That Tong Zhi that I missed....

Ok, what I meant is missed out in posting...Haha, I should have done it that day itself when the Tong Yuen were made, but obviously as usual...laziness is simply overwhelming! >.<

So what is this "Tong Yuen" thing? If you really want to find out about all the strories behind the celebration, check out Su Yin's blog, I reckon she has a really comprehensive explanation there...

If that is the case, what am I up to? Haha The process ofcourse! Now to make really nice Tong Yuen, the soup is more important that the glutinous rice balls themselves. Why? If your soup is no good, even the best filled glutinous rice balls would not taste nice. Now, the catch here is to make the soup as spicy and fragrant as possible. Hence, prepare heaps of ginger, preferably old ones, but just use young ones if you cannot find any, A LOT of them! Just lightly crush the ginger with a stone mortar prior tp use...

Now, prepare heaps of 'Gula Melaka' as well (better known as pal sugar?), they do not necessarily go to the soup, in fact it would be better if you do not use them in the soup as well, any fine white sugar would be fine. Throw all the ginger, some tied pandan leafs and sugar into a big pot of water...bring it to boil. You should be able to smell the aroma and spiciness of the ginger soup all over your kitchen (or even house) when it is ready...

Finely chopped or crush the palm sugar to desired sizes. Then you can start to roll up the glutinous rice pastry. To make things easier, you can easily get these pastry in the markets (well in Malaysia that is) when the season comes. If that is not you case, simply make your own. Start with normal glutinous rice flour, add 1/2 cup of hot water to start the rolling process, add cold or lukewarm water there after to form your desired dough (the best doughs are nice and firm and do not crack when you roll them or press them), add colourings as well to make things fun and exciting! ...

When rolling the rice balls, put some crushed palm sugar in the middle of the dough before starting to roll them, that is the most basic type of filling you could add to the glutinous rice balls. If you want feeling adventurous, add crushed peanuts, or black sesame, red bean paste etc. Anything you like, but the golden rule is, "Do Not be Greedy"! Otherwise, you will end up with overfilled and crushed rice balls, they do not cook easily as well in that sense...

Now the next big thing about making and preparing food is to PUT SOME CREATIVITY into your food, look at all the things that you could try to make just with this very fundamental glutinous rice dough, well these are largely thanks to my cousins and brothers who all helped out to make the rice balls that day, it is a family thing! Haha

These capsicums and carrots are courtesy of my brother, Haha. He insists that that is a pumpkin and not campsicum, what do you think? =)

After you are done with rolling and shaping the 'rice balls', throw them into the boiling ginger soup and when they start to float in the soup, they are cooked, serve hot or warm when the spiciness of the soup is still strong. The whole idea is to give the person who eats and drinks the Tong Yuen some warmth in the dawn of the winter season...