Tasty glutinous rice dumplings for a traditional Lantern Festival
By admin on 2014-12-29

If you spent a traditional Lantern Festival in Xiamen, then you'd have been chowing down on that festival staple - jiaozi(饺子) – with a savory pork, or perhaps egg stuffing. But on Lantern Festival, at the end of the 15-day New Year Period, the sweet flavorings of yuanxiao take over.The Lantern Festival is on 28 Feb in 2010.

Yuanxiao or tangyuan are those squishy round dumplings that you've probably seen, or even tried without knowing what they were. On the face of it, boiled glutinous rice sounds as appealing as moon cakes (that's not very). But it's the fillings and flavors that make yuanxiao a tasty end-of festival treat. The round shape is meant to mirror the first full moon of the year, and the assorted fillings represent fullness, happiness and family reunions, even though nowadays, most people are back at work by the time the last bangs of Chunjie(春节) echo around the city.

Different flour is used to make the colourful outer coating, including polished glutinous rice flour, sorghum flour, yellow rice flour, pumpkin flour and black glutinous rice flour, to name but a few. The fillings come in even greater varieties – one might find typical stuffings like black sesame, peanut, red bean paste, date paste, mixed dried fruits or even fancier versions with mango, banana, and taro cream fillings.

The way of cooking yuanxiao has also developed beyond boiling, which is the most popular and easiest approach. For the best boiled yuanxiao soup, osmanthus flower sauce and rice wine are must-have ingredients. Other ingredients, such as sweet potato and coconut milk, can be added for a richer taste.

If you have the fun of making them from scratch can really add to the festive atmosphere. Here's an easy recipe to get you started.

Ingredients: Glutinous rice flour and warm water (with a ratio of 10 to 6), black sesame paste, sugar, honey.

Add warm water to the glutinous rice flour and knead it until the dough is neither too soft nor too hard, and not sticky.

- Mix sugar and honey into the black sesame paste to taste.

- Cut the dough into small pieces and knead each into a ball.

- Use your thumb to make a depression in each ball, and fill it with the sesame paste.

- Use your fingers to firmly pinch the depression shut, and reshape into a ball.

- Put the yuanxiao into boiling water – when they float, they're done.

Besides, if you just want taste the ready-made yuanxiao, there are some brands and places for your information.

Yuanxiao brands available in Xiamen

Jiatianxia (甲天下)

Longfeng (龙凤)

Sanquan (三全)

Note: these brands are available in shopping malls like Wal-Mart, Trust-Mart, RT-Mart, Metro and Rainbow.

Places to taste yuanxiao in Xiamen

1) "39℃" Restaurant at No.39, Douxi Road, Siming District

Tel: 0592-2283352

2) Huang Zehe Peanut Soup Restaurant at Zhongshan Road

Tel: 0592-5672266 

3) Gourmet Square at SM Shopping Mall at No.468, Jiahe Road, Siming District

4) Gourmet Square at Shimao Shangcheng (World Trade Mall) at No.888, Xiahe Road, Siming District

Note: many restaurants in Xiamen also serve yuanxiao.