Glutinous Rice Balls Chinese Dessert Natural Color Marble Design Tang Yuan Tong Yuen | BIG Bites MY

Glutinous Rice Balls Tang Yuan  / Tong Yuen

As kids, the Winter Solstice festival is the most anticipated Chinese festival on the calendar because that is the day we get to play with our food, and whatever we make goes into the pot, and we get to eat our handiwork when it's cooked! This tong sui dessert can be prepared with very few ingredients, SO EASY LAH!

Watch video for step-by-step method of preparation

Click on the links below for printable recipe cards:
PART 1: Groundnut Dip & Ginger Syrup
PART 2: The Natural Colors
PART 3: Making the Dough (White & Yellow)
PART 3: Making the Dough (Green & Pink)
PART 4: Rolling the Rice Balls
PART 5: Cooking & Serving the Rice Balls

Prep time: 4 hours

Cooking time: 30 minutes

Serving: 8 - 10 (increase portions accordingly if you are cooking for more)

GROUNDNUT / PEANUT DIP:

• Ingredients:
• 100g ground roasted peanuts
• 10g castor sugar
• Method:
• Add sugar to the ground roasted peanuts and stir to combine
• Scoop some into little containers to be used as a dip later

GINGER SYRUP:

• Ingredients:
• 1000ml water
• 5 pieces pandan leaves
• 40g ginger
• 30g sugar
• Method:
• Scrape off the ginger skin and rinse it clean. Bash to release flavor.
• Rinse pandan leaves to wash off dirt and soil. Bruise them to release flavor and tie a knot.
• Bring 1000ml of water to a boil. Add sugar, ginger and pandan leaves.
• Cover pot (leave a gap to prevent spillover). Boil over MEDIUM LOW heat for 15 minutes.
• Remove pandan leaves and ginger

THE NATURAL COLORS:

• Ingredients:
• Yellow:
• 100g pumpkin
• 2 tablespoons (30ml) water
• Green:
• 6 pieces pandan leaves
• 4 tablespoons (60ml) water
• Pink:
• 30g beetroot
• 2 tablespoons (30ml) water
• Method:
• Peel, deseed and rinse the pumpkin. Then cut the pumpkin into small cubes.
• Rinse the beetroot. Cut off a small slice (about 30g). Peel it and cut it into small cubes.
• Steam the pumpkin and beetroot cubes over MEDIUM LOW heat for about 12 minutes or until they soften
• Pumpkin Puree (Yellow):
• Blend the steamed pumpkin cubes with 2 tablespoons of water
• Pass the blended pumpkin through a sieve for a smooth puree
• Weigh 15g of the pumpkin puree and set aside for later
• Beetroot Extract (Pink):
• Blend the steamed beetroot cubes with 2 tablespoons of water
• Strain the blended beetroot to remove the pulp
• Weigh 15g of the beetroot extract and set aside for later
• Pandan Extract (Yellow):
• Rinse pandan leaves to wash off dirt and soil. Cut into small pieces.
• Blend the pandan leaves with 2 tablespoons of water
• If it is very dry, add in more water (I added in another 2 tablespoons of water)
• Pour the blended ingredients into a strainer to extract the pandan juice
• Weigh 15g of the pandan extract and set aside for later
• Notes:
• Steaming the pumpkin and beetroot before blending them to extract the colors removes the “raw” and “green” taste from the cooked rice balls. If you omit this step and blend the raw ingredients without cooking it, there is a tinge of “green” taste in the cooked rice balls
• You can use a slow juicer to extract the pure juice from the pumpkin, beetroot and pandan instead of blending them. Then just bring the juices to a boil to remove the “raw” taste
  
• If you feel that it is time-consuming to make purees and juices to color the dough, you can skip this portion completely. Just replace the 15g of juices / puree needed in the colored dough recipes with 15g of room-temperature water and a small drop of food coloring

MAKING THE DOUGH:

