Fan tuan(飯糰) is a traditional Taiwanese breakfast rice ball. It is made of sticky rice with salty and sweet filling. Taiwanese fan tuan is similar to and largely derived from ci fan tuan(粢飯糰) of Wu cuisine.
Long-grain white sticky rice works best for making fan tuan. This can be mixed with black sticky rice for a dark purple fan tuan. Rice is first steamed and cooled, then laid out with fillings on a sheet of plastic or other nonstick material and pressed by hand.
Traditional fillings are fried dough(油條), pickled cabbage(酸菜), pickled mustard greens(榨菜), preserved radish(菜埔), meat floss(肉絲), and sometimes egg. Sweetened crushed peanut or sesame powder is often added. Meat, chili sauce, or other ingredients can be found in modern versions.
Fan tuan makes a great breakfast to go. It is traditionally served with soy milk.
Recipe
Ingredients
- long-grain sticky rice, soaked overnight or at least 1 hour (white rice or 2 parts white to 1 part black rice)
- peanut, roasted
- brown sugar
- salt
- pepper
- pickled cabbage, chopped
- egg (optional)
- green onion (optional)
- chili sauce (optional)
Directions
- steam rice until cooked, about 20 minutes
- flip or stir
- steam 10 more minutes
- finely crush peanut, sugar, salt, pepper
- saute pickled cabbage, sugar
- combine egg, salt, green onion
- saute
- let rice and fillings cool
- lay out rice on nonstick sheet
- add peanut mixture, pickled cabbage, egg, chili sauce
- fold edges together so filling is enclosed with rice
- carefully press until it holds its shape
- serve