Tang Yuan

Last week, we had an Asian-themed hallway dinner. I decided (like always) to make dessert. But which one?

After some Internet lurking, I settled on Tang Yuan, also known as rice dumpling soup. It's a common winter dessert, most often known to be eaten during Chinese New Year.

This is a sweet, unfilled version that was made with a ginger soup. I went with roughly 1/3 pink dumplings, and 2/3 white.

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RECIPE

  Ingredients (makes ~4 servings)

• 1 cup glutinous rice flour
• 1/2 cup water 
• food coloring (optional)
• ginger, as desired
• brown sugar

  Procedure

1. In a mixing bowl, mix the flour and water until a smooth dough is formed. If it crumbles, add some water. If it's sticky, add some flour.
2. Divide the dough into the number of colors desired. Knead food coloring a drop at a time until the desired color is reached. 
3. Cover the dough with a damp towel. Roll into balls of desired size.
4. Cut ginger into slices, then pound it with the flat of the knife blade.
5. In a pot, put water and ginger slices. Cook until a ginger tea is made.
6. Add sugar until desired sweetness is reached.
7. Bring another small pot of water to boil. 
8. Dump in rice flour balls. They are cooked when they float.
9. Put the balls into the sweetened ginger soup, and boil some more.
10. Leave soaking for a few hours for the sweetness to enter the balls.
11. Enjoy warm.

Nian Gao 年糕 (Chinese New Year Cake)

Last weekend was the weekend after the Lunar New Year (February 19th this year). For a small dinner among friends, I thought it was the time to try and make some traditional Asian dessert that goes hand-in-hand with the New Year.

年糕 means "year cake," although it is also used to also mean "higher year" because the words sound similar in Chinese. If I understood correctly, it's a wish for the coming year to be better than the passed year.

The recipe I got was from Little Corner of Mine. Instead of the usual 5 hours or 12 hours of steaming for the caramelization of the sugar, this recipe uses brown sugar, which of itself tastes a bit caramelized. I personally felt it wasn't as fragrant as other such Nian Gao that I have had in the past. Maybe next time, I will make a sort of caramel syrup out of the sugar first before mixing in the flour.

I also added a red date about halfway through the steaming on 4 of them.

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RECIPE

  Ingredients

• 400 g glutinous (sticky) rice flour
• 300 g brown sugar
• 400 mL water
• red date (optional)

  Procedure

1. In a mixing bowl, mix the sugar with 200 mL of hot water until dissolved. 
2. Add the remaining 200 mL of water.
3. Mix in the flour.
4. Steam for 40 minutes.
5. If using, put the red date in about halfway through cooking.

  Tips

     Caramelize sugar and water prior to adding flour for a better fragrance and more pronounced flavor.

Mapo Tofu

I got the recipe for this from a friend, and I had a lot of tofu to use up. My cousin was going to make it at first, but due to time constraints, I ended up making it.

Recipe as my friend sent it to me:

I didn't have light soy sauce, so I omitted it, and just put 3 tbs of dark soy sauce. Didn't have black bean paste, but had the actual black beans, so I mashed them with a bit of water to turn them into a paste. The tofu wasn't exactly silken, but it was soft enough. It was served with black rice with diced sweet potato mixed in.