Chinese food Tangyuan

January 03, 2020

Tangyuan

Tangyuan or tang yuan 汤圆  is a Chinese glutinous rice flour. It can beregarded as a national dish in Chinasince found everywhere in all Chinese provinces. It is consumed mainly duringthe winter solstice is 15 days before the Chinese New Year.

Usuallythe tang yuan is eaten after a meal as dessert because it is a traditional sweetdish. Visually, this is a kind of oval rice ball with a very sweet heart.Generally, in southern China,the heart is composed of sesame, peanut, sugar and red bean paste. However,there are also savory tang yuan which then become very consistent snacks. Itsmelting texture in the mouth and delicious taste like much to the young andold. Northerners prefer a savory filling made of minced meat and vegetables.

Itscomposition and recipe varies by region. In the north, rather consume the soupand it is then called Yuanxiao. It has become in the Ming Dynasty official nameof the dish. In southern China,called tang tuan which literally means “round balls in the soup.”Formerly, this dish was a delight that we could find on the rich tables duringoccasions such as weddings. As with everything in China, the tang yuan no exception tosymbolic meaning. For married indeed, the aim is to swallow without chewing tang yuan to get lucky in their relationship. Perilous exercise since the ballis still quite substantial.

Today,the tang yuan became very famous in Asia. Thesuccess of this famous dessert rapidly crosses borders and it is not uncommonto find recipes tang yuan in European culinary magazines. The traditional dishhas also been redesigned and brought up to date to paste the advantage tomodern practices and habits. The preparation of the balls is quite long andrequires several steps it is increasingly easy to find tangyuan balls vacuum.

Inaddition, changing customs, habits and tastes of Chinese have also promoted thetransformation of tang yuan. It is possible to find the balls to more exoticflavors like chocolate. Sometimes the rice dough is replaced by mashed potatoor pumpkin pulp. The fact that the tang yuan is consumed today in length ofyears is also a sign of this development. To make the dish even more attractiveaesthetically, some rice balls are deliberately dipped in food coloring.

Amongthe recipes in vogue, there was that of Tangyuan nature ginger syrup. It takesabout 1 hour to prepare and provide 120 grams of glutinous rice flour, a spoonof sugar and 10 ml water. In boring cooking balls directly in boiling water.Grated ginger is then diluted in 75 ml water and 75 g of brown sugar and servejuice.

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