EAT with Mary and Monica: Glutinous rice balls in peanut soup

It's Dongzhi (winter solstice day) today, this festival is celebrated by many chinese/ japanese/ koreans/ vietnamese around the world. Traditionally, the Dongzhi Festival is also a time for the family to get together. One activity that occurs during these get togethers is the making and eating of Tangyuan (湯圓) or balls of glutinuous rice, which symbolize reunion. Tangyuan are made of glutinuous rice flour and sometimes brightly coloured. Each family member receives at least one large tangyuan in addition to several small ones. The flour balls may be plain or stuffed. They are cooked in a sweet soup or savoury broth with both the ball and the soup/broth served in one bowl.

The festive food is also a reminder that we are now a year older and should behave better in the coming year.

Ingredients for Soup

Peanuts (Shelled)
A handful of glutinous rice
Rock sugar

Ingredients for Glutinous rice balls

500gm Glutinous rice flour
Water
Food colouring

Ingredients for Peanut filling

Roasted peanuts (shelled)
Butter
Orange or white sugar
Roasted sesame seeds

How to make the soup

Wash the peanuts and glutinous rice, put them in a pot, fill with water and bring to boil
Lower heat to low and let it simmer for at least 2-3hours till peanut is soft and rice broken.

How to make Peanut filling

Put peanuts & sugar in a blender, blend till fine

Add in roasted sesame seeds
Add in melted butter and mix well

Mixture should be like course peanut butter, easy to handle and not liquified

How to make Rice balls

Seperate flour into 3 or 4 portions, depending on how many colours u want to make
Prepare 3-4 cups of water with different colouring
Add water to flour a little at a time

Knead till the colour blends in
Dough should be easy to handle without breaking, if it breaks just add more water. If it is too wet add more flour
U can make little ones without filling, just roll them into desired size and set aside in a plate that you have floured

For the ones with fillings, take a bigger piece of dough, roll up into a ball, make a hole with ur thumb and add peanut stuffing inside, not too much as too much it will crack. Then roll it back into a ball again

Set balls aside and let it dry for awhile.

Hit a big pot of water, add the rice balls in when it's boiling.
The rice balls will sink to the bottom of the pot
When it's cooked, the balls will float. Let them float for 1minute.