(gentle music)
- Hey, guys, it's me, Jasmine
and I forgot.
(Katy laughs)
Hey, everyone, it's me, Jasmine
and Lunar New Year is right around the corner.
If you know anything about Lunar New Year,
the most important thing, the food.
Today, I'll be showing you three sweet treats
that I grew up eating while celebrating Lunar New Year
on my Taiwanese family's side.
There's a whole list of different food,
both sweet and savory,
to be eaten during Lunar New Year festivities
and these are just three out of many
that I loved from my childhood.
Many different cultures celebrate Lunar New Year
in their own way
and they all have their own special traditions,
although many also overlap.
So Lunar New Year celebrates the first year
of the lunar-solar calendar.
You might have heard Lunar New Year
being called Chinese New Year.
That really encompasses Chinese New Year traditions.
Lunar New Year encompasses all different kinds of cultures
that celebrate this calendar date,
so you might see Koreans say Happy Korean New Year.
Vietnamese people celebrate Tet
or say Happy Vietnamese New Year.
Every culture has their own special traditions.
The first treat we're making are fried sesame balls.
They're deliciously crispy yet chewy
and have a beautiful nuttiness
from both the sesame seeds and the red beans.
They are super popular to eat during Lunar New Year.
The round shape and golden colors stand for good luck
and they also increasingly grow in size while cooking
which stands for growing prosperity.
So to begin, we have some red beans
that have been soaking overnight.
This is what they look like before soaking.
We wanna soak them to one, reduce the cooking time
and two, make them more digestible.
We're gonna start by draining these.
We're gonna add water to a pot
and then add in our beans.
So once this is boiling,
we're gonna cover it up and let it cook for an hour.
You'll see that they are soft, they're plump.
Most of the water has cooked down
so we are now gonna add some sugar
and we're just gonna mix this until it thickens
into a paste.
Get your aggression out.
Think of every aunty that has asked you,
"When are you gonna get married?
"Do you have a partner?
"How much money do you make?"
I'm in love!
Just kidding, everything is fine.
Let's transfer this to our bowl
and as it cools, you'll notice
that it starts to slightly thicken.
Our red bean paste is ready.
Let's get to making the dough.
First, I have some brown sugar here
and some hot water.
I'm gonna pour it over my brown sugar
and we're just gonna mix it all up
until it fully dissolves.
So I have some glutinous rice flour over here.
The glutinous rice flour is so important.
It gives it that mochi texture.
So don't use all-purpose flour.
You're gonna be so sad.
Okay, so with the flour,
I'm going to create a well in the center
and then we're gonna pour in our brown sugar syrup
and now we're just gonna stir this for about five minutes
until everything's fully combined and the dough is smooth.
I know it looks a little wet right now
but we're gonna start kneading it
and it will firm up.
So let's transfer our dough to my floured
and clean counter.
So I like to flour my hands first
to keep it from getting sticky.
Start incorporating everything together
and we're just gonna knead this for about five minutes.
Perfect, so our dough looks about ready.
You can see that it's much firmer than before.
Time to assemble.
So first, we're going to cut our dough in half
and we're gonna roll these out into logs
until I have eight pieces of dough.
So with each of our divided pieces of dough,
we're gonna roll them into balls.
And every time you have a finished ball,
go ahead and place a damp paper towel over it
to keep it from drying.
I'm gonna finish rolling out these balls
and then we'll get to filling them.
So it's time to assemble.
We're just gonna work with one at a time.
Remember to keep your damp towel over
the rest of your dough babies.
I saw a comment the other day.
It was like, "Why do all Tasty producers
"call their doughs dough babies?"
- [Katy] Why do we do that? - I know.
I have no clue why.
Flatten it.
So now I am going to pinch the sides
so that it's slightly thinner than the rest of the dough.
Totally fine if you get some cracks like this.
It'll still work.
We're gonna take one teaspoon of red bean paste.
I usually just scoop it out with my finger like this.
And we're just gonna seal it.
Once it's sealed,
you can put this face down on the counter
and just give it a slow swirl
and it'll close up on itself.
And now we're coat it in our sesame seeds.
Make sure it's evenly coated.
You can sprinkle them on like this
or you can just go ahead and carefully push it around
until it's fully covered in the sesame seeds.
I'm gonna make seven more of these,
fishing off the dough,
and then we will get to cooking them.
I have some vegetable oil in a pot and I brought it to 350
and I'm just gonna fry about four of them at once
for 15 minutes.
Once it puffs up, it kinda lives on one side
so you're gonna wanna kind of flip it
so that it's evenly cooked and golden brown.
Typically we eat these on Lunar New Year
because the round shape and the golden color
symbolizes good luck.
Also, you'll see as we fry these, they'll puff up
and they'll increasingly swell while we're frying it
which stands for growing prosperity.
