1. Soak the cotyledons and lotus seeds several hours in advance, and wash the glutinous rice with clear water. You can use warm water or cold water. When cleaning glutinous rice, you must pay attention. The glutinous rice water must be washed as clean as water, otherwise it will affect the taste of zongzi. Note that glutinous rice can only be washed, not soaked. Glutinous rice is not fragrant when soaked.
2. Put two reed leaves together, roll them up, add glutinous rice, add two dates or other fillings, then add pre-soaked miscellaneous grains to the fillings, add a little glutinous rice, pinch them with a triangular drum, press them on the left and right, roll them up from the back, tie them tightly with lotus roots and put them in the pot for two hours.
The correct way is to put the pot in cold water. Although it takes a long time to cook in cold water, if you put the pot in cold water, the temperature will continue to rise during the cooking process, and the fragrance of rice leaves will gradually penetrate into the glutinous rice. Steamed zongzi is fragrant and waxy, so it won't be soft outside and hard inside, so cook zongzi in cold water. The wrapped zongzi should be put into the pot with cold water, because it is best to cook with cold water. As the water temperature rises gradually, the fragrance of zongzi leaves will gradually penetrate into glutinous rice, and the cooked zongzi will be more fragrant. In addition, cooking zongzi with cold water can make the cooked zongzi have the same maturity and no hardness.
4. The water for cooking zongzi should be soaked for about two inches. This is because zongzi will swell during cooking. If you don't add enough water, the zongzi above will be pushed out of the water, which is not easy to cook thoroughly, and the cooked zongzi is not waxy enough. Finally, it should be noted that zongzi should be soaked in the original soup after cooking, otherwise good glutinous rice will not taste good.
Northerners like sweet zongzi, while southerners like salty zongzi, especially meat zongzi. Northerners don't like it very much. This is caused by the different tastes of the north and the south. There is no need to argue about which kind of zongzi is better. More importantly, it is to inherit the Dragon Boat Festival culture.