Glutinous rice balls with sweet red bean paste (tang yuan)
A Chinese sweet snack served with a Southeast Asian twist. In making the sugar syrup, pandan leaves were added to give it a lovely sweet floral aroma.
Ingredients
Slow cooker red bean paste
- 250 grams red beans (azuki)
- ½ cup sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Syrup
- 1 cup white sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 pandan leaves tied into a knot
- 4 slices ginger
Rice balls
- 1 cup glutinous rice flour
- 1 pinch salt
Instructions
Make the read bean paste
- Rinse the red mung beans several times and drain.
- Place the beans in the slow cooker, pour in enough water to cover them by four inches, and cook on LOW for eight hours.
- Using an immersion blender, puree the red mung beans into a paste.
- Transfer the pureed beans to a pot (it will still appear thin at this point), add the sugar and salt, and cook over medium-low heat, stirring often, until the mixture is a thick paste.
- Cool the red bean filling.
Make the syrup
- In a small pan, stir together the sugar and salt with a cup of water.
- Drop in the pandan leaves and ginger slices.
- Cook over high heat for five minutes.
- Leave to cool (do not remove the pandan leaves and ginger).
Make the rice balls
- In a bowl, stir just enough water into the glutinous rice flour to form a dough.
- Divide the dough into three portions.
- Add a few drops of red food color to one portion of the dough and knead until uniformly incorporated.
- Add a few drops of yellow food color to another portion of the dough and knead until the coloring is even.
- Divide each portion of the dough into one-inch balls.
- Flatten each ball in the palm of your hand, place teaspoonful of read bean paste at the center and gather the edges to seal in the filling.
- Bring a pot of water to a rolling boil.
- Drop in the rice balls and cook until they float to the surface.
Serve the tang yuan
- Scoop out the rice balls and divide among four bowls.
- Ladle syrup over the balls and serve.