Just this month, I reorganized my pantry twice. During the first round of reorganizing, I discovered some expired ingredients sitting in the back of my pantry for over a year. When I reorganized my pantry a second time, I tried to arrange ingredients by how frequently I used the ingredients. This way, I can ensure I reduce waste as much as possible. Yesterday, as I started reorganizing my pantry again, I came across a bag of glutinous rice flour and had the sudden urge to make some tang yuan. Of course, I had to facetime my mom to make sure I was making her version of tang yuan properly. My mom’s tang yuan was one of my favorite simple desserts growing up. She would make it for special occasions such as Mid-Autumn Festival, Lunar New Year, and weddings. When my brother, Peter, and his girlfriend at the time, Stephanie, got married, my mom made some tang yuan for them to wish them well as they started their new life together. A couple years later, when Kevin and I got married, my mom prepared a batch of sweet tang yuan again as a way to wish us a happy marriage. In both celebrations, the tang yuan was served as part of the tea ceremony, an intimate celebration amongst family before the larger wedding celebration with family and friends. Tang yuan holds a special place in my heart because it was typically made during special occasions. Every time I have tang yuan, I think back to all of the wonderful memories of celebrating milestones with family and friends. Growing up, I always looked forward to my mom’s tang yuan on special occasions. She would whip up batches upon batches of tang yuan with speed and ease. My mom alternated between making a savory version featuring radish, dried baby shrimp, and lean pork for a celebratory lunch, or a sweet version featuring a very simple brown sugar soup for a celebratory dessert. I prefer the sweet version just a tad more than the savory version because it requires much less ingredients and is the perfect dessert to serve whenever I want something light. The very first time I made tang yuan at home, my rice balls turned out super hard and rock-like. I followed all of the steps my mom provided and had no idea what I had done wrong. When I called my mom to figure out what I had done wrong, it took me asking her to take a photo of the bag of rice flour she used to finally discover I had been using the wrong flour. I needed to use glutinous rice flour instead of plain flour to get the bouncy texture of tang yuan just right. Plain rice flour just did not work. When I facetimed my mom yesterday as I was making tang yuan, she walked me through the process again just to make sure the tang yuan turned out properly. I enjoy cooking alongside my mom for the most part, but I usually have a hard time capturing her recipes. She tends to eyeball everything and usually gives instructions for recipes by saying add a little bit of this, a dash of that, and a sprinkle of this. She would say if something is too sweet, add more salt. If something is too salty, add more sugar. This wasn’t entirely helpful when capturing accurate measurements for recipes. When I started cooking on my own, I set out to measure all of the ingredients used. Doing so allowed me to give accurate measurements for replicating recipes. Instead of making a large batch, I decreased the yield to make enough for just Kevin and I. The tang yuan was the perfect light dessert to celebrate Easter Sunday.
*The following recipe yielded 12 medium-sized glutinous rice balls (which was the perfect amount for Kevin and I to enjoy as a light dessert).
For the Tang Yuan:
For the glutinous rice flour balls:
· ½ cup glutinous rice flour
· 5 tablespoons water
For cooking the tang yuan:
· 4 cups water
· 2 cups cold water
For the brown sugar soup:
· 1½ cups water
· ¾ piece of brown rock sugar or brown candy
Directions:
1) Bring two pots of water to a boil on medium heat.
2) In a large bowl, add the glutinous rice flour. Slowly add the water one tablespoon at a time. Stir the mixture until the dough starts to form. Break off chunks of the dough and roll each into a ball. Continue rolling the pieces of dough until all rice flour balls are formed. If the dough is too dry, add more water. If the dough is too wet, add more flour. Drop the balls into one pot of boiling water. Let the balls cook for 8-10 minutes. Strain them and place them into the cold water.
3) In the other pot of boiling water, add the piece of brown rock sugar or rock candy (depending on your sweetness preference). Stir until the brown rock sugar or rock candy is melted. Add the rice flour balls into the brown sugar soup. Serve immediately.
Takeaways: My mom insisted the cold-water bath was necessary for making the bounciest glutinous rice flour balls. She also stated the water bath is necessary for removing the flour taste from the glutinous rice flour balls. I haven’t tested making tang yuan without the cold-water bath, but I can say for certain following my mom’s method above yielded perfectly round, bouncy tang yuan. If the process isn’t broken, why fix it? You can adjust the water to sugar ratio depending on how sweet you like your soup.