4 Happy Winter Solstice Festival!

It's that time of the year again, where we make 'tang yuan' (glutinous rice balls) to celebrate Winter Solstice Festival.
As my dad and I are the only ones at home on weekdays, I've decided to make 'tang yuan' myself.

I've posted about the festival last year, but I felt like my photos didn't show the whole prep and cooking process.
'Tang yuan' is like snowball of sorts, and eaten as a dessert.

INGREDIENTS
Syrup:
6 pandan leaves
Lots of sugar

Glutinous Rice Balls:
Glutinous rice (pulut) flour
Water
Food coloring (optional)


Left: Glutinous rice flour; Right: Kneaded dough
In a big bowl, add water to the flour and knead until soft and firm.
You can test by rolling a small piece into a ball.
If the ball crumbles, then it's too dry.
If it's too sticky, then add more flour to balance out the excess moisture.


In a separate bowl for the pink dough, add a couple of drops of red food colouring to the flour and knead.


Left: Rolled once; Right: Rolled once, dried and rolled again.
Then start rolling the dough.
We would leave the first batch to dry under the fan, then re-roll each and every one of them as they would have been drier, less sticky and hold up their shapes better by then.

Every kid has helped their parents roll these little balls, and we always asked why can't we make worm versions.
(They were like Play-Doh to us anyway)
Thinking back, worm shapes are not appetising at all!


Ok, Dad did help me re-roll everything.


To make the syrup, bring a pot of water to a boil and toss in the pandan leaves.
Add sugar as desired. Remember that the balls don't have any flavour so the syrup needs to be a little sweet.


In a separate pot, bring water to a boil first before tossing in the balls.
They are done when they float to the surface (takes less than a minute to cook), then quickly toss them into a bowl of cold water to stop the cooking process.
Once the syrup has cooled, drain the balls and pour them into the pot with syrup.


This is why we cook the balls in a separate pot instead of with the syrup as the water will turn cloudy.


Et voilà!

Now please excuse me so I can get ready for my sister's birthday dinner.
(Yes, 22 Dec is always a double celebration for us)
I wonder where we're going to celebrate.


PS: Thought of using natural light to take these photos but it has been cloudy all day!