Mid-Autumn & Mid-Spring

Today is the Mid-Autumn Festival in the China. Here in Australia, however, it is mid-spring. In China, the mid-spring is traditionally a wonderful time for flying kites. Do you know why kite flying is considered one of the best activities to do in spring?

If you’ve already found someone you love but haven’t told them how you feel, invite them to go fly a kite with you and take this opportunity to tell them how much you love them!

And if you haven’t found that special someone yet, gather a group of friends and go fly kites together. Who knows? With the peach blossoms in full bloom, you might just have a little romantic luck this spring!

To celebrate the season, I made some very simple “lazy” mooncakes. I honestly didn’t expect them to be such a hit—everyone loved them! You can try making them yourselves, too.

Simple Sweet Potato Mooncakes

For the dough:

• Peel and steam sweet potatoes until soft, then mash them.

• Add flour to the mashed sweet potato. Use approximately 2/3 glutinous rice flour and 1/3 cake flour (low-protein flour).

• Adjust the amount of flour according to how moist the sweet potato is, until you have a relatively firm dough.

For the filling:

• Soak red beans or adzuki beans overnight and rinse them.

• Put them into a pressure cooker and add just enough water to cover the beans.

• Cook for about 40 minutes.

• Mash the cooked beans and add an appropriate amount of honey according to your taste.

To make the mooncakes:

• Divide the dough into small portions.

• Wrap each portion around some of the filling and shape into a slightly thick round cake, or use a mooncake mould to create a decorative shape.

• Place them in a steamer once the water is boiling and steam for about 20 minutes.

And that’s it—simple, healthy, and perfect for celebrating the season!