Glutinous Rice Balls In Barley Gingko Soup

This post is a little outdated as I should have posted this during Winter Solstice which is the new year based on chinese calendar. It is said this new year is more important than the actual Chinese New Year which is about 3 weeks away.

Since today is the first day of 2012, I'll post this to celebrate the beginning of a new year. Hope 2012 will be a even better year!!!

Happy New Year 2012!!!

Ingredients

• 20g barley
• 5 pieces gingko nuts
• 60g rock sugar
• 2 pandan leaves knotted
• 1 litres water

Pandan glutinous rice balls

• 50g glutinous rice flour
• 1/3 tbsp rice flour
• 2/3 tbsp castor sugar
• 30ml water
• 2 pandan leaves



Not round enough, need to improve my "rolling" skills

Pandan-potato glutinous rice balls

• 40g glutinous rice flour
• 15g cooked orange sweet potatoes, mashed
• 1/3 tbsp castor sugar
• 30ml water



This one looks rounder and tastes softer too, probably because of the sweet potato

Method

1. Cook barley, gingko nuts, rock sugar, pandan leaves and water for about 30 minutes or until barley is cooked through. Discard pandan leaves.
2. While the barley is cooking, blend or process pandan leaves and water in a food processor until fine.
3. Strain the pandan juice through a fine sieve to get 120ml pandan juice.
4. Combine glutinous rice flour, rice flour, sugar and pandan juice in a mixing bowl. Stir to mix until a dough is formed. **Ensure that the dough is not too soft or too hard. If it's too soft, it will be difficult to get the round shape, if it's too hard, the rice balls will not have soft and chewy bites when cooked. So, add water a little bit at a time. Divide dough into small portions and roll into balls. Put them in boiling water and once they float dish out and soak in cold water for about 10 minutes. Dish out and drain.
5. In another bowl, put glutinous rice flour, sugar and mashed sweet potatoes in a bowl. Add water and mix to a soft and smooth dough. Pinch into small portions and roll into balls. Boil in a pot of boiling water until balls float. Dish out and soak in cold water for a while. Dish out and drain.
6. Scoop out barley into bowls, add glutinous rice balls and serve at once.

This is adapted from http://www.kuali.com/recipes/view.aspx?r=4312. There's also another rice balls recipe in the same site using red dragon fruits, so that is in my to make list pretty soon. :)