Winter Solstice Festival or known as “Dōng zhì“; is one of the most important festival celebrated by the Chinese.

 

Those days; Dongzhi Festival is also a time for the family to get together. And the interesting part would be making and eating ‘Tong Yuen” (湯圓). It is glutinous rice balls, which symbolize reunion because of its shape. ROUND in Chinese means union.

 

During my younger days with my sister; my granny used to warn us not to drop any of the tong yuen when you are molding it. She said each piece you dropped counted as 1 year. Which means you dropped one piece; you are a year older. Hahahaha….sounds funny ma?? I think she just don’t want us to mess around or waste the food!! ^^

 

Here, I would like to share the Tong Yuen recipe gotten from The Star newspaper by chef Amy Beh.

INGREDIENTS:

• 100g glutinous flour
• 10g tapioca flour
• 15g shortening
• 85-90g water
• 20g dried apricots, sliced
• 6 Chinese dates, seeded
• 2 honey dates
• 20g white fungus, soaked
• 700ml water
• 50g sugar
• 2 screwpine leaves, knotted

1) Place glutinous rice flour, tapioca flour and shortening in a mixing bowl. Pour in water and mix into a soft and pliable dough. Pinch out dough into equal portions and roll into round balls of tong yuen.

2) Bring a pot of water to a boil, drop in the balls of tong yuen and cook until they start to float. Remove with a slotted spoon into basin of cold water.

3) In the meantime, combine water, honey dates, white fungus, red dates and rock sugar and bring to a boil. Simmer for at least 20 minutes.

4) Add apricots and screwpine leaves. Simmer for another 2-3 minutes.

5) Dish out the white fungus soup and serve topped with the balls of tong yuen.

Shortening & Glutinous Rice Flour + Tapioca Flour

 

The coloring I used

 

Ta Daahh……the colorful Tong Yuen.

 

Check out the colorful tong yuen. Its ready to eat!