Every CNY, I'll look forward to making this becos of the following reasons:
- Symbolic - its such an auspicious dish symbolizing: 团团圆圆，圆圆满满，步步高升，甜甜蜜蜜，金银财宝堆积成山. Need I say more how auspicious this dish is? :P
- Prevent food wastage: how else to settle the 年糕 right?
- To better each previous year.... for every year without fail, I will be pretty much scalded by hot oil "exploding" from the pot of boiling oil. I love challenges, I really do.. and each year's challenge, is to prevent myself from being scalded. And this year, I DID IT!!!!! Change out the recipe a little this year and it works pretty well.
Ok, here goes the ingredients:
Set A:
- 1 and 1/2 Glutinous Rice Flour
- 2 and 1/4 teaspoon Baking Powder
Directions: Mixed well and set aside in a large bowl
Set B:
- 2/3 cup of hot water
- 4 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoon oil
Directions: Dissolve the sugar into the hot water and add in the oil. Set aside.
Set C:
- Cube the 年糕 (Sticky Rice Cake) about 1cm cube or just slightly bigger.
- Roasted White Sesame and Black Sesame Seeds in the ratio of 10:1 (added black sesame seeds so that it looks nicer.
- Pot of oil, you can use one whole small bottle (do not heat up until about to cook as if the oil is too hot, the exterior will be cooked and burnt whilst the contents remain uncooked.)
Step 1:
Using a large bowl, mixed the flour and powder well (Set A) and pour half of Set B mixture into the bowl and start to mix well using a spatula or spoon. Don't worry if it remains crumbly or too dry. Slowly add in a little more of Set B and continue to mix until Set A is damp. Then using your fist, knead the dough by folding in and kneading using your knuckles. This process takes about 5-8 mins or until you see the dough has formed nicely. The end product should not be crumbly or runny. Set aside for 10 mins while working the the rest.
Note: you may not use up all of Set B. In fact, I have about 20% of Set B remaining.
Step 2:
While the dough is resting, you can proceed to cube the 年糕. The best way to do so, is to pour hot water over the blade of your knife before you cut/cube the 年糕 . This will ensure your blade to be free from stickness.
Step 3:
Remove your dough, roll into long form and using a knife/spatula, cut into about 20 portions. Or, what lazy me did, was instead of rolling, I pinch some dough and started rolling into a ball about the size of a half fishball. After forming into a ball, using your thumb, make a dent and shape into a bowl and put one cube of the 年糕 into the bowl and start pinching to form back into a ball. Ensure that you check that the sharp corners of the 年糕 do not protrude out of the ball.
Step 4:
Gently roll your filled ball over the plate of mixed sesame seeds and ensure even coating. Set again and continue with the rest till the dough has all been used up.
Step 5:
Only at this point, then turn on small to medium fire for the point of oil. When you see small bubbles, add in the balls one by one. Do not be impatient to add everything as the dough will be stuck to the base of the pot. What I did was to drop one ball, using a pair of chopsticks, I kept turning the ball till the surface is totally cooked (so that it will not stick to the pot's base) before I add another ball and continue flipping. I think the max should be 4 balls and you keep rotating the balls in the pot to create movement and to prevent sticking. Using the chopsticks, gently press on the surface of each ball. The more you press, the bigger the balls will inflate. Dish out onto a kitchen tissue about 3-4 mins later or when the colour turns golden brown. Do not turn up the fire as the sesame seed and exterior may be burnt very quickly.
Some recipes call for the wetting of the balls before rolling over sesame seeds. That was what I did in previous years and got scalded very badly. If your dough is sticky enough, the sesame seeds will be coated nicely and will not loosen. Also, when moving the balls in the hot pot, do so gently to prevent the sesame seeds from dropping out.
Have fun trying!
Happy mum
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