Tangerine & Pear Dessert with Tangyuan

Today is the last day (大年十五）of Chinese Lunar New Year, also known as Lantern Festival (元宵节). It is one of the traditional practise to serve sweet glutinous rice balls dessert on this particular day. Lazy to make the glutinous rice balls from scratch, I just bought a packet of mini taro & sweet potato ball and added into the sweet broth. 

After weeks of indulging of festive goodies and rich food, most of us must be feeling our body getting rather 'heaty'. Try brewing this sweet dessert soup for your family today, as all the ingredients used suppose to help nourish the lungs, reducing phlegm and coughing! 

Ingredient

• 150gm fresh tangerine (net wgt after peeling) *
• 300gm Chinese pear, peel & cut into cubes
• 15gm sweet apricot seeds
• 15gm bitter apricot seeds *
• 120gm rock sugar
• 1.5L boiling water
• 1 packet mini taro & sweet potato glutinous rice balls

Method

1. In a double boiler, combine all ingredients and water. Cover and cook over low heat for 1.5 hours.
2. Cook mini yam & sweet potato glutinous rice balls according to package instructions.
3. Serve hot/warm tangerine & pear dessert with cooked glutinous rice balls.

*Note : this sweet dessert has a slight bitter aftertaste. If you do not like the bitter taste, remove the white membrane from the tangerine as much as possible. Reduce/omit the amount of bitter apricot seeds and replace with additional sweet apricot seeds.