Boiled glutinous rice balls rolled while still hot in fragrant dry red bean powder, emerging in a vivid purple-red coat — a late-Qing street snack immortalized by Shanghai's Qiaojiazha pastry house.
Leisha yuan traces to the late Qing dynasty in Shanghai's Sanpailou district, where an elderly woman surnamed Lei — working from a street stall — devised the technique of rolling freshly boiled glutinous rice balls in dry powder to prevent sticking and ease portability. The dish's name is both a phonetic memorial to her surname Lei (雷) and a description of the technique (擂, to pound or roll; 沙, sand-like powder). Qiaojiazha Food House — founded in 1909 as Yongmaochang Tangyuan Shop by Anhui native Li Yigao — adopted and refined the recipe, coating the balls in red bean powder made from Chongming County adzuki beans and eventually enshrining it among their celebrated Ten Signature Dim Sum. In 2015, the pastry-making tradition of Qiaojiazha was designated a Shanghai Intangible Cultural Heritage.
A paradox of textures: the matte purple-red exterior is perfectly dry, almost chalky, giving way instantly to an interior that is yielding, elastic, and intensely glutinous; the red bean powder adds a subtle earthen sweetness that deepens each bite.
Glutinous rice starch is composed of nearly pure amylopectin (~97%), lacking the rigid crystalline structures that regular rice starch (with ~20% amylose) forms on cooling. On boiling, the amylopectin granules gelatinize into a cohesive, extensible gel network — the source of the characteristic mochi-like chew and surface adhesiveness. When still-hot balls are drained and immediately rolled in dry red bean powder, residual surface moisture is rapidly absorbed by the powder's starch and protein, creating a non-sticky matte coat while the warm interior remains yielding. The vivid purple-red hue of the coating comes from anthocyanins concentrated in the seed coats of red adzuki beans.
Variations
Qiaojiazha offers multiple fillings: fresh pork with scallion (the oldest benbang variant), sweet red bean paste, and toasted sesame paste. Some modern versions blend peanut flour into the coating for added nuttiness. In other Jiangnan cities, similar rolling techniques are applied to rice cakes rather than glutinous balls.
On the Palate
Where Red Bean Powder-Coated Glutinous Rice Balls sits in the Chinese flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 4How it's made
6 steps · 40 min
- 160 min
Prepare red bean powder: cook soaked Chongming adzuki beans until very soft; spread on a baking sheet and dry at low heat (80°C) until completely moisture-free; grind to a fine powder. Alternatively, use commercially prepared red bean powder.
- 210 min
Make the dough: combine glutinous rice flour with warm water gradually, kneading until smooth and pliable; rest for 10 minutes.
- 320 min
Divide dough into walnut-sized portions; flatten each, place a teaspoon of filling (red bean paste or sesame paste) in the center, gather edges and seal; roll smooth.
- 48 min
Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil; lower balls gently; cook until all balls float and the skin turns translucent, about 6–8 minutes.
Watch outWait for every ball to bob up and the skin to turn translucent — that's cooked through; pulling them early leaves a raw doughy core.
- 52 min
Lift balls out with a slotted spoon; drain briefly; transfer to a dry surface and allow to cool just enough to handle.
Watch outCool only until you can just handle them — they must stay warm and tacky or the powder won't cling.
- 63 min
Immediately roll each hot ball in the red bean powder until evenly and thickly coated; arrange on a serving plate and serve while warm.
Watch outRoll while the surface is still damp-hot so the powder grips into a thick matte coat, not a thin dusting.
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