JiJu Inspiration - Christmas Festive Tangyuan (Sticky rice ball) 聖誕紅綠黃圓仔

It was fun and inspiring to discover what people are preparing for christmas. It is more exciting, for me, to infuse exotic touches into christmas spirits. This recipe is inspired by a traditional dessert, Tangyuan, eaten on Winter Solstice in Taiwan. I played with classic christmas colour: red, green, yellow and Dwhite to create a festive dessert representing myself, a Taiwanese living abroad during Christmas season.

It shares certain level of similarity with " Daifuku ", a national dessert in Japan. It is a small round glutinous rice cake stuffed with sweet filling, most commonly sweetened red bean paste. I did a little twist based on the mocha anko daifuku. For the fillings, I use easily accessible kidney beans to substitute red beans. For the cover, a taiwanese special Hakka tea-based beverage " Lei Cha" is introduced to replace mocha flavor. It offers a richer and more luxurious fragrance from the mix of various roasted nuts and seeds. Finally it is coated with roasted cashew nuts to give an extra crunchy texture attached by heart-melting honey. A simple dessert carries different cultural elements is the best art piece for this meaningful moment of the year. Hope you like it and put it on your dessert recipe for welcoming guest next time!

Merry Christmas! 

 

Ingredients:
Tangyuan (Serving 15 tangyuans)
1. 200g glutinous rice flour
2. 5 Tsp lei cha or green tea powder
3. 200cc cold water

Filling:
1. 2 cup kidney beans or red beans
2. 3 Tsp sugar

Coating:
1. 2 cup cashew nuts, finely chopped (Nuts you have in hands)
2. 2 Tsp honey

Instructions:

1. Soak the kidney beans in the water for overnight (at least 8 hours). Use a medium sauce pan, pour in pre-soaked kidney beans, add cold water until it just cover the beans. Turn on high heat and bring to a boil, reduce to small heat and cook the beans until tender. Stir occasionally and keep the water level on the same horizon of the beans. 

 

2. Filter out the water and back to oven.Turn on medium heat, combine with sugar and start smashing the beans until it become a smooth paste. Set aside to cool down.

 

3. Mix glutinous rice flour and lei cha powder into a large bowel. Take 2 Tsp of combined mix to a small container, add small amount of water and mix into a smooth dough.

 

4. Boil a pot of water, cook the dough until it flows on the surface. Remove the dough from the pot and add into glutinous rice flour mix. Combine the boiled dough with rice flour mix by breaking into pieces with fingers. Add cold water into the mix gradually, mix it well and form a big smooth dough. 

 

5. Take a ping pong size dough, flatten to a palm-size round cover, place 2 tsp filling in the middle and cover it up. Circulate tangyuan to a round ball by rubbing between two palms.

 

6. Cook tangyuan into a boiling water, stir it gently to prevent from sticking in the bottom. Cook 5 mins until it flows on the surface.

 

7. Coat tangyuan first with honey, and roll it in the chopped cashew nuts until well-coated.