Chicken Dish for Chinese New Year

Chicken dish is in the not-to-be-missed dish in Chinese New Year food especially during Chinese New Year reunion dinner.  Traditionally, this chicken dish will use a whole chicken including head and claws – cooked and offered to “god” before being cut to smaller pieces to be eaten.  This Chinese New Year chicken dish taste so good you must have thought the recipe is somewhat complicated.  Wrong!  This chicken dish is very easy!

Looking at this chicken dish recipe, ingredients needed are basically just a kampong chicken, salt and water!  The kampong chicken will be boiled in a pot of water (yes, just plain water) and hauled up when cooked.  When it cooled down, coat it with salt.  If you’re using this chicken dish as offerings, go ahead.  If not, wait for about 15 minutes before you cut it to smaller portions to be eaten.  So that the chicken would have absorbed a bit of the salty taste.  It is normal to serve the chicken dish cold.

What’s better still, the pot of water used to boil the chicken can be kept in freezer whole year long to be used as if chicken stock.  Use it for your noodle dishes or soup (in replacement of plain water).  It is almost tasteless but with the essence and fragrance of chicken!  Pack it into few small portions with containers or waterproof packets for use at different occasion.

The only thing concerned in preparation would be equipment.  You need to have a pot big enough for whole chicken and figure out how you’re going to haul up the whole chicken later without poking too many holes on it!  Lol!  Don’t worry, its easy if you have a large thong.  I sometimes use hands (in gloves and when it cooled down) but also seen people hauling it up with just chopsticks, one poked into the chicken’s neck part and another in the buttock.  If you’re not going to serve it as offerings, go ahead and buy cut chicken.  You’ll have no problem with equipment.

I’ve almost got the whole chicken recipe revealed already but let’s look in detail:-

Chicken Dish for Chinese New Year

Ingredients:

• 1 pot of water (enough to submerge the whole chicken + 3 inches more in height to prepare for evaporation)
• 1 whole kampong chicken (cleaned)
• 2 tbsp of salt (coarse salt preferably but fine salt will be ok too)

Preparation:

1. Boil the water and plunge in the chicken.
2. Keep boiling until cooked (about 20 minutes, test it by poking a knife into the flesh – flesh should be softer when cooked.  If you’re not sure, note that Chinese food is rather overcooked than undercooked)
3. Haul up the chicken.
4. Set aside to let cool.  Then coat the outside of the chicken with your hands.  Leave it for another 15 minutes.
5. Ready to serve.

Chinese New Year Cake (Nian Gao)

Chinese New Year is coming soon and the town is already filled with the red “hoo-hah”!  Other than spring cleaning and planning for trips, what most Chinese are concerned of is of course, Chinese New Year FOOD!  During this season, Chinese are particularly concerned of auspicious thingy.  Therefore food displayed, served or consumed are often symbolic – representing good fortune, prosperity, wealth, longevity and good health.  Some are labelled with Chinese character “fa” (prosper) or “fu” (blessing).

The day before the first of Lunar New Year is an important day for family reunion.  Sumptuous dinner with chicken and fish (not to be missed Chinese New Year food), will be served.  Chicken must be in whole with head and claws.  Whole symbolises “complete” where each and every family member will be around.  Fish in Chinese is pronounced “yu” which also means “surpluses”.  There must be fish every year to signify there will be surpluses every year.  For the same reason, the dishes shall not be consumed to the last bite!  Interesting, huh?

Where noodles are served, the noodles should not be cut – long noodles to signify longevity.  Chinese New Year cake (nian gao) is another Chinese New Year to be present for this occasion.  Chinese New Year cake is “sticky” and thereby signify family bond.  Other filling Chinese New Year foods also served are carrot cake and yam cake.

