Sunday, December 22, 2013

Yellow Tang Yuan For Dong Zhi

Tang yuan is glutinous rice balls. Traditionally, tang yuan is only eaten during festive seasons, birthdays or weddings. Tang yuan, served in a sugary broth, symbolises happiness and family togetherness. That's why it is considered a significant item during auspicious Chinese occasions. Nowadays, however, tang yuan is eaten all year round, in savoury soups or as desserts. One can even buy frozen filled ones. Those are simple to prepare by merely boiling them in water.  

At home, I will always be asked to eat tang yuan whenever comes the Winter Solstice festival or Dong Zhi (冬至). Eat tang yuan and you are now one year older, the old folks say. Precisely because of that, I always refuse to eat them. I am not not going to age myself deliberately ... and I am not a great fan of the rice balls anyway. 

This Dong Zhi, Mom decided to make tang yuan using sweet potatoes.... she mashed up steamed yellow coloured sweet potatoes and added glutinous rice flour. The result was great actually. The tang yuan had a natural yellow colouring, and tasted faintly of fragrant sweet potatoes. The texture was also good - not floury, but springy and chewy. 

Yellow tang yuan

Coupled with fragrant pandan sugar syrup, this year's tang yuan tasted great. I actually ate pieces more than usual!

Happy Dong Zhi to all! It's a rainy one here today ............ that means it's going to rain on the first day of the lunar new year. That's what the old folks say .... let's see whether this prophecy holds true.

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