Steph here! A few notes... CULTURAL BACKGROUND: 1. “粄/Ban” nomenclature: naming rules of “Ban” products are often “ingredient + the character ‘ban’”. E.g., “芋粄 (yu ban)”, meaning “taro ban”, which is a steamed dumpling using mased taro in its wrapper. Although wheat is rarely used in Hakka Bans, there’s still “麦粄 (mai ban)”, meaning “wheat ban”, which is a wheat pancake wrapped with pickles and vegetables. 2. Why is this a celebratory food? Well, the character “发/bot” in “发粄/bot ban” means puffed and prosperous, and the crack on the cake symbolizes smiling, the bigger the smile, it means the more prosperous the upcoming year will be. 3. Are bot ban (发粄) the same as huat kueh (发粿) or fat gou (发糕)? Yes, basically. There’re some differences in ingredients and techniques here and there: some would use a mix of rice + wheat flour, some would use straight up wheat flour, some would use leavening agents (baking powder, Chinese baker’s ammonia, etc.) instead of fermentation to create the puff and crack.
3. What ARE the major grains in China? Well, the “wheat/rice” divide is a very modern concept and as we called it, “fabled”. Through out Chinese history, wheat only started to slowly take over (in the north) in Song dynasty (around 10 to 13th century). To put it overtly simple, it was Panicum miliaceum (黍) before Han dynasty; then Setaria italica var. germanica (foxtail millet) starting from Han dynasty. They were (and still are) often cooked into a congee like consistency. Wheat only started to take over when stone grind became more available. Thus most of the dumplings, baos, mantous, and noodles we see today, only started to appear since Song dynasty and started to assemble the form we know today in Tang dynasty. While in the south, it’s a whole different story. It’s often rice but many other types of plants are eaten as a source for carbohydrate. 4. Hakka origin theories. It’s… mixed. There’re certain theories on that front. Wikipedia has a pretty well-covered discussion about it if you’re interested. I don’t want to get into too much about it since I’m not Hakka but they do have a very interesting history. And Meizhou is such a lovely and beautiful town that’s so underrated both in food and pleasantness.
TECHNIQUES 1. Making in batches. With a thick batter like this, making in batches helps if you don’t own an industrial level blender. So I’d like to blend the ingredients in half (except the yeast) and adding them in following this sequence: Blend the soaked rice + red yeast rice + water for 2-3 minutes, Add in the sugar, blend for 1 minute, Add in the cooked rice, blend for 3-4 minutes, gradually changing the speed from low to high, Scrape out the batter, and blend the remaining half of the ingredients, Mix in the yeast into the final batter. 2. Starch gelatinization. In addition to the way of cooking part of your rice as we shown in the video, there’re a couple more ways to facilitate starch gelatinization when making doughy rice/starch things in Chinese cooking. For Cantonese dim sum and some rice noodles, the soaked rice is grind using a grind stone into a batter, then it’s wrapped in a cloth and pressed under something heavy to expel the water, then part of the remaining rice “dough/batter” will be cooked and mixed back in with the whole batch. For some dim sum and kueh, cooked rice will be dried under the sun, then grind into a powder, and that cooked rice powder will be used when making the thing. For certain pancakes and cakes (I’ve seen this style mostly in southwest China), leftover rice is ground and used directly in the batter/dough. You can use whatever that fits you, general rule of thumb for quantity, use 20%-30% of your total rice/starch amount for gelatinization. 3. Rice categories. Different rice products use different types of rice for different textures as we discussed in our rice noodle roll video ( ua-cam.com/video/jNgOBva8GPc/v-deo.html ). “Bot ban” goes for a softer chewy texture, people usually use “粘米/zhanmi” in Meizhou, i.e. champa rice. Zhanmi is very similar to jasmine rice and we often use jasmine as a direct sub as it’s more available in the west. I tested with different types of rice, and here’s what they’re like: short grain (too thick and chewy); aged basmati (too snappy and lack of that soft body); rice flour (way too dense with kind of an unpleasant graininess). 3. Bot Ban formula and ratio: rice for soaking (80%) + rice for gelatinization (20%) + sugar (35%) + yeast (0.5%) + water (~60%-70%) + coloring (optional). 4. Osmo-tolerant yeast. Traditionally, bot ban and similar steamed sweet rice cakes are made with laozao fermented rice (as the one we used in the broken bao video ua-cam.com/video/hR39C5Gmr1c/v-deo.html ). And one of our Patreon told us that her Hakka Indonesian mother would use Tapai to make this cake. You can use it if you happen to have any of these active fermented rice/cassava wine on hand, but it’ll take a bit longer to ferment. Just look for when it’s double in size. 5. When the batter is done, take the temperature of your batter, make sure it’s not overheating from blending. Ours’ usually range from 30-35C, which is the ideal temp for fermentation.