Mandarin Oranges

It is a Chinese tradition to visit relatives and friends during Chinese New Year.  So they will prepare food to be served to visitors as well!  The common ones are mandarin oranges (kum), melon seeds (kuaci), Chinese cookies (ngaku), pineapple tarts, egg folds (kueh kapit), dried meats (rou gan) and many more.  A traditional Chinese New Year snack is Chinese candy served in Chinese candy box called “ba bao” (directly translated as Eight Treasures).  Traditionally, there should be 8 compartments in a round box often red and black in colour due to its material being lacquerware.  Nowadays, there are many designs available and often made of plastic or melamine.  The traditional Chinese New Year food served in this candy box are sugared stuffs such as sugared coconut, sugared lotus root, sugared lotus seeds and also some other snacks like melon seeds.

Chinese New Year Candy Box

Another interesting Chinese New Year food is raw fish salad (yu sheng).  It is a salad made of raw strips of fish with julienned carrot, radish, sweet turnip and colourful crisps.  Salad dressing is a special sauce with sesame and sometimes grounded nuts.  Everyone will gather in a round table to toss the salad together while yelling “Lou ah!  Lou ah! Yuet lou yuet sang” and making their own wishes for wealth and prosperity!  It is something fun to do!

Although the celebration lasts until the 30^th day of Lunar New Year, the mood often fades on the 15^th day of Lunar New Year.  On this day we call Chap Goh Mei, the Chinese especially Hokkien community will serve glutinous rice balls (tang yuan).  By this time, everyone would have resumed to work and the holiday is over…

Sweet Glutinous Rice Ball

While you remember the holidays, don’t forget to wish everyone Gong Xi Fa Cai ok?  And stay tuned for Chinese New Year food recipes

Another festive occasion approaching and before it starts, let’s get ready to cook (or eat) some fine Chinese food!  Chinese food we are going to cook this time is Oyster Fat Choy with Sea Cucumber and Broccoli.  The name of this Chinese dish does sound “challenging” to cook but we have a “friendly” food recipe here.  And hey, this oyster dish is served in a renowned 5-star hotel, Hotel Equatorial Kuala Lumpur!  Now, some effort in the kitchen is sure worth to show off a fine Chinese dish this Chinese New Year, huh?

I had wondered if “fat choy” is still available out there.  Now I know it sure is!  Fat choy symbolises prosperity in Chinese’s belief and an ingredient not to be missed during Chinese New Year.  It can be a dish on its own too.  It is often available in Chinese medical halls and supermarkets.  Some mini markets operated by Chinese might stock some since Chinese New Year is near.

The rest of the ingredients, I’m sure you guys know where to get them now.  Supermarkets would have them all .  Oh, sea cucumber is another ingredients favoured by Chinese so you may only be able to find them in Chinese markets (pasar pagi or pasar borong).  Look for the seafood section.

Get all the ingredients ready and start to prepare them.  Cooking methods used for this oyster dish include blanching, boiling, simmering and steaming – all being water cooking methods.  So, good news to those who hates frying .  Let’s look at this 5-star Chinese food recipe:-

Oyster Fat Choy Recipe (Serves 10pax)

Ingredients:

• 150gm of Korean oyster meat (blanched)
• 2gm of “fat choy” (chopped)
• 150gm of chicken meat (minced)
• 20gm of ginger (sliced)
• 50gm of spring onion (sliced)
• 10gm of corn flour
• Egg white of 2 nos. of egg
• 20gm of oyster sauce
• 10gm of light soya sauce
• 5gm of dark soya sauce
• 2 litres of water
• Salt and sugar to taste
• ½ tsp of chicken powder

Garnish

• 500gm of sea cucumber (blanched and thickly sliced)
• 500gm of broccoli (blanched)

Preparation:

1. In a pot filled with 2 litres of water, add oyster sauce, ginger, spring onion, light and dark soya sauce, salt and sugar.  Bring to boil.
2. Add the oysters and simmer for 30 minutes.  Strain off the water and ingredients except oysters.
3. Meanwhile, combine corn flour, egg whites, chicken powder and sugar then combine with chicken meat and fat choy.  Mould it into meat balls with your hands.  Baste the meat balls with corn starch (corn flour + some water).
4. Place meat balls on top of oysters and steamed for 8 – 10 minutes in a steamer.
5. Garnish with sea cucumber and broccoli.
6. Ready to serve with oyster sauce.

