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.

Mushrooms Character Tangyuans (Glutinous Rice Balls)

Tomorrow is Dongzhi (Winter Solstice). Have you made your tangyuan yet?  Did you make your tangyuan in the usual round shapes? I did them in round little balls as well as into cute little mushrooms.  Yes! You heard me right! Mushrooms shaped tangyuan? Who said tangyuan needs to be yuan yuan (round round) ones?

Which mushroom do you like best?

I like the white and yellow one most!

Last year I made marbled tangyuans and I thought they were too normal. I wanted to inject some creativity into my glutinous rice balls this year, hence made these. Hubby said the mushrooms shaped tangyuan looked cute but seemed inedible because they are too colourful, and that made them looked like some poisonous mushrooms. Hahaha! I ate them anyway!

Mushroom Shaped Tangyuan (Glutinous Rice Balls)

Desired amount of Glutinous rice flour

Enough water to be mixed with glutinous rice flour to form a pliable dough that could be rolled into small balls, yet is not too dry to touch and does not crack when rolled.

3 or 4 food colourings - your preference (adequate drops of colours for each portion of dough - remember that less is more, start with 1 or 2 drops first, add on if dough colour does not turn out to your liking)

5 to 6 Pandan leaves (torn into 2 strips each, fold whole bunch and gently secure with 1 piece of pandan leaf)

Brown sugar or caster sugar, to taste

1 or 2 slices of ginger, slightly flattened - optional

Water (for cooking)


1. Place desired amount of glutinous rice flour into a bowl, add some water to mix well with a rubber spatula. Add in more water if unable to form dough. If too much water has been added and mixture turns sticky, add some glutinous rice flour to dry out mixture and to form a pliable dough. Dough is ready for use when it is smooth and easy to knead without crumpling and cracking.

2. Divide dough into equal number of portions. Add in some drops of food colourings into each dough portion and mix well with rubber spatula. For me, I divided dough into 5 portions and used 3 food colourings - red, yellow and green. Made an orange dough with a drop of red and yellow food colouring mixed. Left 1 portion of dough white (without food colouring).
3. Roll out a small portion of preferred colour dough round and shape it into wild mushroom shape. Roll out little round dough with a different colour, flatten gently and gently press it on mushroom head. Repeat the same for other mushroom shaped glutinous rice balls.

4. Put adequate amount of water into pot, place in pandan leaves and bring to boil till slight pandan leaves fragrance is out - this is the soup base.
5. Add in brown sugar and stir to dissolve.
6. Gently drop shaped glutinous rice dough into soup base and stir gently to prevent it from sticking to base of pot. Lower to medium heat and let glutinous rice balls cook.  They will float when cooked.

Made some into the usual little colourful balls

7. Turn off fire and serve.

Note:
The above method is my lazy way of cooking tangyuan. If you do not like cloudy soup base due to cooking the tangyuans in them, you can cook them in a separate pot and spoon in the sweet soup over the tangyuan.

Danpatjuk - Korean Sweet Red Bean Porridge

Time flies and it is gonna be Dongzhi Festival (or Winter Solstice Festival), the time of making and eating tangyuan (glutinous rice balls) again.

Dongzhi is an important festival widely celebrated by Chinese and it is the time where families gather to eat tangyuan. Do you know that in Chinese culture, Dongzhi is also the day where everyone becomes one year older?  Sad for me because I am gonna be another year older :P

Interestingly, Koreans also celebrate this Chinese festival by eating tangyuan, of which these glutinous rice balls are cooked in strained red bean soup.  In the olden days, Korean placed bowls of these sweet red bean porridge (danpatjuk) around their houses. Some red bean porridge were even applied to door of the houses, of which was done to chase away any evil spirits. After the ritual done, they will enjoy the danpatjuk.

I cooked a pot and brought some back to Mum's place to share with my family

I remember how I used to help my grandma and mother roll out the dough into small balls. I love eating them too. Since I have always ate tangyuans cooked in sweet ginger soup, I decided to try making the Korean Sweet Red Bean Porridge this time.

I gotta say I enjoyed the cooking process as well as eating it. I love how the sweet red bean compensate for the bland taste of the glutinous rice balls. You may eat this as a dessert or as a meal because it can be quite filling to the tummy.

Danpatjuk - Korean Sweet Red Bean Porridge
(Recipe adapted from Crazy Korean Cooking
Serves 3 to 4

For Pre-cooking red beans
240g red beans
480ml water - to be discarded after

For the Soup
1680ml water (only some may be used after boiling beans)
60g sugar
2g salt
1g Cinnamon powder (optional)

For sweet rice balls
240g sweet rice (Glutinous rice powder)
90ml water (boiling hot)
1g salt
5g pine nuts (optional garnish) - I did not add them

1. Wash red beans
Wash 1 cup of red beans 2-3 times. Do not rub them too hard or too long. Drain water in a strainer.

2. Precook red beans
Place washed red beans in a pot and pour 2 cups of water. Bring it to boil then keep boiling on high heat for 5 minutes or until the water turns red.

3. Drain water
Drain water out in a strainer. Throw away the water and keep the red beans.

4. Boil red beans
Place precooked red beans in a pot and add 7 cups of water. Boil on high heat. When the water starts to boil, adjust the heat to low heat and keep boiling uncovered for more than 60 minutes or until the red beans become soft and mushy.