Is it possible to use chemical leaveners like baking powder in place of the yeast? Unfortunately, I'm not able to find osmotolerant yeast or its alternatives where I live ☹️
I love your videos and all the additional notes you put together. I'm wondering why you say you can't fit all the information you've gathered into the videos. Do you want to stay under a certain run time? I would certainly watch your videos if they were 30 minutes or an hour long, the history and cultural insights are fascinating!
Imo, Chinese food is the most complex cuisine of them all. The provenance of ingredients, the technique, the multiple layers of steps involved and so much more goes into a final dish. A simple plate of food could have three ingredients each fermented in entirely different ways - some pickled, some lacto, some preserved or cured in lye. I don’t think people realise just how deep the rabbit hole goes with Chinese food.. and then when you start talking about regional Chinese food… it’s another thing entirely!! Honestly, thank you so much for doing these videos, I frequently use them and they are always on point!
As a coeliac I'm actually pretty excited that there's a whole culture of rice-based alternatives to wheat dumplings and bao! Adapting Chinese cooking to be gluten free can get really difficult at times and I knew trying things like bao might turn into a whole project. Learning about Ban style food first could make all the difference! Thank you for the accidental tip! I hope you have a happy new year
I also have a lil gluten intolerance w/ my GI issues & IC and i’ve also been hunting for gluten-free alternatives, hopefully I can help a lil - millet is a great substitute for things like couscous as it’s a grain & is full of nutrients + no gluten. Just make sure to soak it for a few hours beforehand. Using tapioca starch rather than glutinous rice flour makes mochi just as good in my limited experience.
if your into fried foods i cannot reccomend gram flour enough! its made from chickpeas and acts very similar to all purpose when used for breading. just add seasonings and cornstarch and crunch
The care and research put in every single video will not stop to amaze me, I'm so glad I found this channel, it's a true pleasure to be able to learn from these!
We have a similar rice cupcake in Portugal, a simpler recipe but still very delicious. It's amazing to see the Chinese influence on Portuguese cooking after all these years!
I'm from Sri Lanka. A rather small island nation in South Asia. We have a desert which looks exactly like this one called "Vandu appa" or "Seenakku" depending on where you're from. Traditionally we would use non glutinuous rice of the indica variety for the flour, palm sugar for the sweetening and palm toddy for the yeast. It's considered a very traditional sri lankan sweet but now I'm having to reconsider on whether this traditional sweet is actually an influence from our eastern neighbours.
Your nation might be small and country not big, but your name is well known. I don't know much about your country tbh, but the name sounds familiar, and your island was previously called Ceylon. Ceylon tea is still known and regarded tea. Yeah, when you look more into food and learn about what others around you eat, you notice you are a part of something bigger with constant all sided influences and common culture, even if details can vary. It's so interesting! Anyway, greetings from Europe! I wish you all well!
Vandu appa most probably came from Kerala. which was an allied kingdom back in the day. Same with appa, pittu, kottu etc. Kalu Dodol on the other hand most probably came from Javanese / Malay people.