Teochew Steamed Fish

Teochew Steamed Fish is slightly sour and salty therefore so appetising that it keeps you hungry throughout the meal! Teochew Steamed Fish is like a combination of Salted Vegetable with Beancurd Soup and Steamed Fish.  Of course not so much of water involved, just enough to create some delicious sauce to top on steaming white rice.

A simple steamed fish the Chinese style may just have Xiao Xing wine and ginger – both being common ingredients in casting away the fishy smell of seafood dishes.  Teochew Steamed Fish recipe however, is improved with additional ingredients including salted vegetable, beancurd and tomato which enhance the taste to a different kind.  Pickled plums are commonly used for Teochew Steamed Fish however the Teochew Steamed Fish recipe below does not involve this ingredient.  I find it tastes just nice as it is

This Teochew Steamed Fish recipe uses pomfret but it also works well with other fishes such as seabass.  The advantage of using pomfret is that it is easy to handle even if you forgot to get the fish monger to help you.  All that is necessary to do is to remove those thin and tiny scales and clear its tummy and gill.  Normally fish monger at market would automatically do these for you or you can just ask – no extra charge.  How to know if the fish is fresh?  Look at the eyes – watery and transparent but may be a little bloody though.  Then press the cheek to see that blood still comes out from the gill.

For those who prefer some spiciness, adding some chillies to steam the fish will satisfy your taste bud but do not overdo as chillies may cover the overall taste of this Teochew Steamed Fish if too much is added.  Overall, all ingredients used in Teochew Steamed Fish recipe shared below are pretty common and easily available for sure.  You sure know where to get them.

Not much seasoning required in this Teochew Steamed Fish recipe as there is enough flavours from the ingredients.  Enjoy this appetising Teochew Steamed Fish!

Teochew Steamed Fish Recipe (Serves 2)

Ingredients:

Ingredients to steam with the fish

• 1 no. of medium size Pomfret ~250gm (scaled, cleaned)
• ½ tsp of salt (to marinate fish for few minutes)
• 1 no. of brick tofu – beancurd (cubed)
• ½ leaf of salted vegetable (shredded)
• 2 nos. of shallot (finely chopped)
• 2 cloves of garlic (finely chopped)
• 2” of ginger (finely chopped)
• 1 no. of tomato (sliced)
• 1 tbsp of Xiao Xing wine (Chinese wine)
• 2 tbsp of water
• 1 tsp of sesame oil

Optional:

• ¼ no. of red chilli (sliced)

Preparation:

Arrange ingredients in a deep plate and steam till fish is cooked

1. Make 3 slits on both sides of the fish and marinate the fish with salt for a minute or two.
2. Arrange all ingredients in a deep, metal or porcelain plate with the fish in the middle.  Make sure not too much ingredients on top or underneath the fish to avoid having uncooked parts.  Xiao Xing wine should be poured on the fish directly while water shall just be added to the side to prevent washing away the wine from the fish.
3. Steamed in steamer until the fish’s eyes bulge.  Poke the tip of a knife into the thickest part of the fish and make sure the knife comes out clean.
4. Ready to serve.

Teochew Steamed Fish

Asam Fish

You would think of spicy dishes when it comes to Malaysian dishes.  Curry and rendang dishes are some of the common ones but asam dishes should not be forgotten too.  Today we are cooking Asam Fish the Malaysian way!  You’ll learn how easy are spicy dishes and fish dishes.

Now, question marks float in your head when you look at the name of herbs and spices used in Asam Fish recipe.  I know…therefore I’ve got photo with name of ingredients labelled.  Don’t worry if you don’t know or never seen them before, they are easy to get from supermarket, mini market, sundry shop, morning/ night market stalls – especially those operated by Malay or Indian for they are the spicy dishes experts!  Just tell them what you need.

I’m using Malay names for these spices and herbs but just in case you’re more familiar with English names, they are enclosed in italic font in the Asam Fish recipe below.

