If you live in this hemisphere, it’s your signal to celebrate. The shortest day is here! After the winter solstice, the days will get longer, and the nights shorter. It’s a seasonal shift that nearly everyone notices. Since the pace of living has become faster and people are now busier, some customs have fallen into oblivion but we should not allow it. We have to celebrate today, the Winter Solstice with a happy get-together and eat. Food plays an important part in my family during any festivities and we are going to enjoy 'Tong Yuen' in hot ginger sweet soup. Today is sure going to be the shortest day for us here, let is fall, let it fall, we have no where to go but to enjoy our 'Tong Yuen' and become one year older.
Happy Winter Solstice/Dōng Zhì. The Chinese characters for Dōng Zhì are 冬至, the first character means “winter” and the second character means “arrival.” Ingredients:
1/2 cup of mashed purple sweet potato
3/4 cup glutinous rice flour
1 1/2 tbsp rice flour
1/4 cup hot boiling water (more if dough is too dry)
1/2 cup of mashed purple sweet potato
3 tbsp confectioner's sugar
1 tbsp shortening
A pinch of salt
Sweet Soup:
Ginger slices
Sugar according to taste
Water.
Method:
Mix glutinous rice flour and rice flour together and put half of it into a large bowl.
Pour in boiling hot water and add mashed sweet potato to mix. Knead into a smooth dough, cover and leave aside for 10 minutes.
Pinch off small portions and roll into balls.
Mix the filling ingredients into a paste.
Flatten a piece of dough and put in some filling. Seal up into rounds or tear-drop shape. Repeat with the rest of the dough balls.
Bring a pot of water to the boil and put the filled balls to cook. Reduce the heat to low as too high heat boiling will burst the balls. Poach the balls until they float to the top. Remove and soak in cold water for 5-10 minutes.
Filled another pot with water together with the ginger slices and bring it to the boil and continue to cook for 10 - 15 minutes. Add in sugar and cook until sugar dissolves.
Add in the cooked balls and enjoy.
Happy Winter Solstice!!!!!!!!
3 comments:
My mum always told us tongzhi is more important than Chinese New Year. 冬大过年!
Happy tongzhi to you and your family!
Hi Lily,
Happy Winter Soltice！
Your purple colour 汤圆look romantic! (^_-) ， love them.
I still remember those days my mum used to soak the rice overnight, milled,dripped dry and use the dough for 汤圆. The texture is unbeatable with those made from dry flour!
Well, those were the days! Everything is instant now.
Hi Lily, I love purple sweet potatoes! Using it in this recipe is perfect because not only does it lend a delicious sweet flavor, it also gives the dumplings a really pretty lavender color! Your recipe here gave me an inspiration to create another version of this purple sweet potato tang yuan. Thank you for the inspiration!
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