I LOVE the contextual information. A lot (most) Chinese food is the mother of all Asian cuisines (except India, which is just as old). I really appreciate learning about these bits of information, as growing up eating Vietnamese food, I’ve always wondered where all of the dishes originated from -where and how they evolved, influenced, and inspired different types of numerous regional dishes. Thank you for excellent quality videos !! No need for FoodNetwork. This is the REAL deal !! Gracias ! ❤️
There’s a quick way to make these using a combination of mostly rice flour and some glutinous rice flour. The quick recipe also uses yeast as well as some baking powder. Red ones are unusual in Singapore but because pure white is inauspicious, they’re usually dotted on the top with some red food colour.
New sub here. I love the way you explain these recipes and cooking techniques. You make it so easy to understand for people with no familiarity of Chinese cooking. I also love that you explain the cultural and geographical background of the dishes. The demystified part of your channel name is on point.
I'm from Sabah, Malaysia with a significant Hakka population. Whilst commonly seen during the Lunar New Year (the ones colored red), they're often sold by hawkers throughout the year colorless.
I’m Hakka and this is one of my favourite recipe. My mom made them since I was a kid at Lunar New Year. We say the bigger the cracks on the Pok Pan the happier and bigger our smiles will be throughout the year. Therefore we always made them very meticulously to make sure they come out right after steaming. Please share more Hakka recipes. Thank You.
In Indonesia we have this kind of cake too , we call it "kue mangkok" or cup cake. We use fermented cassava in the batter and for the brown we use palm sugar and we eat the brown one with shredded coconut. I believe the Hakkas brought this and influence these kind of cupcake in many SE Asia region
Hakka! My grandparents ancestry. I love this rice cup cake (or kuih apam kukus beras in Malay). Always get them back home. I will try to make this here in the UK as I miss food back home. Thanks !
We have the same sort of thing in Indonesia called kue mangkok (bowl cake, even though the size is more cupcake). Another variation we have is bolu kukus, where we use normal wheat flour instead of rice flour. Think of it like this cupcake but with textures of chiffon cake.
I'm so excited to make this!! I'm half Hakka and 2.5 gen, living in an area with very few other Hakka people 😭 and sometimes I feel so disconnected. I will be very happy if you make any more Hakka foods!
Yay! I ate these as a kid and am looking forward to trying them once more! Thanks for the recipe and, even more, I appreciate the bit of history. I always love to hear more about Hakka culture as my grandfather was Hakka but I never got to learn much at all from that side.
This dish is, what I theorize to be, the predecessor to our modern day Puto here in the Philipppines which is arguably Malay in origin which may have very well been a Hakka Faban derivative.
@@KenshiroPlayDotA yeahh cow cake ... but its an old recipe thus probably taken the name from those days. You could also use milk for milky fragrance ... Coconut milk has it's own fragrance, different sugar has different flavours too ... Lotsa variant
@@KenshiroPlayDotA you must understand that hakka is not regional clan but been migrating for ages all over China but usually said from north to south ... Hak or translated as Guest means they tend to diversified more then others clan with new local surroundings.
Nice😁👌 My grandad(rip) was a baker here in Ireland, he wouldve liked to see these given even rice was seen like "oooh this is new" and all he worked with was basic flour, butter, water ect.
What a coincidence. Literally just 2 days ago I got these nostalgia pangs for my grandma's huat kueh and was looking through chinese recipe videos to try to learn how to make it. And now your video comes at the perfect time to add to my research
Indonesia has a sizable chunk population of Hakka people here. And I actually didn't know how many popular dishes in Indonesia is of Hakka origins. This rice cupcake is very commonly eaten for breakfast. The meat-stuffed tofu, etc etc.
Please share more Hakka cuisine recipes! Back when I lived in Canada, Hakka style Chinese restaurants were pretty much the only kind we went to. After moving to where I currently am, there aren't any restaurants of that cuisine 😢 I miss Hakka style Chinese food so much!
