Harmony in Conflict: Celebrating Winter Solstice

Winter Solstice falls on 22nd December this year and as always it is celebrated by making the identifying food of the night, the glutinous rice balls or "tangyuan". The Winter Solstice occurs when the axial tilt of the Earth is the farthest away from the Sun and that means the daylight of the day is the shortest. The Winter Solstice is one of the most important festivals celebrated the Chinese. At the same time, it is also celebrated by others apart from the Chinese.

As a child I did not know much about this festival, known as DongZhi in Mandarin. In my mother tongue we call "tangyuan" as "siyang". The siyang is one of my favourite food and we would make it at times other than the day of festival itself. It is a simple and yet delicious dish which I have become rather good at. As of tonight I am officially the "Best Siyang Maker" of the family. Muahahaha. But seriously, it is a great pleasure for me to be able to make something (although simple) that satisfy the palates of my loved ones. It is a time of reunion and quality time.

Tangyuans are usually taken in sugar syrup and may have fillings of sesame, red bean paste or peanuts. I know that there are many more varieties these days but the ones that I have are very simple. And its the dry version too. I will use some pictures to guide you through the process of making our siyang.

First there's the glutinous rice flour. This is the brand that we use and glutinous rice flour from Thailand are of good quality.

Add water to the rice flour and mix to a very soft consistency.

Boil the rice balls in water. The rice balls will float to the surface once they are cooked.

In comes the yummy part. This is soy bean powder that has been fried and grinded to look the way it is now. the soybean can also be roasted in the oven if you don't like standing in from of the wok frying the beans away. Be careful not to overcook or roast the beans or you will get the burnt smell and taste in the powder. Add sugar to the soybean powder but take care not to make the mixture too sweet.