Winter Solstice Customs: Winter Bamboo Shoots, Pickled Greens, Meat, and Tuan Yuan Guo

Prepare the filling: meat, old tofu, pickled greens, winter bamboo shoots.

Add a little salt to water, slice the winter bamboo shoots, and blanch in medium heat for 5 minutes, then remove.

Dice the bamboo shoots.

Pan-fry the tofu until golden on both sides, then dice.

Chop the pickled greens.

Separate and dice the lean and fatty meat.

To ensure the lean meat stays tender, mix it with egg white or starch.

Add oyster sauce, soy sauce, cooking wine, and a pinch of salt.

Mix by hand until well combined.

All ingredients should be finely chopped and ready.

Heat oil in a pan and stir-fry the diced meat until it changes color, then set aside.

Put aside for later use.

Add some fatty meat to the filling for flavor (using freshly salted meat adds extra aroma).

Cook on medium-low heat to render the fat.

Add the diced bamboo shoots.

The longer you stir-fry the bamboo shoots, the better they taste; cook until they turn yellow.

Add the pickled vegetables and firm tofu.

Stir-fry evenly.

Season with oyster sauce, soy sauce, salt, and sugar. If you like spicy food, add chili peppers at the beginning. ⚠️⚠️⚠️ Be sure to taste the pickled greens first to determine how much salt to add!

Incorporate the meat into the mixture.

Stir well to combine.

Finally, add chopped scallions or garlic, and sprinkle some pepper powder.

Stir evenly once more.

This is the finished filling, which can be enjoyed as a dish, in fried rice, as dumpling filling, or as a pancake filling. Of course, here it’s for making 'Tuan Yuan Guo.'

Using a food processor, mix equal parts glutinous rice flour and regular rice flour, adding boiling water to avoid burning your hands; the more cooked the rice flour, the better it is to work with.

Knead the green and white rice flour dough (the green one uses mugwort; for the making process, refer to the recipe: 'Talking About Qingming Guo Before Qingming Festival')

A cooking tool bought at the temple fair, which shapes the dough into bowls for convenience.

Fill with the prepared filling and pinch the edges to form pleats.

Continuously press inward to form the characteristic 'Tuan Yuan Guo.'

Shaping it like a bun makes it easier, and it's still quite round.

The green ones are filled with sweet fillings, while some places wrap them with salty fillings.

Add a layer soaked in glutinous rice; it's commonly referred to as 'snow balls,' likely derived from snowballs in winter.

One green and one white, one sweet and one salty — this is what is called 'green and white rice cakes.' Properly made, they taste amazing! Poorly made ones may stick to the teeth and collapse when steamed.

Here’s what they look like when steamed; they maintain their shape without collapsing.

Take a bite.

Thin skin with plenty of filling, particularly delicious. For beginners in the kitchen, making ‘Tuan Yuan Guo’ can be somewhat challenging. However, the filling made from meat, tofu, pickled greens, and winter bamboo shoots is truly delicious, whether eaten as a dish, in fried rice, as dumpling filling, or pancake filling.