Nyonya Chang Recipe

Tim & Chooi Yoke's Nyonya Chang Recipe (7 June 2013)

This is our recipe for making Nyonya Chang, a type of chang or Chinese dumpling. Also called Pnua Kiam Tnee 娘惹粽, the Nyonya Chang is popular among the Baba Nyonya communities of Penang and Malacca. It is usually served as an afternoon snack.

There are local variations to the Nyonya Chang. In Malacca, it is customary to dye the glutinous rice with bunga telang (butterfly pea flower), giving it a blue marbled effect. In Penang, as bunga telang used to be hard to come by, the Nyonya Chang is traditionally white in colour. However, now that the bunga telang has become more commonly grown in Penang, many in Penang have broken with tradition and have started making Malacca-style Nyonya Chang. On top of that, my wife makes a variation of it, which we call the Mount Fuji Chang, which I will describe separately. Nyonya Chang is my wife's favourite chang. Previously I did not fancy it much. As usual, it was because the Nyonya Chang that I have tasted before failed to entice me. It was only after I have tasted my wife's version that I found Nyonya Chang to be agreeable to my taste.

If you'd like to make Nyonya Chang yourself, here's our recipe, based on my wife's description. You can post your result on my Masa Masak Facebook Group.

Pnua kiam tnee chang (7 June 2013)

My wife's Nyonya Chang, dwarfed by a tray of her bak chang. (29 May 2014)

My wife's Mount Fuji Chang (12 June 2015)

Nyonya Chang Recipe

Ingredients:

600g glutinous rice
one handful of 60 double-layered Bunga telang water/ Butterfly pea flower, cooked till its dye comes out
300ml of thick santan (coconut milk)
1 teaspoon salt

Spice paste (ground)

4 teaspoons coriander powder
60g Garlic
1 pinch of pepper (1/4 teaspoon)
20g cekur root

Filling

350g pork belly - ground up into bits
160g candied winter melons - sliced into 2 mm thick
150g roasted peanuts - pounded coarsely
2 teaspoons salt, adjust according to your own preference
2 tablespoons sugar, adjust according to your own preference
water - this is adjusted based on moist level of your filling

Wrapper

Chang heok (dried bamboo leaves), soaked until soft, cleaned and wiped dry
Chang sok (hemp string), soaked until soft
Pandan leaves, cut into 3 cm long strips.

Soaking bunga telang (7 June 2013)

Method

Wash the glutinous rice in several changes of water until the water runs clear. Take one third of the glutinous rice and soak with bunga telang water. Soak the balance glutinous rice in water. Soak the rice overnight and drain before use.
Steam the rice with thick coconut milk until cooked. Roughly mix the blue and white rice together. Set aside.
Heat up some oil in a wok and saute the spice paste until fragrant.
Add in the pork belly and stir until cooked. Season with sugar and salt.
Add in candied melon, and stir fry until well mix.
Add in pounded roasted peanuts. Dish out to cool.
To wrap the chang: Overlap two pieces of bamboo leaves and fold into a cone.
Fill cone with 1 heaped tablespoon of glutinous rice, one heaped tablespoon of filling, and another heaped tablespoon of glutinous rice.
Top with a piece of pandan leaf.
Fold the loose end of the bamboo leaves over the rice and wrap dumpling into a pyramid shape and secure it with hemp string.
Repeat until all rice have been used up.
Steam the dumpling for 20-30 minutes.

List of Penang Nyonya Kuih

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