These sound amazing! I've always loved the red bean cake, along with the year round favorites of red bean, black bean, lotus, and custard steamed buns.
In Indonesia there are kue mangkok which is similar to this. And there also kue moho which made from flour but some people make it mixed with rice flour although personaly I think the texture become not much different from kue mangkok if its make from mixed flour. I prefer kue moho from flour than mixed flour. I just noticed when I talked to my friends that not all people who lives in the same city knows kue moho. My grandparents from both mother & father happens to used being neighbors in an area where most Chinese-Indonesian people in our city lives. A friend from other city who moved to our city did not know kue moho until I bought it for her. Another friend who also born and raised in the same city also did not know kue moho, her family are closer to Javanese culture than Chinese. Both of them become likes kue moho after having a taste. Kue Moho looks more like steamed bun with cracks like the one in this video, but with two colors white & pink and baking paper underneath just like steamed bun. And I don't think many Javanese people knows kue moho, once brought it for snack to work and my friends who are Javanese wondering what it is and they tried it. Since this is near Chinese new year, there are a lot of people sells kue moho in the market with Chinese-Indonesian residents in my city along with kue keranjang (nian gao)
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe!! My parents are both Hakka but I was born overseas and rarely know anything about our culture. I am spending Chinese New Year without them so I will try to make some Hakka foods to make me feel more "at home"
We have this in Fujian and it's called 碗糕 (bowl cake) named after the device that it was cooked at. It's interesting to see red yeast used in here as white and brown are the most common ones in Minnan area.
It reminds me of a Filipino cupcake called Puto. Essentially it's the same thing, except they often tend to top it with shredded cheddar (it's not an uncommon thing with their pastries.) Just curious though, does red rice powder affect the end flavor of the product that you intend to use it for?
All our traditional sweets are rice-based. Yep, puto is often topped with cheese (not necessarily cheddar) but some times salted duck egg. There is even flavored puto whoch color-coded so you know what flavor it is (ex: purple for ube, green for pandan and so on).
oh please here we go again with the Pinoy Pride Squad member trying to give fun facts to impress foreigners. So apparently the Puto is just another Chinese Invention like your Lumpia, Pancit, and Jollibee. No need to react. This is just a reaction to your “It comes with a variety of toppings” which is Absolute Bull Sheet. Why do Filipino constantly INVENT trivia about their Chinese food items? Variety of Toppings for the Puto???? Like what Cherries, dried cranberries, Pistacio, Macademia, blue cheese, caviar???? Oh you mean those cheese bit? That is a recent invention and its for people who dont like the taste of Puto. They put a very tiny cheese bit. The Puto is very Filipino. But your comment made it seem that it is not. Because the Desperate attempt to hype it with a Trivia “various toppings” BS made it seem that you dont think it is good enough. You need to glaze it with a Lie.
@@eduardochavacano I don't know why you're being so aggressive but there is puto with salted egg. I don't know about "various" but I do know one other thing that's put on or into puto.
Is it inadvisable to make them at double or triple the size? I have ceramics class coming up so I might try my hand at making my own steaming vessel to try this recipe, but I don’t know if it’s more advantageous to make a few big ones or a bunch of small ones
Oh, there're bigger ones too, but those are steamed in a steamer lined with a wet cheese cloth for steam to come up. There's also something like this : kuehkueh.com.sg/product/religious-festival/5-kati-red-huat-kueh/ (2.5kg). My guess is that double in size would probably still work since it's still a reasonable size? Also, leavening agents like baking powder can help. But hey, even if they don't crack, they're still chewy sweet rice cakes.
Thanks for posting this, my mom used to make this when we were kids in which she made the brown version using the brown slab sugar. Thanks for the nostalgia! This recipe is about 90% there compared to Bak Tong Gou. Sweet white rice cake with a touch of tanginess. It is like a cross between jello and rice pudding sponge cake. I am sure you guys are working on it soon! Cheers!
