#177 - 汤圆 Tutorial

Exactly 3 months ago, I blogged about the Split Tutorial.

Today, I 'prepared' another tutorial for you guys! (actually no, I just have nothing to blog about ._.)

As you may have read the title above, yes, today we are going to learn how to make 汤圆, since it's Winter Solstice otherwise known more commonly as 冬至 in Chinese. :)

I remember doing a FAQ on the 汤圆 for 冬至 a year ago. See it here.

So first things first. Make sure you come prepared!

Things to get ready:

A packet of glutinous rice flour, any brand will do. (this is randomly sourced from the net since I didn't take a photo of the flour my mum bought)

A mug of water. You would need this to mix with the flour for the 汤圆 dough.

Pink artificial edible colouring for making the pink 汤圆s.

A big traditional-like plate to store your raw hand-roll 汤圆s.

Your ahgong's time traditional-like pots to store your cooked 汤圆s.

Pandan leaves and these ice-looking rock sugar for sweetening of the 汤圆's soup. (obviously these 2 photos were sourced from net)

And last but not least, you need kind helpers like my brother and I who woke up at 6.52am in the morning just to make the 汤圆 for Winter Solstice.

*inserts photo of my brother and I posing happily with the 汤圆 here*

With the ingredients ready, let's get started.

Now I am sure most of you would know how to transform flour into a dough, so we shall skip this part, ie no photos on them.

Basically you just add water to the flour and then mix and mash till you get the dough.

Pretty obvious huh?

Remember to add the pink colouring for one of the batches of dough you made if not you'd end up with only white ones which seem to look incomplete without the pink ones there!

 Then you end up getting something that look like this.

The pink one and the white one, separated!

My brother and I split jobs and he was in charge of 'pinching' and estimating out the pieces for making the 汤圆s.

While I was in charge of making them transform into cute little chewy 汤圆s! :D

Oh and remember! It's not easy making 汤圆s.

When you are rolling it between your palm, you should not apply too much pressure.

Just place it gently between your palms and rotate it in a clockwise direction (right handers) and shape it into small little balls of 汤圆s.

The first row of 汤圆s! They look too cute to be eaten!

The first pink 汤圆!

A whole plate full of 汤圆s! :D

Okay now we're done with the 汤圆, it's time to settle the soup base!

Pandan leaves giving off nice scent!

Rock sugar by the side, getting ready to be thrown into the pot!

Not forgetting the 汤圆s which were heated up and stirred in a wok of warm water first! :)

There you have it! Nice smelling chewy QQ old school 汤圆s! :D

The end results! (mmm)

Nope I have not ended yet.

Gonna introduce another type of 汤圆s my family made.

Well Idk if anyone else makes this, but my family sure does.

ORANGE-coloured 汤圆s!!!

Okay I know they look a little too nua and disgusting here but trust me, they're nice albeit being too sweet for my liking!

The reason for their colour is because of the orange sugar(?) that my mum added!

And if you noticed, they are not shaped spherically.

I am going to show you how they actually look like before being cooked.

There you go!

This is the reason why they looked a bit mashed up in the final product picture.

And of course making it is easy as well!

You rotate it in a clockwise direction.

Then you apply a small amount of pressure on it to give it a slight dent.

And you are done! (汤圆 was resized to 2 times its original because my brother and I were fooling around with the leftover dough, hehe)

A big plateful of goodness!

Hehe bye! :)