Chinese Rice Balls Soup Recipes

TANG YUAN, CHINESE GLUTINOUS RICE BALLS (汤圆)

Steps:

• Toast black sesame seeds (or peanuts) in a frying pan over low heat (see note 1).
• In a food processor, grind cooled black sesame seeds (or peanuts) and sugar until they turn into a paste texture.
• Add lard (or butter). Mix to combine then keep refrigerated until the mixture is firm enough to handle.
• Divide into 20 portions. Shape each piece into a ball. Put them back in the fridge while preparing the dough.
• In a mixing bowl, pour hot water into glutinous rice flour while stirring with a spatula.
• Add room temperature water (or beetroot juice) little by little.
• Knead with your hand until a smooth, soft dough forms (see note 2).
• Divide and roll into 20 balls.
• Flatten a piece of dough into a round wrapper with your fingers.
• Place a ball of filling in the middle. Gently push the wrapper upwards to seal completely (see note 3).
• Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Gently slide in some Tang Yuan (see note 4).
• Push them around with the back of a cooking spoon to prevent them from sticking to the bottom of the pot.
• When all the balls start to float on the surface, cook for a further minute.
• Dish out (along with some liquid) and serve warm.
• Freeze Tang Yuan right after they are assembled.
• Firstly you need to lay them on a tray lined with parchment paper to freeze. Then put them in an air-tight bag when totally frozen.
• Follow the same cooking procedure (do not defrost).

SAVORY CHINESE WINTER SOLSTICE SOUP

Steps:

• Combine chicken pieces, water, ginger, and salt in a large pot. Bring to a boil.
• Lower heat to medium and using a skimmer or spoon, skim the scum from the soup. Continue until scum is mostly removed.
• Reduce heat to a low, cover pot with a lid leaving a slight gap, and simmer for 2 hours.
• Rinse Chinese sausages. Cut each sausage in half lengthwise, then cut each side into diagonal strips.
• Squeeze some of the liquid from the soaked Chinese mushrooms. Trim and discard the stems, then slice the mushroom caps.
• Peel the daikon radish. Slice the daikon, creating discs approximately 1/4" thick. Lay the discs flat on the cutting board and cut them into thick strips.
• After 2 hours of simmering, remove chicken bones, ginger, and any debris from the broth.
• Add Chinese sausage, daikon radish, and Chinese mushrooms to the broth. Bring to a boil.
• Simmer for 30 minutes.
• Mix the glutinous rice flour and water until a dough forms. The dough should not be too dry or too sticky; add more rice flour or water a little at a time as necessary to achieve the correct consistency.
• Take a piece of dough in your hands and roll into a log-like shape.
• Break off a small chunk of dough, about the size of a grape, and drop it into the soup. Continue with as many dough balls as you choose to have in the soup. Heat through. Dough balls are cooked once they are all floating on the surface.
• Serve hot and garnish with chopped green onions, white pepper, or fried garlic, if desired.

CHINESE RICE BALLS SOUP

Steps:

• In a large stockpot add in the chicken broth and water brings to a boil.
• In a saucepan sauté the shrimps, sausage and pork pour into the stock pot and pour into the stock pot.
• In a very hot saucepan add oil and sauté the salted shrimps and when pink pour into the stock pot and pour into the stock pot.
• In the hot broth combine the shrimp, sausage, and mushroom simmer for 10 minutes and add in the sauté shrimps and combine. Using a bamboo strainer removes the mixture and some of the broth into a warm pot and keeps warm. Add in the turnip and blend together and add salt if needed.
• In a large mixing bowl add rice flour and slowly add in the water to combine. Roll into 1" balls and place onto a sheet pan. After all of the mixture is done; drop the finish the rice balls into the hot broth and when the rice balls is floating it done. Add in the shrimp mixture back into the pot and combine and into serving bowl.
• Spoon the mixture into the bowl and garnish with green onion and parsley. Let each quest season with sesame oil and soy sauce.

CHINESE RICE SOUP

Steps:

• Combine broth ingredients: Place chicken stock, soy sauce, Chinesse cooking wine, garlic and ginger in a small pot over high heat.
• Simmer to infuse: Place lid on, bring to simmer then reduce to medium and simmer for 5 minutes to allow the flavours to infuse.
• Add rice: Add rice and cook uncovered for 10 minutes - broth surface should be bubbling very gently.
• Add fish & stems: Add fish and stems of choy sum, cook for 2 minutes.
• Pick garlic and ginger out of soup.
• Stir through choy sum leaves (they will wilt almost instantly), sesame oil and pepper. Serve immediately.

