Glutinous rice balls in ginger syrup

Ingredientsserves 4

Method

1. Filling first: toast the black sesame in a dry wok over low heat until the seeds jump, cool, grind fine, and work in the sugar and the softened lard (or butter) to a paste. Roll into twenty balls of about 8 g and chill until firm, or freeze. A firm filling wraps; a soft one smears and the ball splits.
2. Ginger syrup: bring two cups of water (500 ml) to the boil with the smashed ginger, add the slab sugar, simmer until dissolved and keep hot.
3. Dough: put the glutinous rice flour in a bowl and add warm water (160 to 180 ml) a little at a time, kneading, until it is soft, smooth and does not stick to the hands. Cold water makes a dough that cracks as you wrap; if it is dry, add water a teaspoon at a time.
4. The cooked-dough trick: pinch off a walnut-sized piece, drop it in boiling water until it floats, then knead it back into the raw dough. The skin becomes stretchy and stops cracking.
5. Divide into twenty pieces of 18 to 20 g, roll each into a ball, press a thumb in to make a cup, set a filling ball inside, pinch the dough closed and roll smooth between the palms until no seam shows. Keep the finished balls under a cloth so they do not dry out.
6. Bring a wide pot of water to a rolling boil, drop in the balls, nudge them in the first minute so they do not stick, and cook until they float, then two to three minutes more at a gentle boil; a hard boil after they float bursts them.
7. Lift them into bowls of the hot ginger syrup, four or five a bowl, and eat at once: the sesame runs only while hot. Freeze spare raw balls flat until hard before bagging, and cook them straight from frozen into boiling water; a thawed skin splits.

Take care

• The filling contains sesame, a mandatory-declaration allergen in Australia; milk if butter is used; lard is pork fat.
• Glutinous rice balls are sticky and do not break down in the mouth, a choking hazard for small children and the elderly: cut them small for children and, as every Hong Kong mother says, small bites. The filling is far hotter than the skin; bite and wait.

The story

湯圓 are the 冬至 food: round for 團圓 and 圓滿, the family whole and the year complete, and in the older reading 取圓以達陽氣, the round shape to welcome the returning sun. The whole family is meant to be home for the 冬至 dinner, and the 湯圓 come after it in ginger syrup; 元宵 has them again. Black sesame is the Cantonese filling and the one the 糖水舖 sells by the bowl; peanut is the family alternative when someone cannot eat sesame.

Same wall

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Lo Fo Tong is cultural food-heritage reference, not medical advice. If you are pregnant, unwell or on medication, talk to your doctor or registered practitioner before changing what is in the pot.