What's up everyone?
Today we're making Savory Tong Jyun, sticky rice balls,
a dish my dad has made hundreds of times.
Hello, friends, how are you?
The winter solstice is coming up.
I wish you all family unity and good health for the winter solstice.
Today, we'll be learning to make a Toisanese specialty, savory tong jyun.
We Toisanese do this every winter solstice.
Basically every single family makes these tong jyun.
Here in the US, restaurants probably don't sell these tong jyun.
Tong jyun is my favorite dish of all time.
Also known as sticky rice ball soup,
tong jyun comes in both savory and sweet varieties,
and sometimes the rice balls are filled with goodies like black sesame paste.
What we're learning today and what I grew up eating
is the classic savory Toisanese version,
where the rice balls feel like warm hugs in your mouth
and the soup is packed with flavor and textures.
Tong jyun is traditionally eaten during the Winter Solstice,
or dung zi in Cantonese,
which is one of the most important events in the Chinese calendar.
In astronomy, the Winter Solstice marks the day of the year
where the sun travels the shortest path through the sky,
resulting in the least sunlight and the longest night of the year.
Like in many cultures throughout history,
dung zi brings families together in a celebration of longer days,
the symbolic death and rebirth of the sun,
and for light triumphing over darkness.
For tong jyun, of course we'll need glutinous rice flour,
daikon, napa cabbage, carrots,
cilantro, green onions, ginger, and garlic.
Mushrooms, Chinese sausage, and dried shrimp are non-negotiable.
I'm using shrimp, and it's all deveined already.
These are fish balls.
We have homemade fish balls, and you can always watch our video on that!
Chicken breast.
These are all our ingredients.
Let's wash the dried shrimp first.
After washing the dried shrimp, we'll pour out the dirty water
and add warm water (my dad mixes cold and hot water here)
which will speed up the hydration process.
We have about 1.5 oz of shiitake mushrooms.
We'll do the same process with the shiitake mushrooms:
wash, drain, and soak in warm water to hydrate.
For these dried ingredients, we'll want to soak them for a bit.
10 minutes for the dried shrimp, 15 minutes for the mushrooms.
Set aside the shiitake mushrooms and dried shrimp for later.
I have about 4-5 oz of shrimp.
Season it with some cornstarch.
We'll add 2 tsp of cornstarch to the shrimp.
This will make the shrimp a lot more tender.
When the soup is ready, we can just add this in.
Let's cut the mushrooms.
Cut the mushrooms into strips.
Slice the Chinese sausage.
For the chicken, we're only going to use half of the breast,
about half a pound.
We'll cut this piece in half length-wise, then into slices.
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After cutting the chicken into slices, we'll prepare a simple marinade for it.
1 tbsp of cornstarch.
1/2 tsp of salt.
2 tbsp of water.
Notice my dad is pushing the chicken to the side of the bowl
to make room to mix the cornstarch.
Mix up the marinade first.
Then mix it into the chicken.
All right, the chicken is marinated.
We're going to peel the daikon first.
This daikon is about 2 lbs.
Are we using all 2 lbs?
Yes, we're using the whole thing.
Daikon is good, it's very healthy.
We'll cut the daikon into strips.
Start at an angle.
We'll first cut the daikon diagonally into 1/4" slices.
Cut it this thick.
Then we'll lay the slices down, overlapping slightly, and chop into strips.
We have about 1 lb of napa cabbage.
Wash it with some water.
Cut the stems.
For the carrot, we only need a bit, cut into strips.
Just like this, on the thinner side.
About 3 oz.
We only need a little, just for its color.
Ginger.
Smash it.
2 cloves of garlic.
The amount of green onions is up to you, it doesn't really matter.
We grew these ourselves!
Cilantro.
These king oyster mushrooms, cut into strips.
The ingredients are ready, so let's start on the dough.
You must have glutinous rice flour for tong jyun.
If you use regular rice flour, they'll be dense, but these will be soft.
We'll measure out 2 lbs of glutinous rice flour.