They look very much like Phillippine Puto. The cultural similarities are interesting, probably strongly related to the close geography and history of the two southeast-asian countries :O
You know you've been to this channel for too long when you heard the word "first" at any point of the video and you would just subconsciously shout out "long yau!" 2:01
My grandmother is Haka, and use to make pork belly something using these red yeast and shitake . Well from what i remember. Unfortunately she passed, and no one knows the recipe. If u know such a thing , can u enlighten me .plzzzz. THK U
Sounds like something that belongs to the "糟汁/红糟" (red yeast lees/liquid) category of dishes. I believe it's called 红糟肉. Using red yeast in cooking is quite common, I've seen it from Zhejiang to Fujian and in Hakka areas. But Hakka and Hokkien are the two cuisines that use red yeast heavily.
This looks really cool! I'm really curious about the texture of this. Also I don't think I've seen yeast used with rice dough the same way you use it with wheat dough! That's super cool!
My Mom is of Hakka origin on her father's side. She makes stuffed everything, stuffed tofu, tofu puffs, green peppers etc... so these stuffed everything comes from an attempt by their ancesters to make buns without wheat?? Hahaha I'll tell her about that
In Thailand, with large number of Thai of Chinese descent, we also have a variation of this recipe here. In Thai we call it ถ้วยฟู, literally means "fluffy cup". The water used is usually scented with jasmine flower and the cups used are small ceramic cups about half the diameter of the one in this video. Also while we used cooked rice, most recipe here used rice flour instead since we already use rice flour for other dessert, with addition of baking powder for more leavening.
We have a similar treat in the Philippines known also as a bad word in Spanish lmfao. It makes the phrase “I’m gonna eat some puto” sound terrifying without context.
I mean, it IS a good side. This is like complaining that most mexicans only make tortillas with wheat compared to the entirety of european baking. Different cultures use foods differently and for different results that taste good.
Interesting. Vietnamese has a rice cake called banh bo. Banh comes from the Chinese ban. I wonder if bo comes from the Hakka bot. Because bo in Vietnamese doesn’t make sense. It means cow or crawl. Although inside the rice cake does look like cow tripe.
Actually, the Meizhou hakka pronunciation of the dish is more like fat (a like in ah) ban. I think bot is the Cantonese pronunciation of the same Chinese character
I will give this a try! I’ve done something similar with fat goh but it used jiu niang as leavening. I hope one day you can show use how to make a proper bai tang gao (bak tong go)! To this day the instant yeast recipes don’t taste like the real deal
There's also a Hokkien version! It's popular throughout the south - you also see it in Cantonese food and Chaozhou (Teochew) food as well. No clue which version came first, but wandering around Meizhou, they felt particularly prominent.
There is the same thing in Thailand called ขนมถ้วยฟู (khanom thuai fu, also lit. "fluffy cupcake"), which I guess that Hakka immigrants also brought them in.
ah, thanks! The first dish I learned from is khanom jin haha, I guess it probably means light snack in this sense. Edit: actually just saw another comment in another video saying this, maybe that's where's it from, I don't know Thai or Mon so I'm definitely not the one to judge. "Actually, ขนมจีน (khanom chīn) is a corruption of Mon word : ခၞံစိန် (khanoṃ cin; ขฺนํจิน์/ขะนอมจิน) meaning "boiled rice" or "cooked noodle" (Mon is one of the major ethnic group in Burma/Myanmar). Thai people just misheard it to be "khanom chīn" meaning "Chinese snack", but the etymology of the word really has nothing to do with China. จีน (chīn) here is စိန် (cin) meaning "boiled" or "cook", and originally pronounced short, while จีน meaning "China" pronounced long, like the word "jean"."
I wonder what kind of adjustments would be needed to use homemade rice malt syrup (I used ground sprouted barley to make mine but it's similar to what's in stores; just a bit less refined) instead of sugar? I'll have to make it your way first and play around! these look like something I'd definitely want to eat.
