hey, thanks for the great recipe. any subtitute for the lard/pork fat?(anything besides pork). thanks :D

Coconut oil :)

@@ChineseCookingDemystified yeah I read that, but I thought there is other subtitute for non-vegetarian. thanks anyway, gonna try with coconut oil :D

Ah got it, never know :) Hmm... I worry that chicken, duck, and beef fat might all be a bit too distinctive. Of the three, if you pushed me... I'd lean towards trying duck fat (simply because it's used in some Western sweets as well).

TIP: I havent tried making this rice dough yet, but on the subject of things drying out (#3) I thought it worth mentioning that one of the tools that has earned a spot in my culinary speed rack is a small humble plant mister, filled with plain water. It is surprisingly helpful for many many things ... like instantly knocking a few tens of degrees off the hot spots of an overheated griddle or tava (it pairs well with the IR sensor ... both do wonders for maintaining ideal temps for my flatbreads), helping a bread or pasta dough come together in a stand mixer (or to finesse the moisture balance afterwards), helping onions to brown without scorching, preventing an early forming fond from burning, testing if pans are adequately preheated, finessing the moisture balance of a sauce, moistening the surface of bread dough before baking to improve crust texture, et ad infinitum. Bottom line: A plant mister might be helpful here as well, esp since a mist disperses and mixes faster than a dribbled in correction. Give it a try. My maxim is use whatever works, regardless of the tradition it came from. Cheers.

Never heard of those, just did a quite Googling and they look absolutely awesome. Definitely looking forward to the next chance I get to travel India

Oh, I heard of this in Singapore but never tried one myself. It's usually deep-fried in ghee, right?

@@thisissteph9834 Oh yes. Fried in ghee and then dunked in flavoured sugar syrup. The eastern part of India has the similar looking rasgullas- cottage cheese balls in sugar syrup. Depending on the caramelisation of the syrup or the addition of date palm extracts, there are no less than 4-5 very different tasting variants of it

Its not wheat flour. it'glutinous rice flour(sweet rice flour)汤圆

@@thisissteph9834 It can be boiled or fried.

I didn't see it, just checked it out! Very nice column, really awesome to see that she enjoyed our approach there. Just wish some of the commenters there would've read the article before jumping to the recipe - I think both us, and her, made it extremely clear why the apricot/cranberry mix was used ;) I'll have to check out more of her stuff, the column was really well thought out and well written.

@@ChineseCookingDemystified The Guardian is one of Britain's oldest and most prestigious papers, so you guys have hit the big time, baby! Unfortunately their on-line commentors do tend to be rather... dickish. Always with "That's not how you make it!" or "My dead aunt Clovina didn't make it like that." The anonymity of the internet brings out every random tool. Cheers!

Ah it's normal. To be honest, I was pleasantly surprised that the comment section there wasn't more of a minefield. Thanks for the heads up!

Ken Dalson - I saw that too and I am a follower of this channel. So they have made the big time.

@@Iskandar64 as long time viewers then let's make sure it doesn't go to their heads! :-) Peace to you my brother.

Happy New Year~~

A little bit like stuff made with tapioca starch? Chewy and soft~ Pure awesomeness, lol

Cheers, glad they came out well! Back up tangyuan aren't necessarily a bad idea though too haha

You can use the store-bought ones to make the upcoming stir-fried tangyuan~LOL.

I'll also make the wrapper with some cocoa powder, then wrap in a few pieces of chocolate, serve in warm milk~ tasty gooey and awesome. It's just so versatile.

There’s exactly a peanut version of this haha

That's actually fun to do, but time consuming~ maybe next year, lol

Yeah it's something we've been thinking about, still not sure the best way to execute the video logistically is though. The important thing is to think about dishes that you can merge certain frying/blanching steps. For example, suppose you wanted to do a Cantonese meal with (1) braised pork ribs with dried oysters (2) stir-fried beef (3) sweet and sour pork (4) boiled shrimp (5) stir-fried gailan (6) white rice. Bit meat heavy and missing a soup, but whatever. Just on the top of my head using recipes on our channel (minus the boiled shrimp): - First thing when you wake up, toss the dried oysters in some cool water to reconstitute for dinner. - To start cooking, first prep and marinate the ribs. While the ribs are marinating, slice up the beef and pork and do as much other prep as you can. - Start marinating the beef and pork. - Start the braised pork ribs, then you can do other stuff once it's started the simmering step. - In ~2 cups of oil in a round bottom wok, pass the beef through oil to prep for the stir-fry. Then deep fry the pork for the sweet and sour pork. - At some point in here, make some white rice in a rice cooker. - Drain the oil, quick wipe, add water. No need to be too paranoid cleaning. Bring water to boil, boil the (shell on, preferably live) shrimp for ~45 seconds til floating. Rinse those under cool water. Toss in the gailan, blanch, remove. - Now that everything's prepped, stir-fry in rapid succession. I'd go beef then vegetable then sweet + sour pork. If the beef ends up being slightly on the lukewarm side by the end of cooking, nuke it for 30 seconds to bring it back up. That'd be about 90 minutes of time in the kitchen if you were flowing at a nice pace :)

There're savory versions with meat filling of this too. There's another version from PRD, which is rice balls (no filling) cooked in a super umami soup made with dried seafood, shitake mushroom, napa cabbage and such! I love them all, lol. This one has a similar texture with dukbokki, while for mochi, the dough is completely cooked before it's wrapped together. Mochi and tangyuan are like same same but different. But the texture is "kinda similar" if you like that gooey soft texture.

