Chrysanthemum Qingtuan (Steamed Rice Dumplings)

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Qingtuan are a chewy rice dumpling that originates from central China, near Shanghai. They’re heavily associated with Qingming, the tomb sweeping holiday, and are often made to eat and share with ancestors on this day.

Though qingtuan are typically made with mugwort, they can theoretically be made with any edible green leaf, and different regions of China and broader Asia use different types of greens. Other leaves that are used: barley, loofah leaf, and matcha powder.

Erika and I were asked by The Huntington Library to make a workshop and class centered around chrysanthemum to celebrate their autumn bloom. We incorporated the blooms and leaves into tea, jelly, and a salad, but this chrysanthemum qingtuan was the main interactive element of our workshop.

Read on to learn how to make this red bean stuffed sweet treat!

Special Ingredients

  • Chrysanthemum leaves — These are also called tong ho choy in cantonese or tóng hāo cài in mandarin. They’re eaten all over East and Southeast Asia in stir fries and stews. These veggies can be found fairly commonly at a well-stocked Chinese or broadly Asian market and are especially prevalent in the winter.
  • Glutinous rice flour — This is the type of rice that’s used to make mochi and other chewy desserts and should not be confused with standard rice flour. The two are not interchangeableas they have very different properties. Glutinous rice flour can be found at most Asian grocery stores (sometimes called mochiko flour or sweet rice flour) but you can also get it here.
  • Rice flour — Not to be confused with glutinous rice flour, this type of flour is made from “normal” (non-sticky) rice and adds some tenderness to the dumpling wrapper. It can also be found at most Asian grocery stores, but you can get it here.
  • Red bean paste — This can be bought pre-made at the store, or if you’re feeling up for it you can make your own. I’m still getting my red bean paste recipe written out (mine includes glutinous rice flour and coconut oil), but in the meantime, this recipe from Just One Cookbook is a great starting point!

Special Equipment

  • Vitamix or other high powered blender — A high speed blender is a great investment (my Vitamix was my first splurge purchase when I got a “big girl” job and I’ve had it now for over a decade) because it can totally obliterate plant fibers, eliminating the need to strain the leaf juice. But, if you have a normal blender or just a food processor, that will work too. You’ll just need to make sure you strain your “leaf juice.” I got my Vitamix at Costco but this is similar to the model I have.
  • Steamer — These dumplings are steamed, so any sort of steaming set up should work! I use a multi-tier steamer from my parents. They probably picked it up at an Asian market.

Chrysanthemum Qingtuan (Sweet, Chewy Steamed Dumplings)

Servings: 8 dumplings
These chewy steamed dumplings have a texture similar to mochi and taste great directly out of the steamer or at room temperature. The skin texture will firm up as they cool, though, so feel free to do some testing to see what you prefer.
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Ingredients

Chrysanthemum Leaf Puree

  • 1/2 lb Tong ho choy Chrysanthemum leaves
  • 1/4 tsp Baking soda

Dough

  • 110 g Glutinous rice flour
  • 20 g Rice flour
  • 15 g Granulated sugar
  • 50 g Boiling water
  • 40 g Chrysanthemum leaf puree
  • 10 g Room temperature water

Instructions

First, make the chrysanthemum leaf puree

  • Bring a large pot of water to a full boil. Fill a medium sized bowl with ice water and set aside.
  • In the meantime, wash the tong ho leaves well — fill up a big bowl of cool water and swish the leaves around a bit before letting them soak for a couple minutes. Let sit for a few minutes to allow any sediment to settle to the bottom of the bowl. Remove the leaves and pour out the water (plus any collected sediment). I prefer to repeat this process twice, but you're welcome to skip the second wash at your own discretion!
    1/2 lb Tong ho choy
  • Add baking soda to the boiling water, then dump the leaves in all at once. Cook for 2 minutes until the leaves are very green, then transfer to a bowl of ice water to stop any residual cooking.
    1/4 tsp Baking soda
  • With tongs or chopsticks, pick up the leaves and let most of the liquid drain off quickly, then transfer to high speed blender (don't try to make the leaves perfectly dry — we'll need some liquid for blending). Blend the leaves, starting on low speed and gradually dialing up to high. Continue blending for 2 minutes to ensure all the plant fibers are broken up well. If the blender gets stuck at any point, add small amounts of water (no more than a couple teaspoons at a time) to loosen things up. Ideally the resulting puree will roughly have the thickness of a chowder. Set aside.

Make the dough

  • Add glutinous rice flour, rice flour, and sugar to a medium sized bowl. Whisk gently to combine. Drizzle freshly boiled (still very hot) water over the flour mixture — be sure to drizzle the water in a small stream all over so it doesn't pool in one part of the flour. Whisk again — the flour will still be very dry.
    110 g Glutinous rice flour, 20 g Rice flour, 15 g Granulated sugar
  • Add the leaf puree and mix with a spatula or your hand to combine. Fold and squeeze the mixture to bring it together — as you continue combining it, the flour will hydrate more to form a dough. Your goal is to use as little liquid as possible to achieve the texture of stiff Play Doh. If the dough isn't coming together, add room temperature water about 1 tsp at a time, pausing to thoroughly mix and squeeze the mixture to try to get the dough to form.
    50 g Boiling water, 40 g Chrysanthemum leaf puree, 10 g Room temperature water
  • Once the dough is the right texture, wrap it tightly in plastic so it doesn't dry out. You can keep this dough at room temperature for a couple hours but it should be used the same day it's made, as the green color will fade as it sits.

Assemble and steam the dumplings

  • Pinch off walnut-sized balls of red bean paste and roll into smooth balls. Set aside.
  • Pinch off a golf-ball-sized ball of the green dough (about 25g) and roll into a smooth ball. If it starts to crack, add a couple drops of water to your palms and roll the ball to hydrate it a bit.
  • Pinch the green dough ball into a pancake shape about 2-3" in diameter, ensuring the edges are thinner than the center. Place a ball of red bean filling in the middle of the pancake and wrap it up so the edges of the pancake meet with no filling showing. Try to ensure there are no air bubbles between the filling and the dough, as these bubbles will expand during steaming and may cause the wrapper the explode. Pinch the edges together and roll the ball until smooth.
  • Put a drop of neutral oil on your hand and roll the dumpling around until it gets a very thin sheen of oil all around it.
  • Arrange dumplings atop parchment or a cupcake liner and arrange in your steaming tray. Steam on high heat for 10-12 minutes until the dough turns slightly translucent and the dumplings puff up a bit.
  • Carefully remove the dumplings and enjoy hot (carefully — these will burn your tongue!) or allow to cool to room temperature.
  • These are best enjoyed the day they're made.

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