Patron Exclusive Recipe #19 Cantonese New Year Sweet Rice Cake (广东年糕)

Hey, happy weekend, guys. Chinese Lunar New Year is coming up next week. Let's make some festive food to celebrate (if you're celebrating~). 

So "rice cake/年糕" is such a ubiquitous item in southern China. Some regions would have it all year round - e.g. in Zhejiang, or all kinds of "baba/粑粑" in Guizhou, Sichuan, Yunnan and such. While here in Guangdong, we would make this kind of sweet rice cake exclusively in Lunar New Year. 

Word of warning, this Cantonese sweet rice cake, is, very sweet. It represents the essence of Chinese New Year, which is "do nothing and eat high-calorie food, then end up don't want to do anything after eating all these high-calorie food."  It takes a hardcore sticky rice lover like me to enjoy it. If you're not a sweet-tooth, or you're not a big fan of sticky rice products, don't make this. But if you check these boxes, you should also have this and enjoy the sweet, gooey, and chewy goodness. 

And let's get started.

  **Ingredients**  (Make one 8-inch rice cake)

1. Sticky rice flour, 400g (the classic Thai brand that's available in every Asian supermarket, the package has letters in deep blue).

2. Rice flour, 100g (the same Thai brand,  the package has letters in red).

3. Liquid: 410g evaporated milk and 85g water. (Or use 400g of water instead. The water percentage in evaporated milk is about 76%, so I added 85g water to make the total water content in the batter up to 400g. That’s why if you’re only using water, then it should be 400g water.)

I used evaporated to create a richer flavor. But alternatively, you can use 400g of water. It'll create the same result and it's actually more traditional to use just water. 

4. Dark brown sugar (or slap sugar/jaggery), 500g. Brown sugar will give the rice cake an almost caramel-like flavor, so I wouldn't sup it with white granulated sugar. 

5. Salt, 1/2 tsp.

(I'm using a mix of brown and slap sugar since I wanna save some dark brown sugar for cookies.)

 **Process**  

1.  While the ingredients are simple, the process is quite time-consuming. First, get a big bowl, mix in the two kinds of rice flour, and as always, stir and mix well. 

(Mix the flour)

2.  Next, we need to mix the sugar, salt, and liquid together, and heat it up to melt the sugar. Once all the sugar is melted and this hot syrup has come to a simmer, pour it into the rice flour mixture. 

(Melt the sugar and bring to simmer)

3. Then, immediately start mixing the syrup and flour. It'll be clumpy after at first (as picture is shown below), but don't worry, just be patient and keep stirring to break the clumps by pressing them to the bottom or the side of the bowl. 

(Pour it in)

(Start mixing)

(Bring the clumps by pressing them toward the bottom or side of the bowl)

(But maybe not too hard, I broke my most handy spatula)

4. After some vigorous stirring, you should have some silky smooth batter now (see below picture for consistency). And it's ready to steam the first time. 

5. Get your steaming set up ready and start bringing it to a boil. Get a deeper baking tray, preferably non-stick, I'm using an 8-inch one here. Brush it evenly with oil, pour the batter in, cover well, and start steaming.

(Brush with oil in the tray)

(Pour in)

(And start steaming on boiling water)

6. We need to steam it on high for 30 minutes for the first stage of steaming. Take it out every 10 minutes and give it a good stir (like the picture is shown below). Our goal here is to turn the batter into a "gloop of dough".

(Mix for the first time)

(Mix for the second time, see it gets more solid than liquid)

(30 mins up, it should be set and turn into a sticky dough)

7. While the batter is steaming, line an 8-inch cake mold/or a bamboo steamer with bamboo leaves of parchment paper. Remember to oil the leaves or parchment paper evenly, otherwise, you'll have some difficult time to peel them off after finished.

(I used leaves, parchment paper would totally work, just cut out the round shape and a strip for the side. Remember to oil them.)

