Earlier this month, the writer and curator Su Wu was at home in Mexico City, making tang yuan with her daughter, Isa, 6. The warm dessert of mochi-like dumplings and sweet broth or syrup is traditionally served on the first full moon of the year, and preparing it together has become a family ritual. “Tang means ‘soup’ and yuan means ‘round’ but also ‘unity,’” says Wu, who moved to Mexico from California nine years ago. “And clear soups on New Year’s have this idea of bringing clarity.”
Wu’s grandmother, who spent most of her childhood in Taiwan, passed down her recipe, and the dish has changed slightly with each generation. “My version is reflective of the diaspora of my extended family,” says Wu, “and of desserts from other places that celebrate Lunar New Year.” Tang yuan dumplings are often stuffed with red bean or black sesame paste. “But I like to serve it in a way that’s more tropical,” says Wu, who looks to the flavors of Vietnamese chè, a collection of desserts that incorporate fruit like lychee and mango, and Singaporean chendol, a sweet iced drink loaded with pandan jelly and coconut milk.
The first step is to form the dumplings, from a combination of glutinous rice flour and boiling water. (Wu adds beet juice to half the dough, turning it pink.) The balls are then boiled until they float, a sign that they’re perfectly cooked. This year, Wu’s been making the ginger-infused soup base with Chinese slab sugar that her parents left her after a recent visit, and she likes to toss a handful of goji berries into the liquid, to add chewiness. Other additions are optional, but for Wu and her daughter, it’s all about components that add a bright fruit flavor or “Q” texture, as the Taiwanese term the bounciness of mochi and jelly. She opts for grass jelly and sago, and for fruit, papaya. It’s both native to Mexico and “considered a very traditional Southern Chinese soup ingredient,” says Wu, who remembers a recipe for papaya fish-tail soup in a Cantonese cookbook written by her mother.
In April, an exhibition curated by Wu will open at Dallas Contemporary. Titled “You Stretched Diagonally Across It: Contemporary Tapestry,” the show will feature works by 27 artists from around the world. Looking at textiles made with age-old techniques has shifted Wu’s view of other traditions, including culinary ones, she says. “The thing about traditions is that they are, in so many ways, a fantasy. There’s this capacity for us to really highlight what it is about the story that’s important to us.”
Su Wu’s Tang Yuan
Serves 6-8
For the syrup
● 2 cups water
● 2 ounces Chinese slab sugar (a little more than half a stick, or less to taste) or any unrefined sugar, such as piloncillo or Okinawan black sugar
● A knob of ginger, peeled and cut into thick slices
● About 20 goji berries
For the tang yuan
● 2 cups glutinous rice flour, divided
● 10 tablespoons boiling water
● 1 tablespoon beet juice (or pitaya or prickly-pear juice or a concentrated hibiscus tea) for color
Optional toppings
● ½ cup sago pearls
● ⅓ cup basil seeds
● Approximately 100 grams dried grass jelly herb (Mesona chinensis) or 1 package (100 grams) grass jelly powder or 1 can grass jelly. Plus, 1 ½ teaspoons powdered gelatin and 3 teaspoons sugar, if using grass jelly herb.
● 1 cup fresh fruit, diced
● ¼ cup coconut milk
Preparation
1. Place 2 cups of water in a saucepan with the sugar, ginger and goji berries. Boil, stirring occasionally, until sugar is dissolved. Cook for 10 minutes longer to reduce slightly. Remove ginger and set aside.
2. Separate glutinous rice flour evenly into two mixing bowls. Boil water and add 3 tablespoons of water to 1 cup of flour. Knead the dough in the bowl until it forms a ball, adding more spoonfuls of water as needed, or more flour if the mixture’s too wet. It should be pliable but not sticky.
3. Do the same in the second bowl, but replace 1 of the 3 tablespoons of boiling water from the previous step with 1 tablespoon of beet juice. Knead until a ball holds together.
4. Make your tang yuan by forming small balls (about an inch across) from each larger ball of dough, kneading in your hand until it has the consistency of an earlobe.
5. Bring a pot of water to a rapid boil and add the balls. Boil for 5 minutes or until the dumplings float to the surface. Remove from water and set aside.
6. To serve, place 5 to 8 balls in each bowl, along with any additional toppings, if using. Top with ginger syrup, and add a splash of coconut milk, if desired.
Preparation of optional toppings
Sago
Boil sago in a liter of water for 10 minutes. Turn off heat and cover for 10 minutes. At this point, the tapioca will still have a white center. Rinse in cold water and boil again in a fresh pot of water for 5 more minutes. Turn off heat and cover, letting sit for an additional 10 minutes until the sago is completely transparent. The sago will keep in the fridge for a few days.
Grass jelly
If using the dried herb (available online here), rinse and cut the stems into approximately 1-inch pieces. Simmer the herb, in enough water to cover it, for at least 2 hours to create a strong tea. Soften 1 tablespoon of powdered gelatin in a few tablespoons of cool water. Combine with 2 cups of warm tea and 3 teaspoons of sugar to taste. Pour into a shallow baking dish or gelatin mold. Chill overnight or for about 6 hours until set, then cut into desired shapes. The jelly will keep in the fridge for a few days.
Basil seeds
Pour room-temperature water over basil seeds and let them sit until they bloom, about 5 minutes.