When they start to float to the top,
I know it's almost done and the magic is about to happen
oh my gosh, look at that.
It is so pretty.
Beautifully round, golden brown,
and look how big it got.
This is the original size.
Now that these guys are done,
we're gonna transfer them to a wire rack.
These are done frying.
We're gonna fry up the rest of them
and then do a little taste test. Yay!
All of our fried sesame balls are done. They are so pretty.
Look at that golden brown sheen.
The sesame seeds are nice and toasty.
I can't wait to dig in. Let's give it a try.
Cheers!
Oh my gosh.
Look at that.
Nicely sweet, red bean filling.
The mochi in between the outside,
so, so chewy,
and the outside has that fried flavor,
but not too oily, so good.
Let's move on to the next one.
My mom's favorite.
The second treat we'll be baking up
are these fortune cakes,
also referred to as prosperity cakes or lucky cakes
and are extremely popular during Lunar New Year.
The name (speaks foreign language) sounds like wealth,
thus symbolizing good fortune for the new year.
So to our small sauce pan,
we're gonna add our brown sugar, butter, and water.
So we're just gonna stir this
until the sugar dissolves, about five minutes.
Now that everything is dissolved and has come together,
we are going to remove this from heat
and let is cool to room temperature.
Let's make the batter.
First, we're gonna add our self-rising flour.
Sift that in there.
Also, our rice flour.
Not glutinous, regular rice flour.
And then our baking powder.
Now we're gonna quickly whisk this together
so that it's combined.
Bring back our syrup here.
Now we're gonna fold it in.
You really just wanna mix this
until you don't have any flour clumps
because that is not fun to eat.
So the molds we're using today are egg tart molds.
If you don't have them at home, don't worry.
You can totally use cupcake liners.
We're gonna take some batter and fill it in there,
all the way to the top.
These cakes, they're deceiving.
It's got flavor, but it's light.
It's so delicious
and you can't really eat one.
It's super addicting and the texture of it
is very different than a muffin.
These are usually on the table
once you show up to a Lunar New Year festivity.
Some people eat it as they get in
for a little snack before the meal.
Some people eat it for dessert.
My personal favorite
is to save it for the next morning
and have it for breakfast.
So I was a little generous with my previous molds
and I've run out of batter for the last one
so I'm just gonna top this one off
with the remaining and let's get steaming.
Okay, our steamer basket is rapidly boiling
so we're gonna steam these in batches.
My steamer basket will allow for about three at one time
and they do expand a little bit,
so try to space them out if you can.
We're gonna cover this up
and steam for about 20 minutes.
Do not, do not open the lid.
Bad fortune for the year if you open it.
- [Katy] Is that true or did you make that up?
- I made that up.
Our fortune cakes are done
and they've cracked on top,
which is exactly what we want.
A little background behind this.
Growing up, people would say it's good luck
because it's a smile and that brings happiness
to your new year, but I remember seeing this as a kid
and thinking, that is a scary smile.
And then I was told another story
which is that this is like a flower
and each time it cracks, it makes a new petal.
The more petals you get,
the more luck you have in the new year.
So these ones, this is probably the one I would go for
as a kid.
Cheers.
(light music)
Mmm.
Oh my gosh.
The texture is light yet chewy and dense.
It's sweet, it's savory.
I love that this is perfect for any time of the day.
Breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack, dessert.
All right, this was really good,
but let's move on to the next one which is my favorite.
These last ones, probably my favorites for the day.
Glutinous rice balls or (speaks foreign language).
They symbolize reunion and togetherness
and are considered a good-luck food
to bring at a peaceful and happy new year.
They sit in a light yet flavorful
brown sugar ginger syrup that is so scrumptious
and so refreshing.
We'll start by making the filling.
So this one is my favorite.
This is the black sesame for the black sesame filling.
We are gonna start my toasting this.
It's a little hard to see
once they're nicely toasted
because the color doesn't really change.
You'll know when it's done
when you get that nutty aroma.
Now that it's beautifully toasted,
we are going to transfer this to our food processor.
Toss in our sugar,
and we're gonna process-- (processor whirs)
(Jasmine laughs)
So now we're gonna process this until it becomes a paste.
(processor whirs)
Perfect, now we're gonna add in some butter
and then we're gonna process it again
until it becomes the consistency of like a nut butter.
(food processor whirs)
All my black sesame desserts.
I love this in a bun. This in a milk tea, oh my God.
All right, let's transfer this to a bowl
and then we're gonna repeat
the same with our peanut filling.
So same steps as last time, except with peanuts.
Great, these peanuts look like they are beautifully toasted.
Let's process this in the food processor.
Our sugar.
And we're gonna process this.
(processor whirs)
Perfect.
We're gonna toss in our butter.
(food processor whirs)
Look at this.
Look at the consistency of this.
This looks great.
We're gonna put both the peanut
and black sesame fillings in the fridge
to chill for an hour.