ALL ingredients in Asam Fish recipe below are essential (please note, just in case you can’t find some of them) especially irreplaceable are daun kesum, bunga kantan, serai and asam jawa juice.  Em…ok, some may be reduced or replaced such as shallot and garlic which contributes to the sweetness of this Asam Fish dish, can be replaced with more chicken powder and sugar but really not advisable though.

For those who can’t take too spicy, I’ve made cili padi optional in this Asam Fish recipe.  So this Asam Fish recipe is only mildly spicy.  Add cili padi to get extra hot Asam Fish if so desired.

Follow this Asam Fish recipe closely, you’ll love it!

Assam Fish Recipe (Serves 3)

Asam Fish Ingredients

Ingredients:

• 4 tbsp of cooking oil
• 4 stalks of daun kesum (tied to knot) – Vietnamese coriander/ laksa leaf/ polygonum
• 1 no. of bunga kantan (halved) – wild ginger bud
• 2 tbsp of asam jawa (melted in 100ml of water for juice, strained off the residue) – tamarind juice
• 600ml of water
• 100gm of lady’s finger (sliced/ halved)
• 3 pcs of fish fillet (about 400gm)
• 1 no. of large tomato (wedged)

Ground Ingredients (combined):

• 2 tbsp of chilli paste
• 1 tbsp of fish curry powder
• 1 tbsp of chicken powder
• 5 nos. of shallots
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 2” of ginger (sliced for ease of grinding)
• 3 nos. of buah keras (crushed) – candlenuts
• 2 stalks of serai (sliced for ease of grinding) – lemongrass

Optional:

• 50gm of cili padi (crushed/ ground)

Seasoning:

• 2 tbsp of sugar
• A pinch of salt

Asam Fish Ingredients

Preparation:

1. Heat cooking oil in a deep pan or wok.  Stir fry daun kesum, bunga kantan and ground ingredients till fragrant.
2. Add asam jawa juice.  Stir to mix and bring to simmer.
3. Add water and bring to boil.
4. Add lady’s finger followed by the fish.  Bring to boil then simmer.
5. Season with sugar and salt.
6. Toss in tomato wedges and stir to mix evenly.
7. Ready to serve.

Asam Fish Cooking Method

If you follow closely the Asam Fish recipe above, I bet even your pan will be licked clean at the end of the day.  Except for daun kesum and bunga kantan (unless you ground them as well and yes, you may do so).  Have a spicy day

Asam Fish

Sambal Prawns

Sambal Prawns is a popular local dish favoured by all races.  Prawns are cooked in spicy chilli paste sometimes with onions, garlic and various spices and seasoning as desired.  Sambal Prawns is also referred as Chilli Prawns or Spicy Prawns in some recipes.

Cooking prawns sounds easy when you look at this Sambal Prawns recipe.  Firstly, the ingredients are easy to find.  Other than prawns, the main ingredient is chilli paste which can be found in sundry shops, mini markets or supermarket in packet or plastic cup container.  Secondly, very little preparation tasks and finally, this Sambal Prawns recipe uses easy cooking methods.  Just heat some oil and stir fry all ingredients till cooked.  If you like it hot (burning spicy!), crushed some chilli padis and toss in while cooking.

The hassle in preparing Sambal Prawns may just lie on cleaning and cutting prawns.  Find out how to clean and cut prawns.

Although it may be hard to find chilli paste for the sambal in some countries, you can actually make their own chilli paste.  Chilli paste, also known as “cili boh” or “cili giling” is actually grounded dried chillies.  Anyway, we’re not gonna talk about the making of chilli paste here.  Let’s look at Sambal Prawns recipe:-

Sambal Prawns Recipe (Serves 5 pax)

Ingredients:

• 3 tbsp of cooking oil
• 1 no. of onion (chopped)
• 200gm of chilli paste (about 4 tbsp)
• 1 no. of onion (sliced)
• 300gm prawns (cleaned and shelled)
• 2 cups of water
• 2 tsp of salt
• 1 tsp of sugar
• 1 tbsp of light soy sauce

