Chinese food
Tanghulu (Chinese：糖葫芦 )
Tanghulu also called bingtanghulu, is a traditional Northern Chinese snack of candied Crataegus pinnatifida, also known as mountain hawthorn, Chinese haw, Chinese hawthorn, Chinese hawberry, or shanzha in Mandarin Chinese. It consists of fruits covered in hard candy on bamboo skewers which are approximately 20 cm long. People often mistake tanghulu for regular candied fruits; however, they are coated in a hardened sugar syrup. This sweet and sour treat was made in the ancient times, yet many people today still eat this in northern China.
The two common names for the confection literally mean "sugar bottle gourd" and "rock sugar bottle gourd," respectively. The "sugar" or "rock sugar" refers to the sugar coating, while the "bottle gourd" refers to the slight resemblance of the snack to the shape of a gourd.
Chinese hawthorn is the traditional fruit used for the skewering,but in recent times vendors have also used various other fruits, such as cherry tomatoes, mandarin oranges, strawberries, blueberries, pineapples, kiwifruit, bananas, or grapes. The pits and seeds of the hawthorn are emptied out and are commonly filled with sweet red bean paste before being skewered and dipped.
How to make Tanghulu?
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1. Put the hawthorn berries on the skewers. Limit the number of berries to three or four per stick- anything higher than this will make the tanghulu troublesome to prepare and eat.
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2. In a small pot, heat 150ml of water with about 200 grams of white sugar on medium heat. Add the sugar gradually, while keeping most of the granules in the center of the pot.
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3. Don’t stir the sugar mixture. Just wait for it to boil over; it’s done once the sugar is fully disolved and the solution is clear.
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4. The sugar solution will still continue to cook even after you’ve taken the pot off the heat. It will turn into a dark amber color eventually. But to prevent the sugar coating mixture from cooking (and darkening) further, dip the bottom of the pot into cold water. But do this carefully, since by doing so you run the risk of crystallizing the solution early.
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5. Finally, dip the skewered candied haw into the sugar solution. It’s best to do this quickly while the sugar solution is still runny. Hang the skewers on a rack and wait for it to cool down.