5. Make dough
While red beans are being cooked, make sweet rice balls. Mix ¼ teaspoon of salt into 6 tablespoons of boiling water. Mix 1 cup of sweet rice powder and the salt water. Start kneading with a spoon for a couple of minutes to avoid burning your hands.

6. Knead dough
Then, knead the dough by hand for about 5 minutes or until it becomes soft. It may seem like there is not enough water but the dough only comes together when you knead by hand diligently for a while. Add a bit more water only if the dough doesn’t come together after kneading for more than 5 min.

7. Make balls
Make the dough into bite-sized balls (about ¾” or 2 cm in diameter).

I think my right arm got slightly toned from getting the red bean through the strainer :P

8. Strain red beans
Pour the red beans with the boiled water through a strainer (or a sieve) into a bowl. Remember to keep the water.

9. Grind red beans (Optional) - I skipped this step and put the cooked red beans through the strainer)
Grind red beans with an electric grinder. If you don’t have an electric grinder, you can skip to the next step. It will just take longer and may be strenuous on your hand.

10. Mash red beans
Place the strainer with the ground red beans over a bowl. Then, mash them with a spatula so the soft part (red bean paste) of the red bean is going through the strainer into the bowl and only the husks (skins) are left in the strainer.

11. Grind red beans
Scrape off any red bean paste stuck at the bottoms of the strainer. Throw away the husks and keep the red bean paste (the water and the mashed red beans). This will yield about 3 cups of red bean paste.

12. Boil red beans paste
Put the red bean paste from the previous step in a pot and add the same amount of the water the red beans were boiled in. If 3 cups of bean paste were yielded, add 3 cups of the red bean boiled water. (red bean paste:red bean boiled water=1:1) Mix them well and boil on medium heat. When it starts to boil, add the sweet rice balls and boil for another 5-10 minutes or until the balls are fully cooked (they will float to the surface). Stir frequently. Be careful as the soup may splash when boiling! If the soup becomes too thick, add more water.

13. Finish
Turn off the heat. Add ½ teaspoon of salt and 4-8 tablespoons of sugar (more or less depending on your taste and whether you are serving it as a meal or dessert). The amounts are for 3 cups of red bean paste. If you have less, you will have to reduce the amount of salt and sugar. Taste and add gradually. Sprinkle ¼ teaspoon of cinnamon powder (optional).

14. Serve
Serve in a bowl and top with a few pine nuts or crushed walnuts (optional). Enjoy!


How to store Sweet Red Bean Porridge
Both cooked red beans and sweet rice balls are easily spoiled.  Refrigerate as soon as it cools down if not eaten right away.
It may keep in the fridge for a couple of days.  If you want to store it longer, seal tightly and freeze it.  Then slowly thaw in the fridge or in the microwave on defrost mode.

Lo Mai Gai

Health hasn't been too well lately. Bad nose, bad throat, and as if not bad enough, doctor had to tell me that I have signs of slight bronchitis showing when I went back to see him the 2nd time.  Yes, tight and heavy breathing, slight wheezing and coughing, I had them. Hate the haze!  Thank God the rain came in time and haze stayed away, for now.  I want to be well soon!

Last weekend, I got down to do some glutinous rice with chicken (Lo Mai Gai, 糯米鸡), one thing that my hubby enjoys eating. He used to stock some of these from the supermarket and heat them up to eat for breakfast, and I did not like that!  So, I tried my hand at it, for the man, my greatest supporter :)

Followed Happy Flour recipe closely and I thought the end results was not too bad for a 1st try but I could do better :)

Ingredients: (yield 5 bowls)
1 chicken thigh (boneless and skinless, cut into chunk)
3 dried mushroom room (soaked, remove stalk and cut into 2pcs)

Seasoning (A): (adjust seasoning according to your taste)
1/2tbsp oyster sauce
1/2tsp black soy sauce
1tsp soy sauce
1/4tsp salt
1/2tsp ginger juice
1/2tsp sugar
dash of pepper
dash of sesame oil

300g glutinous rice (soak overnight)

Seasoning (B): (adjust seasoning according to your taste) 
1tbsp oyster sauce
2tsp soy sauce
1/2tsp salt
1/2tsp sugar
2tbsp chicken stock/ water
1/2tsp sesame oil
(I will prepare more of this seasoning for the rice the next round as hubby said sauce was not quite enough, so rice was a little bland.)

1/2 Chinese sausage (sliced)

Step:
1. Marinate chicken and mushroom with Seasoning (A), set aside for an hour.
2. Grease mould and set aside.
3. Drain glutinous rice, spread rice on tray and sprinkle some water on surface.
4. Steam glutinous rice in a preheated steamer at high heat for 20 min.
5. Remove lid, sprinkle some water on glutinous rice and continue to steam for another 20 min.
6. Remove cooked glutinous rice from steamer and fluffy rice with a pair of chopstick. 
7. Mix Seasoning (B) together and pour it into cooked glutinous rice.
8. Mix well with a pair of chopstick.
9. Arrange chicken, mushroom and Chinese sausage at the base of mould.
10.Fill with glutinous rice and press firmly.
11.Place it in preheated steamer and steam at high heat for 25 min.
12.Dish out and serve.