Sambal Prawns Ingredients

Preparation:

1. Marinate prawns with 1 tsp of salt for few minutes.
2. Meanwhile, heat cooking oil in a wok.
3. Stir fry the chopped onions till fragrant.
4. Toss in chilli paste and continue to stir fry under moderate to low fire.  Be careful not to let burn.
5. Toss in prawns and continue to stir.
6. Add water and continue stirring to prevent burn.
7. Toss in sliced onions and stir to mix evenly.
8. Stir in 1 tsp of salt, sugar and light soy sauce.
9. When water dries up a little, turn off the fire and scoop up to serve.

Sambal Prawns Cooking Method

Note that chilli paste gets burnt easily if left unattended therefore it is wise to stir continuously.  If you find that the chilli paste becomes too thick, add a little bit of water gradually.  You can always adjust the quantity of seasoning to tweak the taste to your preference later.  Chilli paste needs to be cooked longer to remove the raw taste of chilli so don’t be lazy if you want to serve Sambal Prawns!

Sambal Prawns

Chicken Porridge

Chicken Porridge amongst all is a simple porridge dish, often the basic in cooking flavoured porridge.  Consist of just chicken and rice porridge, this dish can be enhanced with other ingredients to adapt to different porridge dishes such as Peanuts Porridge, Dried Oyster Porridge, Vegetable Porridge and etc.  As the names sound, add peanuts, dried oyster or varieties of vegetables to create different porridge dishes with Chicken Porridge as source.

As in cooking soup, chicken bones contribute a lot in flavouring porridge.  Therefore if you are cooking basic Chicken Porridge, it is preferred to use chicken whole leg (fleshy with some bones) rather than chicken breast.  However, if you prefer less oily porridge which is healthier, use skinless chicken breast or remove fats and skin from the chicken whole leg.

What are the ingredients required for Chicken Porridge?  Well, just chicken, rice, water and seasoning.  If you happen to have chicken stock, replace water with chicken stock to boost the taste of chicken.  So irresistibly yummy that you’ll find there is no need to further enhance the dish with other ingredients!

How simple is Chicken Porridge recipe?  Just look at how short this porridge recipe is

Chicken Porridge Recipe (Serves 3 pax)

Ingredients:

• 3 cups of rice (rinsed)
• 1 no. of chicken whole leg (marinate with 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp oyster sauce for 15 mins)
• 750ml of water or chicken stock
• 1 tsp of salt
• 1 tsp of light soy sauce
• A sprinkle of pepper powder
• 1 can of braised peanuts (optional)
• 1 tsp of chicken powder (optional)

Chicken Porridge Cooking Method

Preparation:

1. Cook rice, chicken and water in rice cooker till boiling.  If you’re opting for canned braised peanuts and chicken powder, add on as well.
2. Remove chicken and shred the flesh.  Put the shredded flesh and bones back into the porridge.
3. Season with salt, light soy sauce and pepper.  Let the porridge boil until rice is fluffy.
4. Serve hot in a bowl.

Cooking time for Chicken Porridge is less than 15 minutes in a rice cooker.  It may take a while if you’re using slow cooker but slow cooker is always a better option for porridge (and soup too) as it cooks slowly hence greatly but gradually draws out the flavour from the ingredients.  You can just pop EVERY single ingredient and seasoning into slow cooker in the morning and return home in the evening to enjoy your flavourful Chicken Porridge on time if not earlier!

Chicken Porridge

ROAST TURKEY http://www.flickr.com/photos/tuchodi/ / CC BY 2.0

Yet another delicious Christmas bird recipe shared by Hotel Equatorial Kuala Lumpur; this time its turkey – the all time favourite Christmas main course.  It seems that as long as you have a turkey dish in the middle of the table during Christmas dinner, the rest of the food doesn’t really matter (or is it not so?)!  Lol!  Ok, it does matter if you want to feel more Christmas-ty

Pan Fried Turkey with Fresh Thyme has a local touch with all ingredients easily available.  Marinades used in this turkey recipe include chicken powder, egg white, corn flour and Chinese wine.  Marinate slices of turkey breast with these ingredients for 30 minutes.  Then pan fry them with some fats.  Top them with a special sauce (recipe included).

