Eight-treasure rice pudding

Eight-treasure rice pudding is a very traditional dessert in Chinese cuisine. The two main ingredients are sweet rice (also called sticky rice or glutinous rice) and adzuki bean paste. For the preparation of adzuki bean paste, please read my old post. This dessert is like upside-down cake, with beautiful and tasty topping, the filling is so soft and creamy, and the rice is shinny.

(1) Steam rice: Soak 1 cup sweet rice at least 5 hours, thoroughly drain and then blend in 4 tbsp water, steam under high power for 15 minutes. Sprinkle some water on the rice and stir a little bit, continue to steam for another 15 minutes. Immediately blend in 3 tbsp sugar, 2 tbsp soft butter and 3 tbsp sweet shredded coconut.

(2) Shape the pudding: Grease container (a bowl -shaped container is ideal) first. Place dried fruits at the bottom of container. I this time use dried apricot and golden raisin. Dried pineapple, cranberry, cherry and mango are also good. Add a layer of sweet rice, then place pitted date and nuts (almond, pecan, walnut...etc) around, add a layer of adzuki bean paste (about 1 cup), thenanother layer of sweet rice.

(3) Steam pudding: Put the bowl in a steamer and steam for 15 minutes under high power.

(4) Serve: Place a serving plate upside down on top of the bowl. Invert the pudding onto the serving plate. Serve warm.

cassava dessert

I grabbed a cassava (also known as yucca, yuca or even tapioca) yesterday, just because it is so cheap, only cost me $ 0.99/lb.

My friends suggest me bake cassava cake, but... it takes 1 hour to bake, kinda energy-consuming. So I changed my mind, and wanna make something unique and relatively green.

Okay, I announce that I create a cassava dessert as shown in my photo, LOL.

It tastes soooooooooooooo goooooooooood, with marvellous smell of coconut, not too sweet, very healthy dessert. Look at the inside, soft red bean paste filling ^&^.

First of all, I would like to talk about the toxin in cassava, which is called cyanide-based toxin. Because of that terrible compound, raw cassava can't be eaten. As a very important first step, boil cassava to get rid of this toxin. If it can be poked through easily, it means the cooking is done. Strain and remove water, wash with running water thoroughly, and strain dry. Now it is ready to be used in further cooking.

For my cassava dessert, besides mashed cassava, I need one small sweet potato (cooked and mashed), 2 tbsp coconut cream powder, 1/2 cup granulated sugar, 4 tbsp sticky rice flour and 1 cup adzuki bean paste.

Blend cassava, sweet potato, sugar, coconut cream powder, sticky rice flour. Wearing disposable gloves to avoid ingredients sticking on the hand and making mess, form an elastic dough. On the working counter, line a sheet of plastic wrap or parchment paper, place dough on, and divide the dough into eight portions.

On a plate, sprinkle dry shredded coconut.

Wrap each dough portion with adzuki bean paste filling, round well and roll on coconut to have it evenly covered with coconut. Put in muffin cup and place in steamer.

Steam for 15 minutes.

And...

Enjoy!

Tangyuan for Lantern Festival (Feb. 21)

Lantern festival is the first full moon day after Chinese New Year. In 2008, it will be on Feb 21. With its round shape, Tangyuan is a wish for family reunion.

Main ingredient for Tangyuan is sticky rice flour (also known as glutinous rice flour or sweet rice flour). Its filling can be sesame paste (a mixture of ground black sesame, lard and sugar), red bean paste (with sweet-scented osmanthus) or mince pork. We love sweet filled Tangyuan. With my homemade adzuki bean paste and sticky rice flour (milled sticky rice powder), I make Tangyuan with red bean paste filling.

1. Dough

Blend 400 g sticky rice flour with 1 3/4 cup warm water, knead until obtaining an elastic dough ball. Cover with damp cloth for 30 minutes.

2. Filling

Divide 1 cup adzuki bean paste to 60 portions, round each portion. Use toothpick to pick up filling balls, so that Tangyuan won't be coloured by messy fingers.