My ball didn’t puff out of the cup and crack I let the yeast sit for about three hours what am I doing wrong do you think maybe there wasn’t enough water maybe it was too thick?
it may be a couple reasons, I had that problem before. if your cup is taller than it's narrower, and if you use the batter right away when it reaches twice its volume (when the fermentation is too long it may also weaken the strengthen of the batter and flat out at the end), then one possible cause I can think of it's that maybe the batter is too thin. because the thinner the batter, the more likely it becomes a pancake.
Steph here! A few notes...
CULTURAL BACKGROUND:
1. “粄/Ban” nomenclature: naming rules of “Ban” products are often “ingredient + the character ‘ban’”. E.g., “芋粄 (yu ban)”, meaning “taro ban”, which is a steamed dumpling using mased taro in its wrapper. Although wheat is rarely used in Hakka Bans, there’s still “麦粄 (mai ban)”, meaning “wheat ban”, which is a wheat pancake wrapped with pickles and vegetables.
2. Why is this a celebratory food? Well, the character “发/bot” in “发粄/bot ban” means puffed and prosperous, and the crack on the cake symbolizes smiling, the bigger the smile, it means the more prosperous the upcoming year will be.
3. Are bot ban (发粄) the same as huat kueh (发粿) or fat gou (发糕)? Yes, basically. There’re some differences in ingredients and techniques here and there: some would use a mix of rice + wheat flour, some would use straight up wheat flour, some would use leavening agents (baking powder, Chinese baker’s ammonia, etc.) instead of fermentation to create the puff and crack.
3. What ARE the major grains in China? Well, the “wheat/rice” divide is a very modern concept and as we called it, “fabled”. Through out Chinese history, wheat only started to slowly take over (in the north) in Song dynasty (around 10 to 13th century). To put it overtly simple, it was Panicum miliaceum (黍) before Han dynasty; then Setaria italica var. germanica (foxtail millet) starting from Han dynasty. They were (and still are) often cooked into a congee like consistency. Wheat only started to take over when stone grind became more available. Thus most of the dumplings, baos, mantous, and noodles we see today, only started to appear since Song dynasty and started to assemble the form we know today in Tang dynasty.
While in the south, it’s a whole different story. It’s often rice but many other types of plants are eaten as a source for carbohydrate.
4. Hakka origin theories. It’s… mixed. There’re certain theories on that front. Wikipedia has a pretty well-covered discussion about it if you’re interested. I don’t want to get into too much about it since I’m not Hakka but they do have a very interesting history. And Meizhou is such a lovely and beautiful town that’s so underrated both in food and pleasantness.
TECHNIQUES
1. Making in batches. With a thick batter like this, making in batches helps if you don’t own an industrial level blender.
So I’d like to blend the ingredients in half (except the yeast) and adding them in following this sequence:
Blend the soaked rice + red yeast rice + water for 2-3 minutes,
Add in the sugar, blend for 1 minute,
Add in the cooked rice, blend for 3-4 minutes, gradually changing the speed from low to high,
Scrape out the batter, and blend the remaining half of the ingredients,
Mix in the yeast into the final batter.
2. Starch gelatinization. In addition to the way of cooking part of your rice as we shown in the video, there’re a couple more ways to facilitate starch gelatinization when making doughy rice/starch things in Chinese cooking.
For Cantonese dim sum and some rice noodles, the soaked rice is grind using a grind stone into a batter, then it’s wrapped in a cloth and pressed under something heavy to expel the water, then part of the remaining rice “dough/batter” will be cooked and mixed back in with the whole batch.
For some dim sum and kueh, cooked rice will be dried under the sun, then grind into a powder, and that cooked rice powder will be used when making the thing.
For certain pancakes and cakes (I’ve seen this style mostly in southwest China), leftover rice is ground and used directly in the batter/dough.
You can use whatever that fits you, general rule of thumb for quantity, use 20%-30% of your total rice/starch amount for gelatinization.
