in water is to make the dumpling leaves softer, soak in water for 3-4 hours; boiling treatment, is to put the dumpling leaves into a pot of boiling water and boil for a few minutes, then soak them in cold water, which can prevent the dumpling leaves from drying out and enhance the softness of the dumpling leaves.
Fourth, tell me how to wrap zongzi?
The above gave you a detailed introduction to the processing method of glutinous rice, the processing method of zongzi leaves, some skills when cooking zongzi, the time of cooking zongzi, etc., but I did not tell you how to wrap zongzi, and I will talk about it below?
1. After the zongzi leaves are soaked in salt water, then soaked in water, boiled, and soaked in cold water, you can wrap the zongzi in boiling water, take two zongzi leaves and stack them together, press them flat, hold them in your hand, roll up at the bottom, scoop in 2 spoons of glutinous rice, and then scoop in two spoons of glutinous rice after leveling.
2. After leveling, fold the top of the dumpling leaves, of course, the other three corners of the dumpling leaves also need to be folded, and then use a thin rope to wrap the dumpling leaves horizontally and vertically, and wrap them strongly, so that there will be no rice leakage in the cooking process.
3. The technique of wrapping zongzi, introduced through simple text, is difficult to learn, you can find some videos of wrapping zongzi on the Internet, study carefully, and then combine some of the skills introduced to you above, I believe that the zongzi you wrap at home can also be sweet and soft.
When I write this, I still want to say a few words, whether to boil zongzi in cold water or boiling water, how long to boil, keep in mind the "3 can't 3 tricks", and the fragrant glutinous is not sandwiched.
Keeping in mind the "3 can't 3 tricks", let's first summarize the "3 can't", glutinous rice can't be used directly, it needs to be soaked; when cooking zongzi, the water can't be too little; in addition, when cooking zongzi, you should reserve enough time.
The trick of boiling zongzi, sweet zongzi and salty zongzi should be cooked separately, not to worry about the two kinds of zongzi to cross flavors with each other, but that the sweet zongzi and the meat zongzi are cooked for a different time, and the meat zongzi is cooked for a longer time, if these two kinds of zongzi are cooked together, when the meat zongzi is cooked, the sweet zongzi may have been cooked very soft.
After the zongzi is cooked, it can't be eaten directly, it needs to be soaked in the steamer and soaked for 1 night, so that after processing, the zongzi will be more soft and glutinous, and everyone should keep this skill in mind.
The zongzi are boiled, soaked and completely cooked, and when heated again, we should keep in mind that we cannot take the method of boiling the zongzi to heat, but need to put the zongzi into the steamer to steam, so that the heating method can retain the aroma and nutrition of the cooked zongzi.
I like to express love with food, believe that giving love is the best way to make yourself happy, and deeply believe that food is the only way to soothe people's hearts.