If you're making less, say for 3-4 people, 1 lb is enough.
We have a lot of people eating today, so we're making more.
Everyone loves these!
Did you make these as a kid?
Pounding the flour, you saw them pounding flour on our China trip,
my mom, that's your grandma, made this a lot!
Because we had a big family.
Your uncle and I would make it in the back.
Your grandma would be sifting the flour.
Now it's very convenient.
They've made the flour for you, and you can just buy it,
so you don't have to work as hard as we did.
Now I'm using 16 oz of hot water,
While you're pouring the hot water in, stir with your chopsticks, slowly.
What we're making today, we have a half-cooked dough.
We're making the dough first.
Knead it slowly.
Just work on it with your hands.
Pour the rest of the hot water in.
What if it's 1 lb of glutinous rice flour?
For 1 lb of glutinous rice flour, use 8 oz of hot water.
All right, all the hot water has been mixed in.
We'll add cold water now.
Pour it over the dry flour.
We only need 8 oz of cold water.
Why aren't we using all hot water?
You could use all hot water, but it will be harder to knead it at first.
When we use both hot and cold, then the dough is easier to work with,
so this is called a half-cooked dough.
When my mom made it, she used all hot water.
Bring it all together.
How do you know when it's ready?
When the dough is together and smooth.
Not like this, the finished dough doesn't look like this.
Press down with the heel of your hand.
Pull it up like this.
Press down firmly, so that you're really kneading the dough together.
That will bring the flour into the dough, see?
Did you eat tong jyun every year as a kid?
Definitely! We always ate it, every year.
At the winter solstice, and on Lunar New Year's Eve.
We eat it all the time, we even make it when we just feel like eating it.
You eat it all the time.
Not just the winter solstice, we make it a lot, right?
All right, ready now.
Usually, when you're rolling tong jyun, they stick to your hands.
Use some dry flour to keep it from sticking to your hands.
Bakers always have some flour ready.
Just about 1 oz, like this.
This is enough.
Is it necessary?
If it feels soft, then add it.
If it feels fine, then don't add it.
It doesn't stick to your hands, right?
This is the best method.
Do you know how?
Do you know how to knead it? Here, try.
Pull it up. Yes, like that.
Yes, that's right.
Yeah, pull on this, where it's gotten long.
Here?
Yeah, and push down.
Yeah! Just like that, that's right.
It's normal if the glutinous rice flour is slightly sticky.
As long as it doesn't stick to your hand in clumps, it's fine.
All right, our dough is kneaded.
Our whole, big family is going to come make the tong jyun
to have a good time and celebrate the winter solstice
as a whole, happy family. Let's start!
Watch how Daddy does it.
Next time, it'll be your turn to make it for us.
To prepare for rolling into balls,
we'll take out the the dough in smaller pieces
and roll them into long tubes on a flat surface.
We'll then cut them into your preferred size with a knife or cutter.
Our balls were about an inch or an inch and a half in diameter.
You make them first.
Okay, Mommy Lau's going first.
Take one piece.
Put one piece on your palm, here,
and then use your other palm to push on it, and just roll it.
This thumb can kind of help it move.
Create like a little wall.
Round!
I'm going to take two pieces,
also put them in my palm here, like this,
and then start to...
That's the advanced one.
This way is faster.
This thumb is kind of holding it in.
Two is a little difficult.
Take three pieces, like this.
Three?!
Yeah, three.
Oh my god!
You try, you try.
Go, Mommy, go!
When you feel that it's round, then it's done.
Come on, faster!
Good? Okay, good, see.
Tong jyun is really important to me and my Chinese identity,
because it'll always represent the love and care
I felt from my parents growing up.
Because of our language barrier
I wasn't always able to communicate on a deeper level with my parents,
but tong jyun was always a reminder that I am loved.
Tong jyun was actually one of the dishes
that made me want to start Made With Lau,
because I always wanted to make sure that I preserved my dad's recipe
to pass down through the generations.
As I mentioned earlier, dung zi is a time for families to come together,
and it's fitting that tong jyun is purposely shaped like a ball
to symbolize the perfect, united, familial bond in Chinese culture.
