Chinese Sweet Dumplings (湯圓)

The past Thursday was the Lantern Festival. The Lantern Festival (元宵節) is the 15th of the first month on the Chinese calendar. It is also supposed to be the first full moon of the year. All I know about the Lantern Festival is eating dumpling with family and solving riddles (猜燈謎) on the street festival. I couldn't recall I ever go to the street festival. It never interested me when I was a kid but solving riddles on the street sounds so interesting to me now. I think I will definitely go if I have the chance to go home for Chinese New Year in the future. For the dumpling part, I think I always eat it on the day of the Lantern Festival. Eating dumpling together with family meaning the family will stay together because "dumpling" in Chinese pronounces similar to "together".

I know the dumplings "湯圓" is sometime called "元宵". I always thought they are the same thing but actually they are not! According to my brief research on the web, 湯圓 is made by preparing a stick rice dough first and then use the dough to wrap the fillings. This is the way I always made the dumpling. Simple and quick. But for 元宵, the filling is made first and then put in a pool of sticky rice powder and roll around with water gradually added until a small round ball is formed. This sounds so much more complicated!

The dumpling fillings can be sweet or salty. In Macau, we only have sweet dumplings usually with red bean paste, sesame paste (蔴蓉) or peanuts as fillings. Nowadays, you pretty much can find any favor you want and some are quite creative such as chocolate or green tea. For the salty fillings, I know usually it has some meat in it but I really don't know what exactly the fillings are. I only have the salty dumplings once when my friend made it with some meat filling. It was yummy! So, here they are. The recipes of the two sweet dumplings I made this year for the Lantern Festival. Enjoy~~


Peanuts Sesame Sweet Dumpling (花生蔴蓉湯圓)

Ingredients:

For the dough: 
2/3 cup sticky rice flour
1 tea spoon shortening
water

For the fillings:
2 table spoons raw peanuts
1 table sesame sauce 
1 table sesame seeds
2 to 3 table spoons sugar

For the soup:
1 slide brown sugar (you can find it in Chinese market)
2 cups water
1 piece ginger (about 1 inch)

Cooking Direction: 

1. Break the raw peanuts into small pieces. You can put the peanuts in a ziploc bag and break the peanuts by rolling the baking roller over.
2. Cook the peanuts in a small pan at medium heat until golden brown. No oil needed. Make sure to stir frequently or else it will be burned. Set aside and allow to cool. 
3. When the peanuts are cool. Mix the peanuts with the sesame sauce, sesame seeds and sugar. Set aside. This is the fillings. Make sure the peanuts are complete cool before mixing. Otherwise, the sugar will melt and hard to use when filling the dumplings. 
4. Sift the sticky rice flour in a medium bowl. Gradually add water and mix with your hand. Keep adding water and mix until you have a dough. Add the shortening and mix thoroughly. The dough should be moist but does not stick to your hand. 
5. Roll the dough into a small ball (about 3/4 inch). Flatten the small ball dough by your figure. Put filling on top and close the dough. Roll the dough with filling back to a small ball to form a filled dumpling. Repeat until the entire dough is used. Make about 15 to 20 dumplings.
6. Remove the skin of the ginger and sliced. Add the sliced ginger and the brown sugar into 2 cups of boiling water. Simmer until the sugar melted. Simmer additional 10 minutes. This is the brown sugar ginger soup.
7. Boil a pot of water, add the dumpling and turn the heat to medium. Cook until the dumpling flow on the top. Boil 2 more minutes.
8. Remove the dumplings into a small bowl. Add the brown sugar soup and serve.  
   
   

Black Sesame Purple Sticky Rice Sweet Dumpling 
(黑芝蔴蓉紫米湯圓)
 
Ingredients:

For the dough:
1/4 cup purple sticky rice
2/3 cup sticky rice flour
1 tea spoon shortening
water

For the fillings: 
2 table spoons black sesame powder
1 table shortening
2 to 3 table spoons sugar

For the soup:
1 slide brown sugar (you can find it in Chinese market)
2 cups water
1 piece ginger (about 1 inch)

Cooking direction:

1. Mix the black sesame powder, shortening and sugar in a small bowl. This is the filling. Set aside.
2. Soak the purple stick rice in 1 1/2 cup warm water until the water turns purple. Use this purple water to make the dough.
3. Sift the sticky rice flour in a medium bowl. Gradually add the purple water and mix with your hand. Keep adding the purple water and mix until you have a dough. Add the shortening and mix thoroughly. The dough should be moist but does not stick to your hand. 
4. Roll the dough into a small ball (about 3/4 inch). Flatten the small ball dough by your figure. Put filling on top and close the dough. Roll the dough with filling back to a small ball to form a filled dumpling. Repeat until the entire dough is used. Make about 15 to 20 dumplings.
   
5. Remove the skin of the ginger and sliced. Add the sliced ginger and the brown sugar into 2 cups of boiling water. Simmer until the sugar melted. Simmer additional 10 minutes. This is the brown sugar ginger soup.
   
6. Boil a pot of water, add the dumpling and turn the heat to medium. Cook until the dumpling flow on the top. Boil 2 more minutes.
7. Remove the dumplings into a small bowl. Add the brown sugar soup and serve.

Yummy dumplings are ready to cook~

Brown sugar ginger soup are ready!

Enjoy~~