8. Now after 30 minutes of steaming and periodically mixing, the batter should turn into this kind non-liquid gloop. Grab that, and bit by bit put it into the lined cake mold using a spoon or spatula. 

(Adding in bit by bit)

9. It'll look uneven after it's all in, but no worries, just press it into the mold till the surface is relatively flat and even. 

(Fill it up and press it in)

10. Now optionally for some decorations on top. I just used cashews and goji berries because I have them in the fridge. You can play around with this part, just note that the color will change after the second steaming. (Please see " Note on decoration" if you're using cake mold.)

(Just some simple decoration)

11. Next, let's move onto the second steaming.  Add enough water to your steaming set up, bring it to a boil, cover the cake mold or the bamboo steamer with a plate or the bamboo steamer lid, then cover the lid of your steamer set up, steam on medium-high for 1 whole hour. Check the water level in the steamer every 20 minutes, add hot boil water back in if the water level is running low. 

(Ready to steam.)

12. One hour later, take out the cake mold/bamboo steamer, let it cool down completely. Preferably put it in the fridge when it's relatively cool and leave it overnight.  

(Let it cool down in the mold)

13. The next day, take it out from the fridge. Take it out of the mold/bamboo steamer, carefully peel off the parchment paper or bamboo leaves. It may stick a bit, just be patient. Then put it in a zip lock bag to store or a pretty box to present if you're feeling fancy.

(Take out the whole thing and carefully peel off the paper or leaves)

14. Now, you can keep it as it is. It stays good for up to 5 days in the fridge. Just slice out the portion you need. (Please see note on "How to eat".)

15. If you want to keep it for longer. You can slice them up into 1cm thick pieces, lay them out in a layer, freeze them, and toss them in a bag when they harden up. 

(Cut into 1cm thick pieces. Yes, they just stick on my hand like that. So remember to oil your knife)

(Put into one layer to freeze)

(I saved the center square block for CNY next week, it's in the freezer right now)

• How to eat:
• If it's storing in the fridge, you can just slice them into 1cm pieces and eat them straight. But for the best result, reheating is highly recommended. If it's frozen, you can also just take out the slices and do the below steps to reheat.

a. A classic way is pan-frying. Being extremely sticky, you cannot just fry it in a pan, it'll end up being a melting gooey mess. The trick to prevent this is egg wash.

(1). Use one egg, add in a tbsp water and a pinch of salt, whisk well. The salt in the egg creates a nice slightly savory crispy layer outside of the soft and gooey rice cake.

(2). Dip the rice cake slices in egg wash, then fry it in a heated pan that's been "long yau", fry the rice cake for 2-3 minutes on medium.

(3). When you can easily poke a chopstick in the slice, that means it's done. Then take it out and enjoy.

(Coat with egg wash)

("Long yau" your pan or wok)

(Fry one side for a minute, then flip to fry the other side)

b. Another way would be steaming. Get a plate, nicely oil it, lay the slices on the plate and steam for about 2-3 minutes on high. 

(A pan-fried piece)

(Look how stretchy it is)

• Note on flavor variations: you can use coconut milk instead of evaporated milk to make coconut milk rice cake. Or you can steep 6 black tea bags in the water to add some nice tea flavor. Or swap 40g of flour (i.e. 30g of sticky rice flour+10g of rice flour) with 40g of cocoa powder for a lightly chocolate rice cake.
• Note on decoration: if you're using cake mold, you can layout the decoration on the bottom of the mold before putting the rice cake dough in. After peeling off the parchment paper, the previous bottom can become the top and it'll create a very nice and smooth surface after steaming. Below is a cake I made before with sprinkles of dried osmanthus flower.

(The one is with osmenthus flower, this shiny side is the previous bottom side in the cake mold)

So right, this our Cantonese sweet rice cake recipe for Lunar New Year. Hope you sticky rice lovers will enjoy it! See you next week with another new year related recipe on how to use up some banquet leftovers.