Tang Yuan (Yuan Xiao)

Tang Yuan is one of the traditional Chinese snacks. It is a globular food with fillings. The outer skin is usually made of glutinous rice flour. It is the most characteristic food of the Lantern Festival and the Winter Solstice Festival. It has a long history in China.

What is tang yuan?

Tang Yuan is also called Yuan Xiao. According to legend, the tang yuan originated in the Song Dynasty. At that time, Mingzhou (now Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province) popular a novelty food, that is stuffed with black sesame and lard, added a little white sugar and glutinous rice flour into a round shape. After cooking, it tasted sweet and delicious.

During the Han Dynasty, the emperor stipulated the 15th of the first lunar month for the Lantern Festival, and the celebration that continued from New Year’s Eve was pushed to another climax.

On the night of the Lantern Festival, the streets and alleys are lit up, people enjoy the lights, guess the riddles, eat the yuan xiao, and become the custom of generations. And the yuan xiao becomes symbolized the family’s reunion like a full moon, and pinned people’s good wishes for future life.

The Winter Solstice Festival also is known as the “Winter Festival”. It is a traditional festival of the Chinese nation. This custom originated in the Han Dynasty and flourished in the Tang and Song Dynasties.

After thousands of years of development, eat the tang yuan have formed a unique festival food culture in the winter festival, especially popular the south of the Yangtze River area.

According to the Qing Dynasty literature, the people live in the south of the Yangtze River have made the tang yuan that dough with glutinous rice flour and made the filling with fine meat, apple, bean paste, and radish. It can be used to worship ancestors, and it can also be used to exchange gifts with relatives and friends.

Tangyuan classification:

There are many types of tang yuan in China. Only a few of them are introduced here.

1. Minnan tang yuan
Minnan tang yuan is generally a glutinous rice tang yuan without filling, a must-have for the winter solstice festival.

2. Three-color tang yuan
The three-color tang yuan is made of strawberries, carrot juice and green tea. It is very popular to serve with a variety of syrups such as almond juice and mung bean paste.

3. Osmanthus squash tang yuan
The Osmanthus squash tang yuan is made of the squash filling and out skin with a layer of sesame seeds. And serve with sweet-scented osmanthus sugar water.

4. Heart tang yuan

The heart tang yuan is the most abundant tang yuan, which is the common breakfast for the Yunnan province people. The fillings include ham, peanut puree and dried Yunnan orange peel.
The soup is made of the rose sauce, which is made of the drying wild rose and fermented it in the cave for more than half a year.

When eating the heart tang yuan, it is best to broke the tang yuan, so that the scent of peanuts and orange peels is blended with the scented rose soup, and several flavors are simultaneously impacted on the taste buds. It is extraordinary.

5.Black sesame tang yuan

The black sesame tang yuan is the most traditional and popular tang yuan in China. You can easily buy it in the supermarket or do it by yourself.

How to eat tang yuan?

Drink a tablespoon soup first. Then use a spoon to hold a tang yuan and take a bite to taste it, and release the heat in the tang yuan. After the heat is gone, eat the rest tang yuan.

How to make tang yuan？

Tang Yuan Recipe:

The recipe we shared today is a common recipe for tang yuan with black sesame filling.

Tang Yuan Recipe ingredients:

250g glutinous rice flour
200ml warm water
200g black sesame (cooked)
50g lard or butter
3 tablespoons sugar

Tang Yuan Recipe instructions:

Prepare the black sesame filling:

1. Blend fried black sesame and sugar in the blender until mix well.

2. Heat the butter in a small pot until it dissolves. And pour it into the black sesame and mix well.

3. Put the black sesame paste in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes until it freezes.

4. Remove the black sesame paste and make it into some 15g balls. If the temperature is too high, it can be put back into the refrigerator for a while.

Prepare the dough:

1. Add flour in a large bowl. Slowly pour the warm water into the flour and mix them with a spoon. Transfer the dough to the working surface and knead it until the surface becomes smooth, or you can put it into your bread machine to knead for 10 minutes.

2. Take one-fifth of the dough in a wok and cook it in warm water for a while.

3.  Add the cooked dough into the dough and knead it until the dough becomes soft, elastic, and can be elongated.

4. Roll the dough into long strips and divide them into 30 grams of small dough.

Make and shape the Tang Yuan:

Roll the small dough one by one into the ball in the palm of your hand.  Press a small nest on the top of the ball with your thumb, and place the sesame filling in the nest. Shape it into an around the ball, and roll a layer of glutinous rice flour.

How to cook tang yuan

1. Add clear water in a wok and cook until boiling. Turn the fire down, add the tang yuan in the wok.

2. Stir the water in the wok with a spoon to make the soup move while cook the tang yuan, try not to touch the tang yuan. Cook the tang yuan until the water boiling. Then add 1/3 bowl of clear water and continue to cook it until boiling.

3. Repeat step 2 for 2-3 times. When the tang yuan float on the water surface, transfer it in a bowl and serve it.