TANG YUEN (GLUTINOUS RICE BALLS)

Tang Yuan is a dish of glutinous rice balls served in a sweet syrup. In Chinese culture, it is traditionally served on Dong Zhi, the winter solstice. By eating tang yuan you become one year older. Hehe..
Traditionally people add colouring to the  dough to make coloured rice balls. for me I used natural ingredients for the colours.

Wishing everybody a happy winter solstice. Let us have some Tang Yuen.

TANG YUAN

 Strawberries.. puree them to get the red colour. Last year i used red dragon fruit. Dragon fruit gives a richer red colour

sweet potatoes... steam ,mash and add to the flour to get the yellow and purple dough.

Pandan leaves from my garden... blend to get the green colour

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup glutinous rice flour
• 1/2 cup water for making dough
• steam sweet potatoes, about 2 pieces (yellow and purple varieties)
• 5 strawberries, make into puree

(A) Sweet Soup 

•  1 thumb sized ginger sliced
• 1 litre water
• 80 g rock sugar to taste
• 2 pandan (screw pine) leaves 

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large mixing bowl, add flour and sweet potato paste/strawberry puree. Gradually add water (you don't have to use all of it) and knead the dough until soft, smooth, yet not sticky to the fingers .

2.  Shape the dough to even-sized balls.

1. Bring a pot of water (enough water to submerge the dumplings completely) to boil. Add the tang yuan into the boiling water and cook until they float to the surface. Transfer them immediately to a bowl of room temperature water until cooled or ready to serve.
2. To cook the sweet soup, add (A) to a pot. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to a simmer until the sugar is fully melted.
3. To serve, add tang yuan to a serving bowl and ladle the sweet soup over.

ENJOY...

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