This turkey recipe is a good choice for those who are unable to cook whole turkey (oven or pot not big enough) since it uses turkey breast; and those who are catering for small group for dinner.

Some might say, hello Christmas is over…yeah, I know but loath not to share such good Christmas recipe with you guys.  Any homemade dish can be eaten any day of the year .  You may want to cook this recipe for Chinese New Year so why wait for another Christmas?  Let’s try it out.

Oriental Roast Pigeon Recipe (Serves 5 pax)

Ingredients (marinades):

• 450gm of turkey breast (cut to slices)
• 50gm of chicken powder
• Egg white from 1 no. of chicken egg
• 2 tbsp of corn flour
• 100gm of Chinese wine

Ingredients (Sauce):

• 60gm of asparagus (cut to 3cm stick)
• 60gm of carrot (cubed)
• 10gm of ginger (sliced or julienned)
• 30gm of spring onion (diced)
• 10gm of fresh herbs (thyme)
• 50gm of oyster sauce
• 50gm of chicken powder
• 20gm of sugar + dark soy sauce
• 2 tbsp of Hong Kong flour
• Cooking oil as necessary

Preparation:

1. Marinate turkey with egg white, chicken powder, corn flour and Chinese wine for 30 minutes.
2. Heat some oil in a pan to pan fry the turkey for about 2 minutes.  Set aside.
3. Heat small amount of oil in a pan.  Sauté ginger and spring onion till fragrant.
4. Add asparagus, carrot, fresh herbs, oyster sauce, chicken powder, sugar, dark soy sauce and Hong Kong flour.  Continue to sauté.
5. Add the cooked turkey meat and stir to mix well.

Turn off the fire and ready to serve.

Oriental Roast Pigeon

You won’t believe this – only 3 steps to cook a 5-star hotel’s Christmas dish at home!  I was surprised when I first found this Christmas food recipe.  This is a Christmas dish Hotel Equatorial Kuala Lumpur will serve until 31^st December 2009.  Gonna miss it?  Freak not, after learning this special Christmas food recipe you will be able to enjoy this Christmas dish at home not only during Christmas.

Birds are never forgotten during Christmas and our bird-of-the-day is PIGEON!  Hotel Equatorial Kuala Lumpur shares with you the Oriental Roast Pigeon recipe.

Other than only 3 simple steps to cook, ingredients in Oriental Roast Pigeon recipe are surprisingly easy to find too.  Being cooked the Chinese way, most ingredients are pretty “Chinese” such as Shaoxing wine, Chinese wine, Chinese parsley…but these are easily available in our local sundry shops, Chinese medical halls, mini markets, supermarkets and hypermarkets

Marinate pigeons with the ingredients for few hours then deep fry the marinated pigeons.  And…READY TO SERVE!  Enjoy your Oriental Roast Pigeon

Oriental Roast Pigeon Recipe (Serves 4 pax)

Ingredients:

• 4 nos. of pigeon
• ½ bottle of Shaoxing wine
• ½ bottle of Chinese wine
• 5kg of water (equivalent to 5L)
• 50gm of sugar
• 50gm of chicken powder (Aromat or any other brands)
• 100gm of soya sauce
• 10gm of ginger (blended in food processor)
• 10gm of Chinese parsley (blended in food processor)
• 30gm of spring onion (blended in food processor)

Preparation:

1. Mix all ingredients and marinate the pigeons for 4 hours.
2. Deep fried the marinated pigeons in hot cooking oil for about 5 – 8 minutes.
3. Ready to serve.

I can’t wait to cook my own Oriental Roast Pigeon.  Em…for tomorrow’s dinner maybe

Sweet Glutinous Rice Ball

December is indeed a special month of festivals.  Other than Christmas that everyone cheer for (holiday and sales!!), there is Chinese’s Dongzhi Festival.  I will not forget to share my favourite festive food for Dongzhi Festival, Glutinous Rice Ball!

