black sesame glutinous rice ballsthe best glutinous rice balls i ever tasted, is probably from chengdu… the infamous 赖汤圆 (Lai Tangyuan) as they call it… it was originated by Mr. Lai Yuan Xin in 1894; who travelled to chengdu from sichuan with his cousins after the demise of his parents… after being sacked by a restaurant boss, Mr. Lai borrowed a few bucks from his cousins, and started selling nothing but glutinous rice balls.

black sesame glutinous rice ballsthe secret to his success was the milling of the rice to superfine flours, soaking the rice grains for 2 days, and changing water 2-3x every day. prior to milling the rice grains, the rice is further washed till the water is crystal clear… there are many variations to his glutinous rice balls, but today, i made only the most popular one ~ the 赖汤圆的黑芝麻心 (i.e. glutinous rice balls with black sesame stuffing)

Recipe adapted from 百度百科

black sesame glutinous rice balls

Ingredients (original recipe makes 25 bowls, 4 dumplings per bowl ~ feel free to downsize this recipe)

Dumpling
1000g glutinous rice (糯米)
250g long grain non glutinous rice (籼米)

Filling
500g confectioner’s sugar
175g lard
50g black sesame
125g flour

Directions

black sesame glutinous rice balls– soak glutinous and non-glutinous rice for 48 hours, and give it a final wash before milling
– mill till you get a superfine texture and add sufficient water to get a soft dough. divide into equal portions and cover
– lightly fry sesame seeds till aromatic, then grind them with mortar and pestle. I did mine in a food processor
– add sugar, flour and lard to sesame seeds and mix well. pack mixture into a square and cut into 1.5cm cubes
– wrap a cube of filling with dough and seal seams
– bring a pot of water to boil and place dumplings into boiling water. turn to medium heat
– once dumplings float, add some cold water to the pot so that the water is still simmering but not at a rolling boil. turn dumplings to let it cook a bit more till skin is soft
– serve with sesame paste (mix sesame paste with superfine sugar and a bit of sesame oil)

Personal notes:
black sesame glutinous rice balls– i used japanese hiragana cookie characters to imprint the words “Oishii” on the rice balls after shaping them. you can use english characters to personalise your rice balls by imprinting your family members’ or guests’ names
– i boiled the rice balls for an additional 1 minute after they started floating
– i cooked the soup with rock sugar, some ginger slices, pandan leaves, and 1/2 tsp of dried osmanthus
black sesame glutinous rice balls
Have a go at this authentic local glutinous rice balls ☆*・゜゚・*(^O^)/*・゜゚・*☆
Pollution index: 38 (excellent)

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