Homemade Zongzi makes this Duanwu Festival even Happier

Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month according to the Chinese calendar. For thousands of years, the festival has been marked by eating Zongzi and racing dragon boats.

Zongzi(粽子zòngzi) is a traditional Chinese food made of glutinous rice, stuffed with different fillings, and wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves, before being steamed or boiled. These sticky rice dumplings are the most popular food of the Dragon Boat Festival. Zongzi differ in shape and taste from one place to another across China. There are mainly two tastes to Zongzi: sweet and savory. Nowadays people even make Zongzi with mixed sweet and savory fillings. Such a variety of tastes makes the Zongzi family a splendid legacy.

Red bean Zongzi is a popular kind and easy to make, why not learn with me and make your own Zongzi this dragon boat festival?

1. Wash the glutinous rice and put it in water until soaked thoroughly.
2. Wash and soak the red beans for 1½ hours, and then mix them with the glutinous rice.
3. Wash and boil the bamboo leaves for half an hour and then put them into cold water to cool.
4. With three or four bamboo leaves on your palm, fold the leaves into a cone-shaped or pyramid-shaped container.
5. Use a spoon to fill it with the mixture of glutinous rice and red beans.
6. Then finish wrapping it and tie it up with a pre-soaked length of straw. The zongzi must be bundled up firmly before boiling or steaming for two hours, until they have fully bulged.
7. Put bamboo leaves in a pot, and then place the wrapped zongzi on the leaves, and steam or boil for three to four hours.
8. Well done and enjoy the delicious homemade Zongzi. Enjoy this three-day public holiday!