@@thisissteph9834 Thanks, that is helpful. I look forward to grabbing a bag of rice flour and experimenting a bit in the savory spectrum. The only minor disconnect (between this and what I someday hope to figure out) is that this must be boiled or at least steamed, whereas plain dukbokki and plain mochi can be enjoyed as is, after a brief stint in the microwave or under a broiler. Heck, if the moisture content is right you can even skewer and toast it like a marshmallow over open flame ... great as is, or with a seasoned dipping oil. What can I say ... I love that savory rice taffy texture, with a light char and a pinch of something for salt and umami. A soup wont scratch quite the same culinary itch, but will no doubt still be tasty. Who knows, perhaps after steaming I can use my food dehydrator to firm them up and form a manageable skin (pellicle ?). Worth a try. As always, +1.

There are many available options of fillings😋 some Chinese regions even add meat as filling

You mean cooking the tangyuan? The water would be starchy, if you add sugar and ginger directly, it'll have a weird sour after taste.

It also wouldn't be beautifully clear.

LOL, it's slightly bigger than the frozen ones you get at supermarket~

Yes, the version you talked about is from from Jiangnan, and some other regions of South/Central China.

Osmanthus flower

@@KM-fk1jn Thank you

You mean palm sugar? Yeah, go for it~ this is a very flexible recipe.

Yes, if you can get some, totally. Just do the same portion out and freezing process so that it'll be a lot easier to wrap.

@@thisissteph9834 what about nutella?, not sure if it the flavor works well when combined...

Shh... because we're deep down in the comments here... [Whispers carefully] I'm not the biggest fan of red bean paste either [/whispers carefully]

Needs to be hulled unfortunately :/ You could use white though.

Yes, totally.

I like the plain ones with pork and cabbage soup lol. The filled ones are better fried

Definitely on the list :)

Coconut oil~ And if you're using coconut oil, feel free tossing in some shredded coconuts and make it a full sesame and coconut flavor.

vegetable shortening from baking shop or Indian vanaspati ghee from india stores

Coconut oil is the best in my opinion

Hmm... making this list made me realize how in some ways I totally have some cliche foreigner tastes. In no particular order: 1. Roujiamo 2. Cantonese whole steamed fish 3. Char Siu 4. Guizhou-style Kung Pao chicken 5. Siu Mai 6. Guizhou sour fish hotpot 7. Shuizhu beef 8. Shunde-style Cantonese sashimi 9. Wuhan-style Shaomai, served in deep-fried puff 10. Zhangchaya smoked duck

@@ChineseCookingDemystified nice I'll try those

@@ChineseCookingDemystified can you tell me what you would order in this menu it's my favorite place. Just recommend a dish or 2 to me. Below is their menu Find this restaurant on Zomato | Lotus Garden Restaurant 芙蓉居, Albany zoma.to/r/18713076

Actually literally in a couple days we'll be putting out a recipe where this stuff's deep-fried then stir-fried with chilis and pickled mustard greens. The dish's totally a little out there but pretty awesome, it's from Guizhou. Been obsessed with it recently.

Nice. I'm excited to see that. Thanks for all the great Chinese cuisine knowledge nuggets.

Yep! Actually either next week or the week after we're planning on sharing how to make a dish that I'm currently obsessed with: a Guizhou dish called Suancai (i.e. Pickled Cabbage) fried tangyuan. What it is is black sesame tangyuan, deep fried, then stir fried with suancai, chilis, and MSG. It was weird as hell the first time I tried it (a relatively common reaction) - it's like... every single flavor all at once. But it's addictive as all hell, I order it from a local Guizhou restaurant around here like... weekly.

The lard is actually flavored with star anise, cinnamon stick, and clove as we're using it for dessert and Chinese pastry.

Usman Bikiya no

It'll make it greasy though, if you don't mind~

I have two grinders. I use one for coffee, the other for spice. You can clean them well by washing them, drying them and grinding raw rice and whipping it. Removes smells and traces of anything that have remained. I let the lid open for two or three days, depending of what I grind to allow the smell to leave completely. I grind sesame seeds to make salad dressing and other seeds and spices and always work well. Best regards.

@@Itxazoa Haha~yeah, I hate washing coffee grinder and we only have one. Tried it in a blender and it didn't work. So mortar and pretzel it is. So when you make salad dressing with the spice grinder, is it creamy enough?

Oh yes. It is very creamy. I pulse several times or press it for a few seconds, depends if I want it a little chunky or completely smooth. Then I pour it in a contairner and add the rest of the ingredients (Mayo, sake, soy sauce, a little Mirin, sometimes a little Miso, a little sesame oil, a bit of water... is VERY good). I like it with iceberg salad, cucumber, red onion, Wakame seaweed, peeled, sliced tomato, sliced radishes... but you can use the vegetables that you prefer. It is all good. Best regards.

Amylopectin :) I also hate the name 'glutinous rice' too FWIW, I much prefer 'sticky rice'. But... you know, 'glutinous rice balls' had better SEO and I'm willing to pick my battles lol

If it makes you feel any better, only the good ones use lard :) China is a great place if someone wants to do 'meat-light'. Lots of great veg dishes here. But yeah, would totally be a minefield if you were following a strict vegetarian diet :/