Welcome to the launch of our first ever volume of Kitsby's Lunar New Year community cookbook featuring recipes from our AAPI foodie network! The themes we wanted to shine through this project are how incredibly diverse our AAPI community is, and community - none of what we do here at Kitsby would exist without the support of our friends, family, neighbors, and beyond.
Many of us, who help to actively build the growing AAPI network that we have today, share roots in points of common nostalgia, which is exactly why we wanted this project to feature the nostalgia dish (the dish that transports you back to your roots) of each partner in a cookbook-format!
Meet Chris Cheung of East Wind Snack Shop:
Chef Chris Cheung was born and raised in New York’s Chinatown, which was his inspiration for his highly acclaimed restaurant, East Wind Snack Shop and his new book, Damn Good Chinese Food. He has over 20 years experience as a chef in NYC, and cooked in Shenjiamen China. You can catch him on regular appearances on The Food Network, and on multiple episodes of Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations, as well as on Epicurious.com & Bonappetit.com.
This hearty snack is a popular home dish and also widely available as a street food item and is also a specialty during Chinese holidays and the Dragon Boat Festivals. It highlights the brilliance of the creation of dried and preserved foods that was integral to survival in pre-modern times in China. These preserved foods are delicacies that are now favorite ingredients in Chinese cooking.
Joong
- Servings
- 4-6 joongs
Ingredients
Filling- 1 ⅓ cups of sticky rice
- 1 piece of Chinese sausage [Lap Cheong; 腊肠]
- ½ cup thinly sliced Chinese bacon [Lap yuk; 臘肉]
- 4 dried shitake mushrooms
- ¼ cup dried shrimp
- 2 Tbsp dried scallop
- 4 Tbsp mushroom soy sauce
Wrapping
- 6 bamboo leaves
- 6 strings
Steps
PREP | The Night Before:
- In a large bowl, pre-soak your rice in water for at least 4 hour or overnight.
- In a separate bowl, pre-soak your shitake mushrooms for at least 4 hours or overnight.
PREP | The Day Of:
- Soak bamboo leaves in water for at least 1 hour to make them more flexible to work with.
- Drain the water from your rice.
- Slice your lap yuk (Chinese bacon) into thin pieces and place in your bowl of rice.
- Separate your lap cheong (Chinese sausage) & slice into ~¼ inch rounds and add to your filling.
- Coarsely chop the scallops and add to your filling.
MAKE
- Add the shrimps to the rest of your filling.
- While this recipe calls for only ½ the bottle of mushroom soy sauce, add as much as your tastebuds’ desire to the filling.
- Mix everything together until well-distributed & evenly-coated in the soy sauce.
FOLD
- Holding one fully-soaked leaf in the palms of your hand, wrap the stem side inwards to the other side to form a cone-shape.
- Carefully fill your cone with the filling, making sure to get enough into the tip of your joong cone. Gently press down the filling to make it all compact.
- Fold the right side of the top leaf to the left, towards the center of the opening and repeat with the left side of the top leaf. While holding down this “tail” formed, fold it over itself, sealing the center, and around the bottom of the joong.
- While holding your joong together, place the string where the “tail”is and wrap it at least 3 times around the entire package horizontally and at least 1 time vertically. Make 2-3 tight knots to secure it all.
- Repeat till you’ve used up all your filling (you should have 4-5 tightly wrapped joongs).
COOK | Steaming option (more fool-proof)
- Fill your pot ¾ of the way with water.
-
Place over medium-high heat until steam rises. Lay your joongs in, cover, and cook for 1 hour.
- Tip: At 30 minutes, check your water-level to make sure you still have at least half a pot of water left to complete your steaming.
COOK | Boiling option (if you're confident in your joong folding)
- Place your joongs in a pot with at least double the amount of cold water needed to cover them. Cover with a lid.
- Bring the water to a boil over high heat. Once at a rolling boil, reduce to medium heat for 45 minutes to an hour.
- Take one joong out and carefully unwrap to test for doneness (rice should be fully cooked so that all the grains are sticking together). If not, steam/boil for 5-10 more minutes.
- Take your joongs out, snip the strings with scissors, unwrap, and dig in!
Keep cooled joongs in a container or bag and store
- In the fridge for 2-4 days
- In the freezer for up to 1 month
Reheating: Take out as many joongs you’d like to reheat and re-steam over medium-high heat for 10-15 minutes.
