Tang Yuan -aka always trust your nose

One thing about coming from a Chinese family is that I've learned to absolutely hate leftovers but I probably should have left the dessicated coconut alone when I noticed its weird smell..

Tang Yuan aka Yuan Xiao or Mochi (in Japanese)

..It wasn't that it was off or anything -just a weird smell reminiscent of an old book.. Yeah OK maybe I was just too lazy to run off to the store again!

Red bean paste, water and glutinous rice flour

Ingredients wise, Tang Yuan are probably the simplest thing you could make -unless, of course, you were to make a cup of water or something silly like that. Depending on your tastes, you might not even need the red bean paste as a filling but I find that a little plain.

Step 1: Mix water and glutinous rice flour into a dough

Make sure that it's GLUTINOUS rice flour that you have gotten. Believe me, I have tried it with other types of rice flour before (by mistake) and the results are really gross. In this picture, I used about 1 cup of GLUTINOUS rice flour to a little more than 1/2 cup of water -you may need to adjust it a little.

Step 2: Take a teaspoon sized ball of dough

Step 3: Flatten it out in your hand

Step 4 (optional): Place a ball of red bean paste in the centre

Step 5: Wrap the red bean paste in the dough

Step 5: An ugly white lump is formed

Step 6: Roll the ugly white lump in your hand to form a sphere. Pretend you're playing with playdough or something

Repeat steps 1 to 6 until you use up the dough or paste

Step 7: Place the Tang Yuan in a pot of boiling water

Step 8 (optional): Once cooked through, scoop out the Tang Yuan and drain (my enemy in the lurking in the background)

Step 9 (optional): Cover with dessicated coconut and leave to cool -it is VERY important to use coconut that hasn't expired

Tang Yuan are traditionally eaten during "Yuan Xiao" -better known in New Zealand as the Lantern Festival.  Yuan Xiao is literally known as "first evening" as it is the first full moon after Chinese New Year. They are eaten with family and their round shapes symbolise family togetherness. The recipe is easy peasy but rolling the Tang Yuan is quite time consuming depending on how many you want.

Tang Yuan (makes 12 large filled)

Ingredients:

1 cup Glutinous rice flour

1/2 cup Water

1 cup Red bean paste

Dessicated coconut for coating

Method:

1. Mix water and glutinous rice flour into a dough

2. Take a teaspoon sized ball of dough

3. Flatten it out in your hand

4. Place a ball of red bean paste in the centre

5. Cover the bean paste in the dough

6. Roll the ugly white lump in your hand to form a sphere.

7.  Place the Tang Yuan in a pot of boiling water

8. Once cooked through (about 10-15 minutes), scoop out the Tang Yuan and drain

9.  Cover with dessicated coconut and leave to cool

Alternative fillings include: a piece of rock sugar candy (it's very hot!), sesame paste (most common) or sweet peanut paste (my favourite).

Some people prefer to have unfilled Tang Yuan. In this case, you would omit the steps involving the filling and make your Tang Yuan smaller (unless you like to bite into big lumps of glutinous rice). Unfilled Tang Yuan are served as part of a sweet soup such as red bean soup, black sesame soup or just some rock sugar.

My Tang Yuan turned out quite pretty but, due to the yucky coconut, I could only persuade everyone to try only one piece each. Not even Jason would have more than one..

..It's OK though, I have binned the rest of the coconut and will make some more later. I have learned my lesson.