3. Rice categories. Different rice products use different types of rice for different textures as we discussed in our rice noodle roll video ( ua-cam.com/video/jNgOBva8GPc/v-deo.html ). “Bot ban” goes for a softer chewy texture, people usually use “粘米/zhanmi” in Meizhou, i.e. champa rice. Zhanmi is very similar to jasmine rice and we often use jasmine as a direct sub as it’s more available in the west.
I tested with different types of rice, and here’s what they’re like: short grain (too thick and chewy); aged basmati (too snappy and lack of that soft body); rice flour (way too dense with kind of an unpleasant graininess).
3. Bot Ban formula and ratio: rice for soaking (80%) + rice for gelatinization (20%) + sugar (35%) + yeast (0.5%) + water (~60%-70%) + coloring (optional).
4. Osmo-tolerant yeast. Traditionally, bot ban and similar steamed sweet rice cakes are made with laozao fermented rice (as the one we used in the broken bao video ua-cam.com/video/hR39C5Gmr1c/v-deo.html ). And one of our Patreon told us that her Hakka Indonesian mother would use Tapai to make this cake. You can use it if you happen to have any of these active fermented rice/cassava wine on hand, but it’ll take a bit longer to ferment. Just look for when it’s double in size.
5. When the batter is done, take the temperature of your batter, make sure it’s not overheating from blending. Ours’ usually range from 30-35C, which is the ideal temp for fermentation.
I love and appreciate your guys' notes so much! It's a really interesting way to learn about the culture and history
Based on the moiyen/Meixian hakka pronunciation, I believe this dish is usually called fat ban instead
Is it possible to use chemical leaveners like baking powder in place of the yeast? Unfortunately, I'm not able to find osmotolerant yeast or its alternatives where I live ☹️
My family (Taiwanese Hokkien) traditionally makes 發糕 (Mandarin: fa gao) for the Lunar New Year
I love your videos and all the additional notes you put together. I'm wondering why you say you can't fit all the information you've gathered into the videos. Do you want to stay under a certain run time? I would certainly watch your videos if they were 30 minutes or an hour long, the history and cultural insights are fascinating!
I HAD THESE AT A PARTY ALMOST A DECADE AGO AND I HAVE BEEN CRAVING THEM EVER SINCE OH MY GOD
This certain individual's life has finally truly begun.
Rice cup cake for life.
Thanks for the idea. We're having Christmas in July soon, I might make some mini versions of these.
Imo, Chinese food is the most complex cuisine of them all. The provenance of ingredients, the technique, the multiple layers of steps involved and so much more goes into a final dish. A simple plate of food could have three ingredients each fermented in entirely different ways - some pickled, some lacto, some preserved or cured in lye. I don’t think people realise just how deep the rabbit hole goes with Chinese food.. and then when you start talking about regional Chinese food… it’s another thing entirely!! Honestly, thank you so much for doing these videos, I frequently use them and they are always on point!
As a coeliac I'm actually pretty excited that there's a whole culture of rice-based alternatives to wheat dumplings and bao! Adapting Chinese cooking to be gluten free can get really difficult at times and I knew trying things like bao might turn into a whole project. Learning about Ban style food first could make all the difference! Thank you for the accidental tip! I hope you have a happy new year
Not celiac myself but have my own common food sensitivities, so I feel (some) of your pain. Gratz on this find & good luck going forward!
SAME
I also have a lil gluten intolerance w/ my GI issues & IC and i’ve also been hunting for gluten-free alternatives, hopefully I can help a lil - millet is a great substitute for things like couscous as it’s a grain & is full of nutrients + no gluten. Just make sure to soak it for a few hours beforehand.
Using tapioca starch rather than glutinous rice flour makes mochi just as good in my limited experience.