As our son and our future kids get older,
I look forward to continuing the tradition with my family
and passing it down through the generations.
I've made 8 and you haven't even finished 2!
Yours aren't as pretty as ours.
It's just as pretty as yours, they look so nice, what are you talking about?
Dang, dude, he's just tossing them.
You're not gentle with the tong jyun.
Look, we're so gentle, and you just throw them away.
Daddy is actually very fast because he worked in the restaurant.
You don't have time to be slow there.
Look, I've made this huge pile and you're not even done.
Come on, we're almost out, cut some more!
How about a contest to see who makes it the roundest?
The roundest?
What do you think?
I think Hong Doy will win.
One for you.
One for Jennifer.
One, two, three!
Are we going fast? Or just round?
One, two, three, four, five!
Mom, yours is the least round!
Try again?
It is Jenn.
Good job Jennifer!
Wow!
For the new one! Tong jyun champion!
Tong jyun queen!
Tong jyun!
He can eat it?
Later, later!
We've rolled all our tong jyun.
We're going to cook our tong jyun first.
Pour some hot water in and turn the stove on.
In a large wok, we'll boil 4 cups of water.
My dad uses hot water here so it's basically already boiling.
We'll then add in your preferred amount of rice balls,
keeping the heat on high.
Stir it around so that it doesn't stick to the bottom.
It's very quick, they're done once they float to the top.
We'll cover the wok to speed up the cooking.
To ensure the balls don't stick to the bottom,
we'll give them a stir occasionally.
When they float to the top, they're cooked.
Just wait for them to float up.
Put the lid on, it'll boil faster.
Have a bowl of cold water ready.
Once it's boiled, scoop them out and into the cold water.
Shock them a bit.
See, they've all floated to the top.
They're nearly done, let's just cook them a bit more.
Okay, I'm going to turn the stove off now.
When the rice balls start to float to the top or after about 7-8 minutes,
we'll place them in a large bowl of cold water
while we cook the rest of the ingredients.
Three things are important for dunking the balls in cold water.
Number one, because this is glutinous, sweet rice, right?
After you boil it and take it out from the hot water, it's really, really soft.
When it's too soft, it's hard to put it into soup again.
Dunking in cold water hardens and shrinks the balls.
Number two, if you don't dunk them into the water,
and you don't cook them right away, they'll all stick together.
Number three is the most important.
If you don't use cold water to rinse the balls,
the soup will not be clear.
Yeah, it kind of gets milky.
Oh, that was someone else's question!
How do you prevent murky soup? So that's the answer.
When I was little, my mother never dunked it into cold water.
When I tried to do it by myself, I wondered how come the soup was so milky.
Then later on, Daddy did it his way, and then I said, oh, now I understand.
Thank you for teaching me how to make the tong jyun soup not milky!
All right, let's start cooking the other ingredients.
With the heat on high, we'll add 2 tbsp of oil to an already hot wok,
heating for 30 seconds before adding the ginger and garlic.
Add the ginger and garlic first.
Add the dried shrimp, and let the oil bloom its flavor.
Fry it so it's fragrant.
We'll cook the ginger, garlic, and dried shrimp for 30 seconds,
and then add the Chinese sausage.
The most important things for tong jyun are
Chinese sausage, dried shrimp, and mushrooms.
These three are the most important.
You can have as much or as little of the other ingredients as you like.
After another 30 seconds of stir-frying the sausage, we'll add the daikon.
Everything is aromatic now.
Let's add the daikon.
We'll stir-fry the daikon for 40-50 seconds,
and then add the shiitake mushrooms and carrots.
Mushrooms!
Carrots.
After stir-frying for another 30 seconds, we'll add the chicken broth.
1 can of chicken broth.
After letting it simmer for about a minute, we'll add more water.
Now we'll add some water.
As for the amount of water,
it depends on how big your wok is and your own taste.
My dad added about 6 cups of hot water to the wok.