• Ingredients:
• The White Dough:
• 300g glutinous rice flour
• 180g boiling water
• 90g room-temperature water
• The Yellow Dough:
• 50g glutinous rice flour
• 30g boiling water
• 15g pumpkin puree (room-temperature)
• The Green Dough:
• 50g glutinous rice flour
• 30g boiling water
• 15g pandan extract (room-temperature)
• The Pink Dough:
• 50g glutinous rice flour
• 30g boiling water
• 15g beetroot extract (room-temperature)
• Method:
• White Dough:
• Add the boiling water to the glutinous rice flour and stir to combine
• When the glutinous rice flour and boiling water are thoroughly mixed, add the room-temperature water. Stir to combine.
• If the dough is too wet (sticky), sprinkle some glutinous rice flour and continue mixing
• When you see the dough forming, you can start kneading it with your hands
• The dough is ready when it forms a nice round ball and is no longer sticky
• Wrap with cling wrap to prevent the dough from drying out while preparing the other doughs
• Yellow Dough:
• Add the boiling water to the glutinous rice flour and stir to combine
• When the glutinous rice flour and boiling water are thoroughly mixed, add the room-temperature pumpkin puree. Stir to combine.
• If the dough is a bit dry, add 1 tablespoon of water. Stir to combine.
• If the dough is too wet (sticky), sprinkle some glutinous rice flour and continue mixing
• When you see the dough forming, you can start kneading it with your hands
• The dough is ready when it forms a nice round ball and is no longer sticky
• Wrap with cling wrap to prevent the dough from drying out while preparing the other doughs
• Green Dough:
• Add the boiling water to the glutinous rice flour and stir to combine
• When the glutinous rice flour and boiling water are thoroughly mixed, add the room-temperature pandan extract. Stir to combine.
• When you see the dough forming, you can start kneading it with your hands
• The dough is ready when it forms a nice round ball and is no longer sticky
• Wrap with cling wrap to prevent the dough from drying out while preparing the other doughs
• Pink Dough:
• Add the boiling water to the glutinous rice flour and stir to combine
• When the glutinous rice flour and boiling water are thoroughly mixed, add the room-temperature beetroot extract. Stir to combine.
• When you see the dough forming, you can start kneading it with your hands
• The dough is ready when it forms a nice round ball and is no longer sticky
• Wrap with cling wrap to prevent the dough from drying out
• Notes
• It is possible to just use room-temperature water to make the dough, but you will find it drier and more crumbly. The cooked rice balls will be soft but not “QQ” and chewy.
• Adding boiling / hot water to the rice flour “cooks” it and changes the viscosity of the dough. The dough is more pliable, stretchy and elastic. And the cooked rice balls will taste more “QQ” and chewy.

ROLLING THE RICE BALLS

• Method:
• White Rice Balls:
• Divide the dough into 4 portions. Remove 1 portion and set aside the rest for later.
• Stretch and roll the dough to make a long thin log. Then cut the log into bite-sized portions.
• Roll the bite-sized portions into little round rice balls
• Yellow Rice Balls:
• Use the yellow dough and 1 portion of the remaining 3 portions of the white dough
• Divide the yellow dough into 2 portions and the white dough into 3 portions
• Flatten the dough slightly to make long flat pieces of dough. Stack the pieces of dough on top of one another. White, yellow, white, yellow, white.
• Stretch and roll the stacked dough to make a long thin log. Then cut the log into bite-sized portions.
• Roll the bite-sized portions into little round rice balls
• Green Rice Balls: 
• Use the green dough and 1 portion of the remaining 2 portions of the white dough
• Repeat steps 2 to 5 from the Yellow Rice Balls method above
• Pink Rice Balls:
• Use the pink dough and the last portion of the white dough
• Repeat steps 2 to 5 from the Yellow Rice Balls method above

COOKING THE RICE BALLS:

• Method:
• Bring 800ml of water to a boil and drop in the required quantity of rice balls you need for serving
• Boil over MEDIUM LOW heat. Stir occasionally.
• When the rice balls float to the surface, they are cooked.
• Remove them and drop them into the ginger syrup.

SERVING THE RICE BALLS:

• Method:
• Serving the wet version with the rice balls in the ginger syrup
• To serve the dry version, place the ground peanut mix at the bottom of the bowl
• Drop the rice balls on top of the ground peanut mix in the bowl
• Notes:
• The recipe shown here uses a whole packet of flour, so you will have enough to feed up to 10 people. If you do not need such a large quantity of the glutinous rice balls, they can be frozen to be cooked another day.