Happy Chinese New Year! Today is the first day of the Lunar New Year.
LNY is an important festival in the Chinese (lunar) calendar. Family members gather on LNY’s eve to share
the last meal of the year together. It is customary to eat rice dumplings on
that occasion as its name (in Cantonese) “t’ohng Yuen” 湯圓” sounds the same as “together/same
- round/circular”. In pronouncing the auspicious
name of this dessert one’s wishes that it will bring her/him good fortune.
Black sesame glutinous rice dumplings
Ingredients:
for ~ 20 dumplings
Dough:
- ¾ cup water
- 225g of glutinous rice flour
Prepare dough:
In a large mixing bowl stir flour with water. Knead well. The dough must be
smooth and should not stick to your hands. Add
the water gradually and adjust quantity (depending on humidity).
Divide
equally into about 20 balls. Moisten your hands with water.
Flatten each ball in your hand. Put a ball of sesame paste in the center. Fold the edge to seal the dumpling and roll it lightly into a ball in your hands.
Flatten each ball in your hand. Put a ball of sesame paste in the center. Fold the edge to seal the dumpling and roll it lightly into a ball in your hands.
Black sesame paste:
- ¼ cup of black sesame seeds – 50g butter – 50 g sugar
Steps:
Toast seeds in frying pan – put lid on – until you smell the aroma. Grind the seeds in a food processor (I used my coffee grinder). Put grounded seeds into a small pan with sugar and butter; stir until all is well incorporated and form a thick paste. Put in fridge to cool down.
Take 1/4 teaspoon of paste and roll into small balls.
Toast seeds in frying pan – put lid on – until you smell the aroma. Grind the seeds in a food processor (I used my coffee grinder). Put grounded seeds into a small pan with sugar and butter; stir until all is well incorporated and form a thick paste. Put in fridge to cool down.
Take 1/4 teaspoon of paste and roll into small balls.
Ginger syrup:
Steps:
in a saucepan boil 5 cups of water with 200g sugar (or 1 ¾ slab of raw cane sugar) and 100g ginger (crushed) and cook until it reduced to about 4 cups.
Steps:
in a saucepan boil 5 cups of water with 200g sugar (or 1 ¾ slab of raw cane sugar) and 100g ginger (crushed) and cook until it reduced to about 4 cups.
Cooking:
Put
the dumplings in a large saucepan of boiling water; remove from heat as soon as
they float. Then transfer them to the hot ginger syrup.
Dumplings can be prepared in advance and frozen. Just put the frozen dumplings in boiling water and do the same as you do with freshly made ones. Sesame paste can be replaced with a tiny bit of crushed rock sugar, or raw cane sugar, or any other sweet paste of your liking.
My
comments: make the dumplings (roll the dough lightly into a ball shape) as soon as you have made the
dough. The dough must be soft and pliable. The paste should not be too cold so
as to remain malleable. Don't keep the sesame paste too long in the fridge as
it will become too hard to use.
Yesterday
evening after our last meal of the year of the dragon we took a break before
our dessert. During this time guess what we did? Ha-ha!! Something we have to do at this time
of the year. Yes, we prepared “Lai See”
or red pocket money. It takes time to
fill in each red envelope with a “new” bill. We wish that the persons who will receive
them will have a happy, healthy and prosperous year of the snake.
Once
our annual task completed we finally enjoyed my 1st ever homemade sesame
rice dumplings!
I wish you all a happy,
healthy and prosperous new year!
祝你們 新年快樂, 身體健康,恭喜發財!
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