Sweet Potatoes & Glutinous Rice Balls served with Coconut Milk

26 June 2012 marked the day of my new beginning of life.  Is my marriage registration day with Simon and from here we begin our new chapter of life. 

To begin this sweet moment and sweet memory, I am inspired to make do with the Chinese traditional way of dessert – Glutinous Rice Ball or “Tang Yuan” in Chinese. 

“Tang Yuan” is a kind of Chinese dessert made from glutinous rice flour that mixed with a small amount of water to form balls and is then normally cooked and served in boiling sweetened syrup.  “Tang Yuan” also well-known with its traditionally eaten together with the family by the Chinese families.  The round shape of the glutinous balls symbolizes togetherness.  It won’t be left out during the major Chinese Festivals, for example the Chinese New Year eve, Winter Solstice, etc and of course it will also serve on the wedding days.

To make it out of the ordinary, I have added sweet potatoes and also the some different colors on the rice balls to make it brighter and tastier.  This is my first experience to serve it with coconut milk instead of the traditional way with sugary syrup.  To my surprise its churn out great!

This is my first dessert recipe which I shared on my blog and I hope this dessert will bring you back to the “sweetest” moment of life too!

Ingredients

(A) The Dough

200gm glutinous rice flour

Some water

Food Coloring (I chosen red & yellow) – optional

(B) The Syrup

4 cups of water

2 tbsp of sugar (you may add in more or less, is up to your taste)

300gm of sweet potatoes, cut in cubes

300gm coconut milk

1 slice of ginger

A pinch of salt

Directions

• Pour the glutinous rice flour in a bowl and slowly add in water bit by bit until the mixture becomes a texture of dough.
• Knead the dough with a little of warm water till it smooth.
• You may divide the dough into few portions according to how many types of colors you wish to make.
• Add in the coloring to every portion and rub again till it well-blended and smooth.
• Pinch off pieces from the dough and roll it into small balls.
• After all done, prepare a pot of boiled water.
• Pour in all the balls into the boiling water and boil for until they are floated or cooked, this step took about 5 minutes. 
• Once done remove from pot and let it drained.
• On the other hand, prepare another pot of water to boil.
• Add in ginger slice, sugar and add in sweet potato cubes and let it simmer in low heat until the sweet potatoes soften.
• Then add in the cooked glutinous balls
• Off the fire and add in coconut milk and a pinch of salt to taste.

You may serve in hot or leave it to cold and chilled in the fridge for cold serving.