I'll be right back. Our fillings are now out of the fridge.
Look how firm they are.
So this will make 10 fillings.
I'm gonna break it in half
and we're gonna do five from each of these.
So we're just gonna roll it into balls.
There's always a debate.
Do you like your glutinous rice balls
in a hot broth or a cold broth?
And my answer is always cold.
I feel like it's so refreshing.
We're gonna repeat this with our peanut filling,
pre-portioning them out again.
Okay, wonderful.
Anything that is food in ball form is so cute.
Okay, let's make the brown sugar ginger syrup.
So in a pot over medium heat,
I'm going to add some hot water,
brown sugar.
If you like it sweeter, feel free to add more brown sugar.
I'm just thinking about my mom watching this video
being like, why'd you add so much sugar?
And of course, some ginger.
Now we're gonna stir it until the sugar is dissolved
and let that cook for about three to five minutes.
The sugar's fully dissolved.
I am going to let this cool to room temperature
and then I'm gonna throw it in the fridge to cool.
Let's make the dough.
So we're starting with some glutinous rice flour.
Quarter cup of boiling water.
All right, just gonna give this a quick whisk.
Now I'm gonna add in a quarter cup
of room temperature water.
I'm gonna switch over to my spatula here.
Okay, this looks roughly combined.
Let's transfer this to our counter
and we are just gonna continue to knead this
for about two to three minutes
just until the dough is nice and smooth.
I didn't make glutinous rice balls growing up.
My family would go and get it
as sort of a special occasion,
but I think I made it a little more special (laughs).
Like it was like a little treat once in a while.
I like to roll it into a little log,
divide it into two.
This one will stay here and it's gonna remain white.
I'm gonna put this one in my bowl from earlier
and I'm gonna add a couple drops of pink food coloring.
While you're not working on the white dough here,
make sure o cover it with a damp paper towel
so it doesn't dry out.
So, to mix this, if you like to get your hands dirty,
by all means, but I'm gonna put on a glove
so it doesn't look so gruesome.
These are nice gloves.
So I actually like to coat it like this.
Like a dumpling.
So it stays inside.
And then I'll just continue folding it over and over.
Once it's pretty generally dispersed,
then you can knead it on the counter.
If you don't wanna use food coloring,
you can use beet juice.
It looks so good.
Feel like playing Super Smash now.
So now we have both our doughs here.
So with each piece of dough,
I am going to divide it into 10 pieces.
About a tablespoon per piece.
(upbeat music)
So now we're gonna roll these into balls
and when you're done, just place them on a tray next to you
and then I'm gonna continue doing this
until I have all my dough rolled out
and then we'll get to filling them.
Look at all these beautiful balls.
(Katy laughs)
Katy!
- [Katy] Sorry.
- (laughs) This is a family holiday.
So what you're gonna do,
I like to just press it down in the center.
So we're gonna put this on top of your hand,
press it down to the center,
and place a filling inside,
and then I start to loosen up on the bottom
and start working my fingers upwards.
Press it down
until you can get it fully enclosed.
Once it's sealed, you can roll it again on the counter
or on your palms.
You can see it's cracking on the outside.
That's fine.
So let's place this back here. Same thing with the peanut.
With our white dough, we're gonna press flat.
Make sure to not make the dough too thin
or else it could crack
and all the filling would burst
and be released into your boiling water.
So I put the peanut filling inside.
Same thing.
We're just gonna wrap it and seal it closed.
All right, I am gonna finish assembling the rest of these.
Usually, the whole family is helping
but I'm on my own today.
I have some water in a pot here
and we are going to boil six at a time.
I'm totally okay to combine both of them.
So drop it in gently.
It'll stick to the bottom of your pan,
so you just wanna carefully stir it.
They're finally floating
and we've cooked them for another minute.
They are looking absolutely good
and we are going to put them in the ice bath,
but before we do that, we have to check them
to see if any of them burst
because if they do, they do not go in the ice bath
because that ice bath will just go directly
inside the rice bowl.
Luckily, they all look great.
Just a quick ice bath, place them in your bowl.
Now I'm gonna pour the syrup
over my slotted spoon so none of that ginger
goes into my dessert.
So here we have it.
The glutinous rice balls
otherwise known as (speaks foreign language).
My favorite.
I'm super excited to dig in.
Let's give it a try.
Make sure you get some broth.
Cheers.
(upbeat music)
Mmm.
Black sesame,
the flavor is just this rich nuttiness
that doesn't compare to other nuts and seeds.
It's so special.
All right, y'all, that was so good.
I hope you had a good time
making these Lunar New Year treats with me.
If you make any of these recipes
or celebrate Lunar New Year in your own special way,
make sure to snap a picture and tag me on Instagram.
Happy New Year!
Or as we say at home (speaks foreign language).
Bye!
(cheerful music)