He Jia Tuan Yuan (Tofu Ball Soup for Lunar Chinese New Year)

On Lunar Chinese New Year, we usually like to have meatballs or sweet dumplings. Ball in Chinese is ‘wan,’ sweet dumpling in Chinese is ‘tang yuan.’ Their shapes are both round. So we use a meatball dish and/or sweet dumpling dish to emphasize the Chinese expression ‘He Jia Tuan Yuan.’ ‘He Jia’ means the whole family. ‘Tuan Yuan’ means ‘all be together’ (‘yuan’ also means circle, round as well, which connects with the shape of the meatballs and the sweet dumplings). This tofu ball dish is easy to make, and it is a great soup for your Lunar New Year meal.

Step: 1

Place the tofu into a large bowl, and mash it into a paste with a large spoon. Stir in the pork, cornstarch, egg, 1 teaspoon chicken bouillon granules, and 1 teaspoon salt until the mixture is very well combined.

Step: 2

Heat the water and vegetable oil to a boil in a large saucepan, and reduce heat to an active simmer but not a full boil. Using gloved hands, pinch off about 1 tablespoon of the tofu mixture, roll it into a ball between your palms, and slide it carefully into the water so it doesn’t break apart. Repeat with the rest of the tofu mixture. Without stirring the soup, let the tofu balls simmer until they rise to the top, about 30 minutes.

Step: 3

Turn off the heat, and stir in the dried shrimp, pea vine shoots, 1 teaspoon of chicken bouillon granules, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Serve hot.

Per Serving: 239 calories; protein 14.5g; carbohydrates 11.7g; fat 15.3g; cholesterol 70.3mg; sodium 786.1mg.

The word “stew” can refer to 2 time a dish and a make dishes method. Stewing makes slowly cooking piece of meat, vegetables or beans in a tastefull liquid . It’s same as to braising, but it does have a few notable differences. The meat is chopped into few of pieces instead of being processing menu whole , and the water based material all of it covers the essential in a stew as compared to a braise’s halfway full . When meat or vegetables are cooked using this method, the resulting dish is called stew.

Stew has a reputation for making a rib-sticking eating process that warms you up on a freezing , winter day. It’s right that ; a bowl of classic beef stew can make warming featured food , but stew’s cozy factor goes way beyond preserving you from the cold . It’s all about those soft and chunks of food and vegetables, swimming in a thick, ultra-rich gravy. The way they come together creates the greatest comfort food, no matter the weather.