Luo Mai Chi
I have been wanting to make these little babies for so long, first it took me forever to find a recipe (even with the internets and all), then I finally got one from my aunty - however the filling recipe wasn't what I wanted to eat, so I looked on the internets some more .. and somehow I found a few more recipes posted now than last time. Or maybe I have learnt the art of searching properly? Its hard searching for a dessert I only know the Cantonese name for. I have to spell it phonetically, and of course, everyone spells it slightly different. There are chinese, vietnamese, malaysian and japanese versions with all different fillings inside. (They are called 'Mochi' in Japanese)
Anyhow, I used a recipe from
here and below is a slightly adapted version. Please see the * notes.
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| Oh the yummy goodness of these little glutinous rice balls! |
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| Peanut and sugar mixture inside. Adds an awesome texture to the soft coconutty balls. |
Ingredients (makes approx 12 balls)
Dough
200 grams Glutinous Rice Flour
2 tbsp Corn Starch
300 ml Water
2 tbsp Peanut oil
Filling
100 grams Peanuts (roasted, not salted)
35 grams Granulated Sugar *
Dust
50 grams Dessicated Coconut
50 grams Glutinours Rice Flour
Directions
1) Mix the glutinous rice flour, corn starch and the water until you have a smooth batter.
2) Add the peanut oil and mix until the mixture is blended and smooth.
3) Steam the batter over high heat for 15 minutes. **
4) Meanwhile, prepare the filling by grinding the peanuts fine and mix it with granulated sugar.
5) After the steaming the batter should be turned into a sticky dough. Use a pair of chopsticks to stir the dough a bit. You will feel that the dough is very sticky, solid and more translucent.
6) Use a tablespoon to scoop a big spoon full of dough into the dusting glutinous rice flour.
(As the dough is very sticky, you will need some glutinous rice flour to dust the dough off. This way the dough will not stick to your fingers, while you try to form it.)
7) Roll the ball of dough in flour, so it is coated.
8) Form the dough into a circle as big as your palm.
9) Fill with approx 1 tablespoon of peanut mix. Wrap up so that all the edges meet and squeeze dough together so there are no openings and makes a round ball.
Dip the ball in water, then roll the ball in dessicated cocount.
Et voila!
* I felt 35 grams of sugar wasn’t quite enough sweetness .(I am not sure if my organic, unprocessed sugar was the reason, but next time I will add a touch more sugar.) In saying this, you can definitely taste sweetness, and is enough in most cases, but personally I prefer it a tiny bit sweeter.** I steamed for 15 mintues but my mixture was quite runny still and had did not go a milky translucency.I steamed it for a further 15 mintues, and it only got a bit better. I researched another 2 recipes, one said to steam for 20 minutes, the other for 30 minutes. And also, one of them mentioned covering it. So I covered the bowl with a lid, and 45 minutes later, it seemed to get a bit more translucent and solid.I would suggest the following: a) use a flat dish that will hold the dough mixture, instead of a bowl.
This will let it steam evenly and faster.
b) Either cover dish with a cloth as suggested by Yummy in My Tummy where this recipe was adapted from. OR cover with lid. I would even go so far as to say try completely covered steaming. So that it is completely enclosed.
c) I would steam it for 20-30 minutes.
