Food Network
For as long as I can remember, my family always ate joong, as they’re called in Cantonese (or “zongzi” in Mandarin), around Dragon Boat Festival. But I only learned how to make them as an adult when I asked my mother-in-law about the process. Her family recipe originated in her village of Toishan in Guangdong Province, China. I was shocked but also intrigued by the level of dedication required for this humble dish of stuffed glutinous rice cooked in bamboo leaves. There were weeks of coordinating among a group of ten aunties to decide when and where to hand-stuff and tie 150 to 200 of the bundles (a two-day process). They would then find the largest stockpots in the neighborhood to boil the joong for about 8 hours per batch over the course of another two days. The enormous effort resulted in enough food to share among friends and family while commemorating the holiday. This adaptation of my mother-in-law's recipe uses much smaller quantities and employs an Instant Pot, drastically cutting down on the cooking time of these delicious sticky rice dumplings. I hope this streamlined version makes it easy to enjoy the dish with your loved ones.
