Tangyuan (glutinous rice balls) show their beauty in the soup
Lead image/ The beautiful tangyuan in the soup, it really looks so lovely, I couldn't resist taking a photo.
Every year I receive from my mother milled, water-pressed rice dough; this finely milled rice dough has a very fine texture.
I like a meat filling with lots of pepper; the mild spiciness of the pepper is very comforting to eat when the weather is cold. The meat filling is stir-fried with shallots and dried shrimp, then a little pepper and soy sauce are added; after it cools slightly, the congealed oily juices are wrapped in along with it. That way, when you bite in, the burst of rich oily aroma is a surprise.
When cooking the tangyuan, to keep the broth clear, I boil the tangyuan separately in water, and when they float up one by one, I scoop them into the broth already prepared in the clay pot, so that the doneness of the tangyuan stays similar.
This year vegetables are especially expensive, so I gave up the costly garland chrysanthemum and used crisp, green lettuce instead. Then I paired it with finely cut water dropwort and pearl onions; the soup also needs pepper and a little fried shallot.
The children love eating tangyuan, and this year they could also join in wrapping them. While wrapping, sometimes a hole would appear, so we patched here and there, and the more we wrapped, the bigger it got, turning into a fat tangyuan. It rolled for a long time in the boiling water and still wouldn't float up, and we kept laughing: "It's too fat, it can't swim... it needs to try harder~~. Oh! Oh! It's got it, it's flying." The fat tangyuan finally escaped the swimming pool of rolling water, and was the last one scooped into the clay pot, soaking warmly in the hot spring.
In the clay pot there are finely chopped little green rings of scallion and green celery, and slightly larger pieces of lettuce leaves; these all carry a grassy fragrance and a crisp texture. Between the white and pink tangyuan floating and hidden, the colors are so beautiful. Lifting the tangyuan out with your hand, they roll against one another, and the whole pot of tangyuan happily jostle together.
Tangyuan is a very gentle food; when eating, you use your lips to feel the warmth and softness of the glutinous rice.
The children can't help saying: "Mom, I kiss it! So soft~." It sounds like tangyuan is really sexy. Have you ever thought about your relationship with tangyuan that way? I also want to mention that before, the child didn't eat tangyuan; he said he had eaten it at school. But I don't believe in the "tangyuan" he experienced, because at school it's really easy to make things ugly and leave children no longer liking them. After eating the beautiful tangyuan with such harmonious colors at home, he raised his hand and laid it flat; happily eating, feeling with his mouth.
Some people don't like filled tangyuan, and according to this faction, filled tangyuan feels rough on the mouth. These people must be those with delicate, soft sensory preferences, thinking of the full, gentle chewing texture of plain glutinous rice dough. These people say to just sauté the meat filling until fragrant and put it into the soup, which is also a hot soup to enjoy for its meat juices and oily aroma. I quite like and agree with what this faction holds to, but I prefer filled ones. The matter of "filling" is originally a means of creating surprise, and it has a clearly layered effect. Food! Is meant to create surprise, especially when dealing with children's stomachs.
