Sweet Rice Cakes for Chinese New Year’s!
Happy Chinese New Year’s!!
Wishing you and your family a very happy, healthy, and beautiful year of the rabbit!!
As a tradition, the Chinese will eat what’s called “New Year’s Cake”. It’s basically sweetened rice and glutinous rice flour pan fried until soft and chewy. These days, there are so many variations of this dish, such as coconut flavored, red dates, ginger flavored, and a range of colors that these cakes come in.
The characteristics of this dish is defined by it’s shape as well as it’s name. It’s round because when wishing people good health, fortune, and happiness, you want it to go endless (so it doesn’t end). It’s name also implies “year high” in Cantonese, which means, wishing you a fruitful and boundless growth in the year.
So don’t forget to enjoy this over the New Year’s! It’s really only available during this time commercially, or you make your own. This year, I had an Auntie give me a few batches. I will be trying my own next time for sure time permitting!
Name:
New Year’s Rice Cakes
Traditional Chinese Name:
年糕 (nian gao)
This dish is sweet to taste and slightly warming
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What’s involved?
Prep time: 5 mins
Cook time: 15 mins
Total time: 20 mins
Serves: 1 batch (5″ diameter) serves 4 people
Ingredients
- 1 batch of sweet rice cakes (5″ in size)
- 2 teaspoons of butter
- 2 eggs
Cooking Instructions
- Cut up the sweet rice cakes into your chosen size (thickness and length). I like square pieces because they’re easier to eat and handle when cooking, especially when they get soft! I tend to use about 1/2 inch in thickness.
- In a bowl, scramble 2 eggs (use 2 eggs for a 5″ size, if you want to make half, use 1 egg)
- In a shallow pan on low-medium heat, add your butter until it’s melted
- Then swash the sliced sweet rice cakes fully in the eggs and lay gently on the pan
- Cook on low-medium heat until they soften and lightly brown and turn over and repeat until the cakes are soft and you can poke them (squishy soft!)
- Serve right away and enjoy!
Tips
- use eggs to prevent them from sticking to each other
- use butter (oil works) in a warm pan
- low-medium heat max. It’s a slow cook, so allocate time
- 2 eggs for 1 round 5.5″ rice cake
- serve right away so it’s soft, this is best!