Jade-Green Abacus Beads

In my kitchen, there is some left over silken tofu, some glutinous rice flour and near expiry green tea powder. Therefore, I tried this combination and go with the sugar syrup used for the Traditional Glutinous Rice Ball. If making the syrup is a little bit troublesome, maybe just add them into a soymilk or almond milk. Serve them in a skewer and maybe coat them with a thick sweet or salty sauce or coat them with some grounded peanut powder.

Adding tofu make it much more nutritious and will become a good snack for the young as well as the adult, as tofu is one of the good alternative sources of meat protein. Next, maybe I will make Dango with some fruits (Avocado etc) in it, serve on a skewer and go with palm sugar syrup – new permutation!

Preparation: 15 mins, Cooking time: 10 mins

Ingredients (serves 5-8)
Dough
 100g glutinous rice flour
 100g silken tofu
 1 teaspoon green tea powder
 750ml water, for cooking the glutinous rice balls

Syrup
 750ml water
 4 pandan leaves (screwpine), tied into a knot
 2 slicesginger (optional)
 10 seedless red dates
 sugar to taste
 ½ -1 teaspoon basil seeds (optional), soaked and drained

Method
1. To make syrup, add the water, pandan leaves, ginger, red dates to a pot. Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Set aside.
2. To make dough, combine the flour, tofu and green tea powder in a mixing bowl. Mix well, knead into dough. Add some water if the dough is too dry or some flour if it is too watery.
3. Divide the dough into 40 small pieces and roll each into a ball. Shape them into abacus beads by using the thumb and finger to make a slight indentation in the centre of each ball if desired.
4. Bring 750ml of water to boil. Add in glutinous rice balls and return to a boil. Remove water the glutinous rice balls with a slotted spoon as soon as they float to the surface. Transfer to the sugar syrup.
5. To serve, ladle the glutinous rice balls and syrup into individual serving bowls. Serve hot.