How to make fermented rice wine tangyuan (glutinous rice balls) truly delicious? An expert recipe: fermented rice wine is nourishing and versatile, for sweet or savory cooking

Next Monday (12/21) is the winter solstice of the Gengzi Year of the Rat, the day with the shortest daylight and the longest night of the year. According to folk custom, eating winter solstice tangyuan means growing a year older, and once these round dumplings symbolizing reunion are eaten, the Lunar New Year is just around the corner.

If eating tangyuan plain feels too monotonous, pair it with its perfect match: fermented rice wine! Fermented rice wine tangyuan is the most fitting food for the winter solstice. In Taiwan, China, apart from the central and southern regions, this year's winter solstice is especially cold, so toss aside the hand warmer and enjoy a bowl of piping hot fermented rice wine tangyuan! May everyone be full of vigor and vitality as we welcome the Year of the Ox together.

Fermented rice wine is a gentle warming tonic; a Chinese medicine doctor says healthy people can eat it every day

In traditional Chinese medicine theory, fermented rice wine is sweet in taste and warm in nature, able to invigorate blood and replenish qi. From the perspective of nutritional science, because fermented rice wine contains alcohol, it can promote blood circulation and speed up metabolism.

Chinese medicine doctor Wu Honggan states that rice wine and glutinous rice are both gently warming ingredients, each with its own function, and once made into fermented rice wine, the added effect of enzymes makes it even more beneficial to the human body. "Besides the lungs, liver and kidneys needing enzymes to assist their function, the digestive system needs them even more." Wu Honggan says the pH of fermented rice wine is about pH4, suitable for intestinal beneficial bacteria to survive, with an effect similar to probiotics, so many people feel their bowel movements become smoother after eating fermented rice wine. It would not be an exaggeration to call it "Oriental yogurt."

Although fermented rice wine is a seasonal food, Wu Honggan says healthy people can actually eat it every day without issue. Cooking eggs in fermented rice wine as breakfast in the morning keeps you full of energy all day; heating fermented rice wine before bed and eating it can invigorate blood and aid sleep, and can also greatly improve the problem of cold hands and feet in women during winter. If you worry about too many calories, just do not add extra sugar, and do not exceed 30-50 grams per day.

Wu Honggan also mentions that some fermented rice wine on the market is made with purple rice combined with glutinous rice. Purple rice is rich in anthocyanins and iron with antioxidant functions. Women during menstruation who eat purple rice fermented rice wine can nourish their body and reduce discomfort.

Make tangyuan yourself, adding cooked dough bits makes them more elastic

If you worry that store-bought fermented rice wine tangyuan contains artificial additives, why not try making it yourself? Well-known blogger Hu Juanjuan (Carol's Comfortable Life), whose blog has accumulated 300 million page views, personally demonstrates for NewsMarket readers how to make fermented rice wine and tangyuan. She says that ever since she was little, whenever the weather turned cold, her mother would cook fermented rice wine eggs for her. Hu's mother also often said that when she was young the family was not well off, and if her mother (that is, Hu Juanjuan's maternal grandmother) cooked fermented rice wine eggs, the egg was always for the head of the family, her father; if she could get even a little bit of egg flower, she was perfectly content.

Fermented rice wine is a tonic for the poor, and tangyuan are a nostalgic sweetness. In the past every household made them themselves, but now you have to go to specific shops to buy them. Hu Juanjuan sighs over the changes of the times while demonstrating how to make tangyuan.

Take 100g of glutinous rice flour and add 80ml of warm water, mix well until it forms a dough, then first take about 1/5 of the amount and press it into a round patty, place it into boiling hot water, and once the dough patty floats, scoop it out and drain, then knead it evenly together with the original dough (if it is too sticky to handle, you can add a little glutinous rice flour).

This cooked dough patty is the "guo cui" (cooked dough bits). Hu Juanjuan says that with this extra step, the tangyuan will be more elastic. However, note that you must knead the guo cui into the dough while it is still hot, otherwise once cooled the guo cui becomes very stubborn and refuses to blend with the dough.

You can also mix part of the dough with red yeast rice powder to make red tangyuan. The red yeast rice powder should be added gradually to achieve the color you like. She reminds everyone that red yeast rice tangyuan will darken in color once they go into the pot, so the raw dough does not need to be colored too intensely.

Next, simply roll the dough into a long strip, then divide it into cubes and roll them round, and they are ready for the pot. Hu Juanjuan suggests gathering the whole family, young and old, to roll tangyuan together; this is also a beautiful memory from her childhood of cooking with her grandmother and mother.