GLUTINOUS SWEET RICE BALLS (TANG YUAN) IN OSMANTHUS GINGER SYRUP 桂花姜汁汤圆

Steps:

• First peel the skin off the old ginger. Cut the ginger into thick pieces and lightly bruised them to release their aromatic flavour.
• Then, rinse screw pine leaves and tie into a knot. And we're ready to boil the syrup.
• To cook the syrup, first, bring a pot of water to a boil.
• Add the crushed ginger and screw pine leaves into the water.
• Cover and continue to boil for 10 to 15 minutes.
• Then add sugar and sweet osmanthus and boil for another 5 minutes.
• Cover and lower heat to simmer and continue to cook for another 5 minutes, until all the sugar has dissolved and the syrup is fully infused with ginger and sweet osmanthus aroma.
• Then remove the crushed ginger and screw pine leaves from the ginger syrup. Set aside the syrup to cool while we prepare the glutinous rice balls.
• In a big bowl, add hot boiling water into glutinous rice flour to half cook the flour. The hot water will make the rice balls nice and chewy.
• Using a spoon or spatula, stir to mix well.
• Then, slowly add some cold water into the dough. Water should be added a little at a time, depending on the humidity of the flour.
• Knead the flour as you add the water to check on the consistency of the dough.
• Mix and knead till a smooth dough is formed.
• Divide the dough into smaller portions to make colourful glutinous rice balls.
• Using disposable stick or chopstick, first add red food colouring into one of the dough. Then, wearing plastic gloves, knead the dough until the colour is well distributed.
• Continue to do the same for the other dough portions using different colours leaving one part of dough without colour.
• Form each dough into long strips and using the palms of your hands, roll them into balls. It can be in different sizes.
• Place the glutinous rice balls onto a lightly floured plate to prevent sticking. Then, cover to prevent drying. And we can prepare to cook the balls!
• To cook the glutinous rice balls, first bring a pot of water to a boil. Make sure there is enough water to submerge the rice balls completely.
• Then add in the glutinous rice balls and cook for about 3 minutes. Stir occasionally to prevent the rice balls from sticking.
• The glutinous rice balls are cooked when they starts to float to the surface.
• Add 1 cup of cold water into the pot when the rice balls start to float. This is to ensure the glutinous rice balls are cooked thoroughly.
• Cover and continue to cook till the rice balls float to the surface again. And we're done!
• Using a sieve, drain out the cooked glutinous rice balls from the pot.
• Place them into a large bowl of cold water for about one minute. This will prevent the glutinous rice balls from sticking to one another and make them more chewy.
• Then drain and transfer the glutinous rice balls into the ginger syrup prepared earlier. And we're done!
• These colourful sweet glutinous rice balls can be served hot or cold. As always, Enjoy!

TANG YUAN RECIPE (PEANUT OR BLACK SESAME SEED FILLING)

Steps:

• Toast the seeds and nuts separately in a pan on the stove.
• Let them cool. Then add them separately to a blender along with the sugar and process until they form a paste.
• Remove the mixture to a bowl and add half the lard each to the peanut and the sesame seed paste. Mix until it forms a doughy consistency.
• Roll them into 10 portions each. Refrigerate the filling balls in the fridge until ready to use.
• For the dough, add boiling water into a heatproof bowl containing the glutinous rice flour. Stir continuously.
• Add room temperature water to the mixture little by a little while stirring slowly.
• Knead the dough until it becomes smooth and no longer sticky.
• Divide into 20 equal parts. Roll them into balls.
• Wrap the filling in the dough by flattening the dough balls into a circle, placing the ball of filling in the centre, and pushing up slowly until the wrapper completely covers the filling.
• Boil a large pot (around 1.5 litres) of water. Add the brown sugar and ginger. Once it boils, add the glutinous rice balls carefully. Move them with a spoon to prevent them from sticking.
• When the tang yuan float to the top, cook for a minute more and then dish out along with the syrup.
• Serve warm, or refrigerate and then serve cold. Keep the serving liquid warm so that the filling stays runny.