the 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.
the 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
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
– 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)
– 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
我喜欢吃汤丸 。。。。。。 嘻嘻嘻～
我来吃香喷喷的汤圆。
还以为冬至悄悄来临了，嘻嘻！
我要吃汤圆。
冬至还没到就有汤圆吃了，你真好，麻烦给我一碗大的。。哈哈哈～
Love to have a bowl of this from you…..especially you made this with black sesame filling. I love it.
Lovely and oishii for sure 🙂
your glutinous rice balls has so much of black sesame filling in there! yes, pls pass me a bowl please.
连汤圆都可以写字的， 真的是够特别的了！
love to eat tang yuen..what\’s more with black sesame filling, one of my favourites!
哇塞！！这汤圆太厚工了。。。给你鼓掌^^
但吃在口里一切都值得吧！呵呵
谢谢你的分享
Sound very good and I noticed the non glutinous flour in this recipe , never use this flour before, hope I can get some here..
Hi Victoria,
You made 100 dumplings! Are you serving these in a large party? For a second thought, in regardless the party is big and small, it is better to cook extra of these delicious dumplings to avoid any unnecessary food fighting :p
Zoe
Hi Vic,
Anymore tang yuan left?
These tang yuan look so delish, love the black sesame filling:)
mui
Hi, Sorry. I am new at this but what is long grain non glutinous rice? Is it like basmati rice? Also, how do i get the lard?
Thannks very much.
Am looking forward to trying to make these.
Amanda
hello amanda, yes u r right. basmati is a non glutinous long grain rice. try getting lard at baking supplies shop. definitely available. hope this helps