Pumpkin Tong But Lut, Cantonese style Tang Yuan
南瓜杏仁糖不甩
In Chinese New Year holiday, my family would have Tangyuan for breakfast on the 7th and the 15th day of the first month in Traditional Chinese Calendar. Like jiaozi/dumpling, tangyuan is also a symbol of family gathering. Unlike people from northern regions of China, Cantonese don’t have a custom of having dumpling, but tangyuan is definitely a well-known festival food in most reunion festivals.
Tangyuan is made with glutinous rice flour as the wrap and usually with sweet fillings. Most Chinese would have them on Winter Solstice, Chinese New Year or in Chinese wedding banquette. Lantern Festival, prounounced ‘yuan-xiao jie’ in Chinese mandarin, is the 15th day of the first month in traditional Chinese calender, and will be on February the 26th this year. It is also considered the Chinese Valentine’s Day. The character “yuan” means families or lovers togetherness. Thus people would have tangyuan on that day.
What is Tong But Lut
Tong-but-lut /糖不甩 is a Cantonese dessert. This is a Cantonese style tangyuan – tangyuan (glutinous riceball), usually without filling, is poached in syrup then sprinkled with crushed roasted peanuts, desiccated coconut or roasted white sesame. It is prounouced ‘tong but lut ‘in Cantonese, with the meaning ‘sweet and stick together’, the topping on the syrup coated tangyuan and wouldn’t come off. Thus this dessert symbolizes the sweetness of loving couples.
Tong-but-lut can be seen in Cantonese tong-sui-po (Cantonese dessert specialty store) in Cantonese regions, such as Canton and Hong Kong, or even oversea. In this recipe, I make small recreation of this classic dessert, to make the tangyuan with mashed pumpkin, and use roasted almond for the topping.
Check out my other tangyuan recipes –
- Marbled Tangyuan, Black Sesame Filling
- Black Sesame Sweet Soup with Small Tangyuen
- Taro and mini Tangyuen in Ginger infused Syrup
Usually tangyuan is dessert, which means it is supposed to be sweet. However there are savoury versions. Also check out my savoury tangyuan recipes.
A similar Japanese dessert –
Pumpkin Tong But Lut
Ingredients –
- Glutinous rice flour, 120g
- Sweet potato starch, 30g, optional, if it’s unavailable, simply use 150g of glutinous rice flour
- Pumpkin, any type, about 400g
- Slack sugar, 1 bar, about 100g, if it’s unavailable, use any sugar in dark colour
- Unseasoned roasted almond, 50g
- desiccated coconut, 2tbsp
- water, 300g
How to do –
- Pumpkin peeled and seeded, cut to chunks and steam till cooked, then mashed smoothly. I would use 300g of the pumpkin puree, and make soup with the rest;
2. Mix 120g of glutinous rice flour and 30g of sweet potato starch, which makes the texture a little less sticky on your mouth. But don’t worry if you don’t have it, just use 150g of glutinous rice flour; mix the pumpkin puree and the flour, then knead to form a smooth but unsticky dough; adjust with a little more water or flour if needed;
3. Cut into small chunks, about 20g each; then roll to balls on your palms. You may have about 22 to 24 tangyuan in this portion of ingredients and serve 4;
(uncooked tangyuan can be kept in freezer, dust a thin layer of glutinous rice flour on; no need to defrost before cooking, poach them directly in boiling water; when they float on the water surface, add a cup of cold water in, keep boiling for 5 more minutes)
4. In a saucepan, put in 300g of water and a bar of slack sugar, in medium-low heat, melt the sugar but no need to caramel;
5. Bring another pot of water to boil in high heat, put in the tangyuan, poach them till they float but no need to cook thoroughly; then transfer them into the syrup, keep poaching for a few more minutes in medium heat, set aside;
(when tangyuan expand that means they are cooked thoroughly)
6. Half portion of unseasoned roasted almond crushed finely in food processor and the other half roughly, then mix them with 2 or 3 tablespoons of desiccated coconut;
(traditionally crushed roasted peanut or sesame are used for the topping)
7. Transfer the tangyuan from syrup to a small dessert bowl or plate, and sprinkle 2 spoonful of the almond topping on top.
用料
- 糯米粉 120克
- 番薯粉 30克
- 南瓜 约400
- 片糖 1块，约100克
- 原味烤杏仁 50克
- 椰丝 2汤匙
- 水 300毫升
做法
- 加入一点番薯粉的汤圆口感会没有那么粘牙，没有的朋友不要紧；半个南瓜大约500克，去皮去籽，上蒸笼隔水蒸熟；压成泥，我只用300克做汤圆，剩下的南瓜泥用来做南瓜汤；
- 分几次加入粉，共约150克，搅拌均匀，揉成不粘手的面团。适当增减粉或一点点水达至恰当的干湿度；
- 切成等量的剂子，20克一个，可以做22个，揉成汤圆；
- 取一小锅，放300毫升水，1块片糖，慢火煮至片糖融化。这里只需要把糖煮化即可，不需要煮至焦糖；
- 煮糖的时候同时取另一锅，煮开一锅水，放入汤圆，煮至浮起即可，不需要完全煮熟；
- 把汤圆捞起放进糖水中，继续用中火把汤圆煮熟，汤圆涨大即代表已经煮熟；
- 杏仁粉也可以买现成的，但我喜欢自己做，磨得粗糙一些，口感更丰富。用烤过的原味杏仁，用料理机一半打细，一半粗打。没有料理机的朋友也可以把杏仁放密实袋里，用擀面杖敲碎；
- 汤圆捞到碗里，撒上杏仁粉和椰丝就可以啦。做好的汤圆洒上一点糯米粉放冰格保存，煮之前不要解冻，直接下沸水煮。
