Brigitte with her eyes so bright,
Looks toward heaven at midnight,
On the longest night of year,
That's the one she holds most dear.
~ Brigitte's Ballad
Bruma, or the Winter's Solstice, marks the shortest day of the year and the beginning of winter in most temperate countries. I wonder if it will get dark any earlier here today, being so close to the equator and all...
Being Chinese, it also means it's time for tangyuan (湯圓) -- glutinous rice balls! I know that according to tradition, all these were done to bring about family togetherness, reunion, etc. However, for me, I reckon it is also an excuse to play with dough :) Last year I made a tortoise and a hare out of dough.
This year, I thought I'd make the whole thing from scratch and opted for au naturel colouring. Green from Pandanus amaryllifolius and red from beetroot. Unfortunately, the pandan plant in the backyard isn't really big so I did not had a lot of leaves to work with. After much pounding and some hot water, I only managed to extract a very small bit of green colour and it was rather diluted.
The beetroot however, was easy. The aftermath was like a massacre.
Thus, green dough wasn't as green, just a tinge...almost like white (background):
This year's balls, apart from the usual round ones with gula melaka (palm sugar) in them, and some marshmallow-shaped ones which my housemate made, I made one white elephant, and pink hearts.
Go figure.
For the sweet soup, pandanus, ginger slices, and I added some gula melaka (which explains the different coloured liquid) which were from the hacking of the large chunk of palm sugar for the rice balls.
Note: always boil the glutinous rice balls separately from the sweet soup. You don't want an ugly murky coloured dessert later.
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