Tang Yuan (with Fresh Red Dragonfruit juice)

Today is Dongzhi Festival (Winter Solstice Festival) and many Chinese will celebrate this day by cooking a pot of glutinous rice balls (Tang yuan) and eating them together with the family.

This year I skipped the artificial red food colouring and made pink tang yuan using red dragonfruit juice instead.

Love the colours of the dough as well as the cooked product.

Happy Dongzhi to All who's celebrating this day!

Glutinous Rice Dumplings (Tang yuan)

Glutinous rice flour
Water
Fresh red dragonfruit juice (mash some dragonfruit pcs on a sieve and retain juice that comes through)

Ginger Soup

Water
Brown sugar
3 to 4 pandan leaves, knotted
A pc of 1-inch ginger, peeled and pounded slightly to release the ginger fragrance

To cook ginger soup, place ginger and pandan leaves in water and bring it to boil till fragrant. Allow it to simmer for further 5min on medium heat.

To make Tang yuan, place glutinous flour into mixing bowl and add in enough water and mix dough with hands or a rubber spatula. Add in more water if too dry, more glutinous rice flour if too sticky. Dough is ready if it is soft and easy to handle without sticking to hands. It should somehow feel soft like earlobes. 

For pink dough, I added a tsp of the fresh red dragonfruit juice, then followed by enough water to get a soft and non stick dough. You can add in more juice if you want it a little more pink, but not too much because it will turn the dpugh into a purple hue.

Roll dough into little balls and set them on a lightly floured plate. Once done, cook them in a boiling pot of water. They are cooked when they float. Place cooked tang yuan into serving balls and spoon ginger soup over them. Serve immediately.