Happy Winter Solstice!

Yesterday was the Chinese celebration of the Winter Solstice. Traditionally, on this day we all come together to make tong yuen - which is like little glutenous rice ball dumplings in a sugar and ginger syrup. Sometimes they're stuffed with peanut paste or red bean paste. My grand aunt back home makes it with a small cube of cane sugar in the middle. It's not really that big on flavour but it is nice and we eat it as more of a form of symbolism.

Priscilla and I decided to make everything from scratch - mostly because we couldn't find the stuff we needed in the shop. So I text my parents saying quite proudly that I was making red bean paste from scratch and they replied with an essay on Chinese tradition haha. So I will now attempt to impart the meaning of the tradition to you. This information however, is solely sourced from my parents so you may have to verify elsewhere but for the most part I think it's quite accurate. According to my dad, traditionally, this time of year is considered the beginning of the next four seasons. According to my mom, today is the most important day of all the Chinese festivities. Tong yuen symbolises the whole year coming to a successful close through a cold winter. Quite interesting, right? I've always celebrated these festivities but never knew the meaning behind it. Shameful haha.

So yeah after that history lesson, my mom proceeded to ask why I looked chubbier in photos :/ Sigh.

Dried red beans soaked in water. 

Red bean paste! Okay, so it doesn't look very appetising here but I promise it turned out quite well :)

Rock sugar for the syrup.

Paul came round to help out :D

Pris hard at work! 

We were all getting pretty hungry, so we took a break and decided to make Chicken wrapped in Bacon and Potato and Bacon gratin. Why all the bacon, you ask? It's because we had loads leftover from Fakemas so we had to use it up before we all went away for Christmas haha.

It was all quite good even if we do say so ourselves. Haha. 

So yeah, we got back to making the tong yuen. After a whole day's worth of work with everything made from scratch, behold... a bowl of tong yuen :) It's usually served hot as a dessert and it's really nice in cold weather, the syrup is warm and spicy from the ginger. Mmm. Makes me happy I think :)

Happy Winter Solstice to you!