Traditionally Glutinous Rice Ball are consumed during Dongzhi Festival (Winter Solstice Festival) celebrated by Chinese and other East Asians.  Due to its popularity, this festive food can now easily be found served in dessert specialty restaurants throughout the year or purchased raw but ready made from supermarkets or markets during this season for own cooking.  Otherwise, do it yourself!  Glutinous Rice Ball are easy to cook.  Now anyone can eat Glutinous Rice Ball anytime throughout the year!

This festival falls on or around December 22^nd.  It is one of the most important festivals amongst Chinese where family get together for meal.  This time, Glutinous Rice Ball which is called Tang Yuan in Mandarin, will be served as a symbol of reunion.

Glutinous Rice Ball are made of glutinous rice flour.  These Glutinous Rice Ball can be plain or stuffed with fillings but often brightly coloured and cooked in sweet soup or salty broth.  The Glutinous Rice Ball recipe shared below is cooked in sweet soup the local way.

Although ready made and cooked Glutinous Rice Ball is easily available and save a lot of hassle, making Glutinous Rice Ball isn’t that hard at all.  Ingredients required are just glutinous rice flour and sugar for glutinous rice ball; gula melaka and pandan leaves for the sweet soup.

Instead of using artificial colouring to colour the Glutinous Rice Ball, this recipe shares some tips on using food as colouring instead.  Purple colour comes from yam while red colour comes from red dragon fruit.  Green colour can also be made from pandan leaves.  Divide the flour to different portion for different colours when making the Glutinous Rice Ball dough.  No point mixing all colourings together in one dough, right?  If you find it a hassle, you can just use artificial colouring or just make it plain without any colour.  As for stuffing, red bean paste is the easiest to handle while grounded peanuts are easiest to find.

Now let’s look at our local Tang Yuan recipe!

Glutinous Rice Ball Recipe (Serves 10 pax)

Ingredients:

• 1kg of glutinous rice flour
• 2 tbsp of sugar for glutinous rice ball
• 2 ½ cups of water for glutinous rice ball
• 300gm of gula melaka for soup
• 3 tbsp of sugar for soup
• 5 nos. of pandan leaves (tied up) for soup
• 3 litres of water for soup

Optional Ingredients for colouring:

• ½ nos. of dragon fruit (blended) to 500gm of flour for colouring– please reduce water for glutinous rice ball
• 100gm of yam (skin peeled and blended) to 500gm of flour for colouring

Optional Ingredients for filling:

• Grounded peanuts
• Red bean paste

 

Preparation:

1. In a big mixing bowl, mix glutinous rice flour with sugar.  If you opted for powder type colouring, please mix the colouring as well.  Note that only one colour for one dough.  For more than one colour, divide the flour to few parts accordingly.
2. Make a well in the middle of the flour mixture and add water to the well bit by bit while stirring the water with a fork to slowly blend in the water.  If you are using liquid colouring, add the colouring to the water.
3. When the flour mixture thickens, knead into dough that is slightly sticky and not too dry.
4. Cut the dough into smaller portions and roll every portion with hands into a long, thick bar.
5. Cut the bar-like-dough into smaller portions, the size of a fish ball (or smaller) and roll each portion with both hands into a ball.  Set aside on big flat plate and prevent the glutinous rice ball by touching each other.  To wrap fillings, flatten a thick ball, place the filling in the middle and wrap it up nicely.  If necessary, flatten another piece of glutinous rice ball to cover any holes to prevent filling from leaking out when cooking.
6. Meanwhile, put water, gula melaka, sugar and pandan leaves in a pot to make sweet soup.  Bring the sweet soup to boil.
7. Add all glutinous rice balls into the sweet soup and continue to boil until the glutinous rice balls float on top to indicate they’re cooked.
8. Turn off fire and Glutinous Rice Balls are ready to be served!

Sweet Glutinous Rice Ball