Glutinous Rice Balls
Ingredients:
For the filling:
200g (2 cups) peeled split mung bean
1 cup water
1/2- 1 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp crispy fried shallots
3 tbsp vegetable oil
For the dough:
400g (14 oz) glutinous/ sticky / sweet rice flour (mochiko/ bot nep)
360ml luke warm water
*If you want firmer dumplings, mix 350g glutinous rice flour with 50g rice flour
For ginger syrup
1.5 liter (6 cups) water
300g (1+ 2/3 cups) brown/palm sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 large piece ginger (double size of your thumb), julienned
Directions
Making the filling
Wash mung bean a few times and soak in water for at least 1 hour.
Cook in a rice cooker with 1 cup water.
Add salt, crispy fried shallot, vegetable oil to the cooked mung bean. Smash into a paste with a pestle or food processor.
Grease your hands with vegetable oil. Make mung bean paste into balls, about 1 tbsp each.
Making the dough
Add luke warm water (60-70°C) into the glutinous rice flour gradually and mix well. Knead for a few minutes to form a dough.
Cover and let it rest for 30 minutes.
Then knead again for a few more minutes. The water amount might vary a bit depending on the quality of the flour.
Grease your hands with vegetable oil. Pinch a piece of dough and make into a ball. Flatten it out into a 1cm thick disk. Place mung bean paste ball in the center and flip over. Fold and pinch the edges together. Try to avoid air in between the dough and the filling. Form it into a smooth ball.
Place glutinous balls on baking sheets or pre-greased plate to avoid sticking.
Boil the balls in a pot of boiling water on medium heat until they float to the surface (about 5 mins) . Transfer the cooked dumplings into a bowl of cold water.
In a large sauce pan, combine water, sugar, salt and ginger and bring to a boil. Then simmer on medium-low heat for 5-10 minutes so that ginger can infuse the syrup. Add in the cooked dumplings and sprinkle roasted sesame on top.
To make “banh troi”, use diced cane sugar as filling instead of mung bean paste. The balls are much smaller in size (abt 3cm diameter). Serve separately without ginger syrup.
