Dongzhi: Winter Solstice Festival

The Dongzhi is one festival I embrace wholeheartedly simply because I love the delicacy "tangyuen" which are glutinous rice balls stuffed with sweet brown sugar. Our dear mum has been making these balls every year since we were kids. So this year, now that I've been promoted to a mummy, I've decided to create some from scratch while my mum narrated the instructions. Turns out they are really super easy to make! It's definitely a tradition I can upkeep as it's simple and yummy! In the spirit of tradition, I'm happy to share what my mum taught me today.

Here are what you will need, they are ballpark measurement as mum doesn't go with the metric system, it's all in her head!


For the balls:

1. 1.5 bowls of glutinous rice floor (standard Chinese rice/soup bowl)
2. 0.5 bowl of rice floor
3. 1 cup of warm water (not cold!)
4. Brown sugar blocks
5. Food coloring
6. A few drinking straws or chopsticks to dip food coloring

For the ginger soup:

1. Pandan leaves (aka Screwpine leaves)
2. Ginger (roughly chop and crush 4 to 6 inches depending on your desired 'heat')
3. Sweet potatoes/yam (optional, qty depends on your preference)
4. Rock sugar

This recipe is good for about 4 pax depending on your appetites!

Easy-breezy Steps:

1. Get two pots ready; one for boiling plain hot water and one more for the ginger based soup.
2. Boil the pandan leaves, rock sugar, potatoes and ginger together till fragrant.
3. The other pot is for cooking the balls in plain boiling water.
4. Sieve the 2 types of floor together, then gradually add warm water while kneading it with your hand till you get a bouncy dough consistency kinda like Play-Doh, it should not be too watery but hold up well on it's own. To test if it's right, make little balls with it and see if it holds up. If the dough feels too watery, add more floor to balance it out.
5. Separate the dough into batches based on the number of colors you want to have. I have five batches here; white, pink, blue, purple and green. Then use the tip of a straw to dip color unto each dough batch and knead till color is even. Be careful to rinse your hand between each batch otherwise your colors will run everywhere!
6. Cut the brown sugar to little cubes to be used as fillings for the balls. You can also make them plain, or use different fillings like peanuts or black sesame paste which I have no idea how to! But anyway I prefer good old simple brown sugar; sweet and fragrant!
7. Pinch dough into mini balls, insert a piece of sugar and roll between palms to get a nice round shape.
8. Cook the ready balls in plain boiling water, they are ready when they float to the surface.
9. Transfer the cooked balls to individual serving bowls. Scoop ready ginger based soup over the balls and we're good to go!

Have fun trying this out and enjoy yummy "tangyuen"! You know what, you don't even have to reserve this delicacy for the festival, it's easy enough to prepare for any family dinner or just a lazy weekend at home for tea!

Prepare the ginger-based soup, boil till fragrant.

 Separate dough into batches based on the number of colors you want to have. I have five batches here; white, pink, blue, purple and green. Then use the tip of a straw to dip color unto each dough batch and knead till color is even.

  

 Cut the brown sugar to little cubes to be used as fillings for the balls.

 Pinch dough into mini balls, insert a piece of sugar and roll between palms to get a nice round shape.

 Cook the ready balls in plain boiling water, they are ready when they float to the surface.

 The balls will get a little bigger and look really shiny when cooked, color also become stronger and darker. Transfer the cooked balls to individual serving bowls.

Scoop ready ginger based soup over the balls and we're good to go! As you can see in this pic here we had it with some nice keropok lekor!

  Love the way the brown sugar is half-melted inside the ball, it oozes out so sweet and hot!

Happy Dongzhi everyone!