We'll let it come to a boil and then we'll add the napa cabbage.
If you find that there's not enough water, you can always add more.
We'll cover the lid and let it cook on high
for two and half to 3 minutes until it boils.
Meanwhile, we'll remove the rice balls from the cold water
and set them aside for later.
All right, the soup is boiling.
So now we'll add the napa cabbage.
Oh, it's a lot! It's so full.
So full, so full.
Can it fit?
It fits! Now it fits.
Oh, nice!
Mushrooms!
After the soup boils, we'll add the napa cabbage and king oyster mushrooms.
Okay, let's cover it.
With the lid on, we'll let it come to a boil again, which is about 2 minutes.
It's boiling now. Nice!
Let's add the chicken.
We'll then turn the heat down to medium and add the chicken.
Make sure to spread the pieces around
and submerge them in the hot soup so they cook evenly.
What's next? We'll add the shrimp.
After cooking the chicken for 40-50 seconds, we'll add in the shrimp.
Just like the chicken, we'll spread out the shrimp in the wok
to make sure they all cook properly.
Nice!
We'll let the shrimp cook for about a minute before we add our seasoning.
Now we season!
To season the soup, we'll add 2 tsp of salt, 1 tsp of sugar,
1/4 tsp of white pepper, 1 tsp of sesame oil,
1 tsp of soy sauce and 1 tsp of fish sauce.
We have all of these ingredients listed on our blog at madewithlau.com
along with step-by-step instructions and video clips
to guide you as you make the recipe at home.
After the seasonings, we'll add the scallions and cilantro.
All right, let's turn the heat off.
Now we'll turn off the heat, and mix everything together gently
before adding the fish balls.
Wow, how's this?
The last things are making the pot too full.
Let's taste test.
The soup is good, son!
Try it, the soup's incredible.
For Toisanese tong jyun, it's the soup base that's amazing.
This is my favorite.
You love this, I know this is your favorite!
It's your birthday, so it's perfect! That's why I made tong jyun for you.
Okay! We went overboard with the ingredients.
I'm going to take some of the broth out,
so there'll be room for the tong jyun.
Now we'll add the tong jyun.
All of them?
Enough to serve and eat for now.
We can always add more later.
Does the Toisan one have versions where they fill it?
The sweet ones might be filled, but not the savory one.
You could make it like that! Fill it with dried shrimp or Chinese sausage.
You could do that.
But the thing is, we have so much stuff in the soup, we don't have to fill it.
Turn the heat back on.
We'll heat up the soup for another minute or two
to serve it piping hot.
This is optional and down to your preference,
as all the ingredients are already cooked.
Our Toisanese specialty, Savory Tong Jyun, is complete!
Hong Doy!
Time to eat tong jyun!
I wish everyone a happy Winter Solstice!
May your family be happily united!
Happy Winter Solstice! Cheers!
Toisanese Tong Jyun!
Represent!
Why do you like tong jyun?
Look at it! There's so much in it!
It's just so comforting.
It's soothing.
Because it takes so much time to make,
it's like, "Here, I love you".
That's what I get.
And the gooey texture is fun to eat.
So tell me why you like tong jyun.
It's hella good.
Broth is hella good.
Balls are hella chewy.
All around very flavorful and it's been my number one.
Tong jyun is both your favorites.
What's the thing you like me to cook most?
Tong jyun!
How about Kat?
Like nothing I've ever tasted, it's so delicious.
Every bite is full of goodness.
When I was little, I always heard
Winter solstice is more important than New Year's.
The word winter means family reunion,
so everyone comes home to eat tong jyun.
That's why Chinese people love the winter solstice.
Do you guys prefer the sweet one or the savory one?
Savory, I like the savory one.
What do you like?
Toisanese Savory Tong Jyun!
With the sweet tong jyun, I'm only able to eat 10-12, because they're too sweet.
This one, I can eat the whole bowl!
More tong jyun!
Hong Doy eats tong jyun!
Say, "Good job Yeh Yeh!"
Eat more tong jyun!
Thank you Yeh Yeh!