Tong Yuen

Hello Fellow Nom Seekers!

My grandfather used to make me tong yuen to eat for dessert.  But since he can't cook anymore, it was long overdue that I made him some in return.  Tong yuens are glutinous rice balls with a sweet filling inside.  These are an interesting alternative to your traditional cake/pudding dessert as you can form these ahead of time, freeze them and pull them out of the freezer to cook.  A great emergency stand by dessert.

I made four different kinds of filling (clockwise from the top left):  black sesame, red aduki bean, walnut and peanut.  You can buy pre-made black sesame and red bean filling from the Chinese grocers but as my grandparents are diabetic, I made my fillings from scratch and used sugar substitute.  The dough for each filling is the same.  The addition of the food colouring is optional but I wanted to distinguish each flavour.

The dough recipe is from Poh Ling Yeow's "Poh's Kitchen".  The only alteration I made was the use of warm water to mix the flour rather than room temperature.

Poh's Dough Recipe (makes about 20 - 30 tong yuens depending on how big your roll them):

• 90 g of glutinous rice flour
• 100ml of warm water
• food colouring if using

1. Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl until it starts to form a dough.
2. Transfer to the bench top and knead until the dough becomes a moist ball.  If the dough seems a bit dry, add a bit more water.  If it seems too wet, add a bit more glutinous rice flour.  
3. Wrap in clingfilm until ready to fill.  

Filling:

As mentioned, you can buy pre-made filling at the Chinese grocers.  To make these from scratch, the basics are as follows:

Aduki/red bean filling:

Boil aduki beans (about 3 tablespoons of them - a little goes a long way) until soft and tender.  Drain. Mash beans in a mortar and pestle with sugar/sugar substitute to taste. Use as filling.   

Black sesame filling:

Toast a few tablespoons of black sesame seeds in a dry pan.  Turn off heat when they start to pop.  Transfer into mortar and pestle and add sugar/sugar substitute to taste.  Pound to a fine dust.  Add 1 -2 tablespoons of soft butter into the mixture to create a paste.  Use as filling  

Walnut filling:

Toast a few tablespoons of walnuts in a dry pan.  Transfer into a mortar and pestle and add sugar/sugar substitute to taste.  Pound to rubble.  Add 1 -2 tablespoon of soft butter into the mixture to create a paste.  Use as filling.  

Peanut:

I just used peanut butter straight from the jar.  

To fill:

It is easier to work with if the filling is chilled.  Therefore I generally put the fillings in the fridge for 30 minutes or so before working with them.  Break off a small piece of dough and flatten it in your hands.  Add a tiny dollop of filling.  Seal the dough over and roll it to form a ball.  

These can be frozen at this stage.  

To eat:

Take your frozen or fresh tong yuens and place them in a pot of boiling water.  They are cooked when they float to the top.  It should only take a few minutes to cook.  Drain and serve hot.  I like to serve my tong yuens still sitting in a bit of their cooking water but each to their own.  

You can eat this laced with a ginger syrup.  The ginger syrup is: 1 cup water, 1 cup sugar/sugar substitute and a few slices of ginger.  Cooked this down until syrupy.  Laced this over your tong yuens.  

Hope you get to try these as they are a relatively lo-cal dessert and perfect for those going wheat-free.  I use the left over fillings to spread on top of toast - yum!

Until next time...