冬至湯圓(Winter Solstice Glutinous Rice Balls in Sugar Ginger Syrup)

祝家家圓滿團圓。Happy Winter Solstice! Why glutinous rice balls? Because their roundedness signify happy-togetherness. Dumplings and glutinous rice balls are usually eaten today.

Steps:

1. Grind some glutinous rice; or use store-bought glutinous rice flour. Let's say 1 cup of glutinous rice flour.

2. Mix with 50ml hot water. Stir in with chopstick/spoon.

3. Mix with 50ml cold water. Stir again. Adjust consistency accordingly, the mixture should be easy to handle without sticking too much to your hands.

4. Roll into balls, into any sizes you fancy. They tend to puff up a bit in water later, so make them slightly smaller than your desired size.

5. Cut some fresh ginger slices, throw into a pot of water, boil, throw in some sugar, adjust to taste. Bring to boil.

6. Throw in the glutinous rice balls. When they float, they are ready to be eaten. Om nom nom nom.

p/s Can stuff these balls with anything you fancy, typical dessert choices are black sesame, red bean paste, etc.

p/s This is interesting... I have received different feedbacks on the topic of rice balls... Apparently, Malaysian Chinese (though there is no Winter in Malaysia) and Taiwanese celebrate Winter Solstice Day by eating glutinous rice balls on this day; but Shanghainese eat dumplings but not rice balls today; and ShenYang-nese (Northern China) do not celebrate this day and eats rice balls only on Yuan Xiao Day... I am confused, and Google doesn't seem to have enough information on who-eat-what on this day...