1, soak in water
The leaves of zongzi need to be soaked and cleaned with water. Fresh leaves need to be soaked for about five hours, and dry leaves usually need to be soaked overnight. The leaves soaked in this way will not only become tough, but also be clean.
2. Boil with alkali
Stew the washed leaves together with alkali in a pot, so that the fibers in the leaves can be soaked in hot water, which can enhance the toughness and reduce the possibility of being cooked by fire. Cook with slow fire first, then with high fire 10 minutes or so.
Step 3 freeze in the refrigerator
After the leaves of zongzi are frozen in the refrigerator, the fiber can be tougher and the fragrance is much better than that of boiled rice. Clean zongzi leaves, put them into plastic bags, put them in the refrigerator, take them out the next day, and put the frozen zongzi leaves into a basin to melt automatically.
How to choose zongzi leaves;
1, look at the color: when buying zongzi leaves, if you buy dried bamboo leaves, the color is mostly golden yellow, and there will be some small black spots on them, which are naturally produced during the growth of bamboo. If you buy reed leaves, most of these reed leaves are treated at high temperature, and the color is generally yellow-green, which will be dark green after blisters.
2. Smell: When buying zongzi leaves, we can also smell the smell of zongzi leaves. Normal zongzi leaves smell faint fragrance, which makes them particularly comfortable. If it is processed zongzi leaves, it will smell a pungent smell, and even if it is left for a long time, it will have a musty smell.
3. By hand: If the leaves are not sealed, we can pick them up and touch them. High-quality leaves are usually soft to the touch, but they are particularly tough. Such leaves are particularly easy to wrap, and jiaozi is not easy to break when wrapped.
4, look at the shape: when buying zongzi leaves, you can also look at the shape of zongzi leaves. Most of the naturally growing leaves of Zongzi are very natural strips with particularly smooth edges. If the leaves of Zongzi are not natural in shape and uneven in thickness, it means that such Zongzi is processed. Don't buy it!