3. Tangyuan

Considering the low humidity in my apartment, damp cloth is used to cover either dough or small portions or Tangyuan, otherwise, dough will be dehydrated and Tangyuan will have crack on its surface.

Divide dough into 60 portions (small doughs), take one and cover the rest with damp cloth. Point thumb in the centre of the small dough, use other four fingers to hold the edge of the dough, rotate the dough to creat a cone-shape, put the filling in the cone, wrap, seal and round.

4. Cook

Bring water to boil, gently stir in Tangyuan. Stir with wooden spoon to avoid Tangyuan sticking at the bottom of the pot. Bring water to boil again, add some cold water, cover and reduce to medium power. Add cold water when water boils, until Tangyuan float.

Serve immediately with water.

5. Preserve

For uncooked leftover, place Tangyuan in a covered container, one layer only, leave space between Tangyuan, and freeze. After all Tangyuan become well-frozen (hard and not sticky any more), transfer Tangyuan to a zipper bag or container (can be piled).

Cook frozen Tangyuan directly, do not defrost.

Rice cake and happy Chinese New Year

To celebrate Chinese New Year, as an important traditional food, rice cake decorated with colourful glazed fruits is steamed before New Year's Eve. This sweet cake symbolizes a coming happy and healthy year, fruits are good wishes for prosperous and abundant life.

Main ingredients in rice cake include rice powder, sticky rice powder, icing sugar, and red bean paste. Sure, three of them can't be found in local supermarket. You can either buy them in oriental supermarket or do it yourself.

For the preparation of rice powder and sticky rice powder, please visit here; and for adzuki bean paste, visit here.

Well, get all ingredients? Let's make rice cake:

(1) In a mixing bowl, blend 250 g sticky rice powder, 250 g rice powder, 150 g icing sugar and 150 mL water. Mill bulky powder and sift.

(2) Line bamboo steamer with two-layer cheesecloth, wet cloth thoroughly.

(3) Place half sifted powder into steamer, smooth and flat the surface.

(4) Use a pot which can fit the steamer, add water in the pot and bring to boil.

(5) Put on steamer with bamboo cover, let steam for 5 minutes under high power.

(6) Remove steamer from pot, spread on 2 cup soft adzuki bean paste, then add another half sifted powder onto the paste, flat the surface. Decorate with pitted date and golden raisin (and other favorite glazed fruits).

(7) Bring water in lower pot to boil and put on steamer with bamboo cover.

(8) Steam for 15 minutes under high power.

(9) Take out rice cake from steamer and remove cheesecloth immediately. If cheesecloth is hardly removed, wet cloth a little bit.

(10) Cut rice cake with a wet knife, and enjoy!
Happy Chinese New Year!

Homemade adzuki bean paste

Step 1: Soak 2 1/2 cup adzuki bean overnight;

Step 2: Strain and remove water, transfer to rice cooker. Add water (at least twice the volume of soaked adzuki bean). Heat under "cook" mode to bring to boil, switch to "warm" mode, cook until beans are tender and can be easily mashed;

Step 3: Stand sieve on a large mixing bowl with enough water, strain cooked beans portion by portion, mash beans so that bean paste can pass through sieve and skins of red bean are separated and left in sieve;

Step 4: Strain adzuki bean paste / water suspension through jelly strainer bag, squeeze paste as dry as possible;

Step 5: Heat wok under medium powder;

Step 6: Add 100 mL oil into hot wok, stir in adzuki bean paste;

Step 7: Stir until water in the paste evaporates completely and paste turns into dry powder;

Step 8: Add 2 cup sugar and stir vigorously, making adzuki bean powder evenly covered with melted sugar and thus, turns back into paste in a dark brown color;

Step 9: Transfer adzuki bean paste to a container. Let cool to room temperature and store in the freezer. Defrost to room temperature before using.

* 2 1/2 cup dry red bean can give 8 cup adzuki bean paste.