@@gunnarhanson2889 glutinous rice flour has no gluten
if your into fried foods i cannot reccomend gram flour enough! its made from chickpeas and acts very similar to all purpose when used for breading. just add seasonings and cornstarch and crunch
The care and research put in every single video will not stop to amaze me, I'm so glad I found this channel, it's a true pleasure to be able to learn from these!
This is one of my favorite dessert here in Central Java Indonesia, we call it Pea Peo, or sometimes Kue Mangkok ( bowl/cup cake).
We have a similar rice cupcake in Portugal, a simpler recipe but still very delicious. It's amazing to see the Chinese influence on Portuguese cooking after all these years!
I scrolled looking for another portuguese thinking the same. Its so much fun to study portuguese-asian relationships throught the lens of food
I'm from Sri Lanka. A rather small island nation in South Asia. We have a desert which looks exactly like this one called "Vandu appa" or "Seenakku" depending on where you're from. Traditionally we would use non glutinuous rice of the indica variety for the flour, palm sugar for the sweetening and palm toddy for the yeast. It's considered a very traditional sri lankan sweet but now I'm having to reconsider on whether this traditional sweet is actually an influence from our eastern neighbours.
Your nation might be small and country not big, but your name is well known. I don't know much about your country tbh, but the name sounds familiar, and your island was previously called Ceylon. Ceylon tea is still known and regarded tea.
Yeah, when you look more into food and learn about what others around you eat, you notice you are a part of something bigger with constant all sided influences and common culture, even if details can vary. It's so interesting!
Anyway, greetings from Europe! I wish you all well!
Vandu appa most probably came from Kerala. which was an allied kingdom back in the day. Same with appa, pittu, kottu etc. Kalu Dodol on the other hand most probably came from Javanese / Malay people.
I LOVE the contextual information. A lot (most) Chinese food is the mother of all Asian cuisines (except India, which is just as old). I really appreciate learning about these bits of information, as growing up eating Vietnamese food, I’ve always wondered where all of the dishes originated from -where and how they evolved, influenced, and inspired different types of numerous regional dishes.
Thank you for excellent quality videos !! No need for FoodNetwork. This is the REAL deal !! Gracias ! ❤️
There’s a quick way to make these using a combination of mostly rice flour and some glutinous rice flour. The quick recipe also uses yeast as well as some baking powder. Red ones are unusual in Singapore but because pure white is inauspicious, they’re usually dotted on the top with some red food colour.
New sub here. I love the way you explain these recipes and cooking techniques. You make it so easy to understand for people with no familiarity of Chinese cooking. I also love that you explain the cultural and geographical background of the dishes. The demystified part of your channel name is on point.
same, I recently subbed for the same reason so I could learn more of the historical/geographical info and techniques!
I'm from Sabah, Malaysia with a significant Hakka population. Whilst commonly seen during the Lunar New Year (the ones colored red), they're often sold by hawkers throughout the year colorless.
Colourless, rose, pandan. You name it lol.
I’m Hakka and this is one of my favourite recipe. My mom made them since I was a kid at Lunar New Year. We say the bigger the cracks on the Pok Pan the happier and bigger our smiles will be throughout the year. Therefore we always made them very meticulously to make sure they come out right after steaming. Please share more Hakka recipes. Thank You.
In Indonesia we have this kind of cake too , we call it "kue mangkok" or cup cake. We use fermented cassava in the batter and for the brown we use palm sugar and we eat the brown one with shredded coconut.
I believe the Hakkas brought this and influence these kind of cupcake in many SE Asia region
u can usually buy them along with other food in traditional market in the morning
is it similar to bolu kukus? or a different kind?
@@nyanyaa9084 It's different, texture-wise and taste-wise, it's stickier and tastes fermented. It doesn't taste like bolu at all.
Hakka! My grandparents ancestry. I love this rice cup cake (or kuih apam kukus beras in Malay). Always get them back home. I will try to make this here in the UK as I miss food back home. Thanks !
I’m Hakka and this is one of my favourite recipe. My mom made them since I was a kid. Please share more Hakka recipes. Thank You.
❤️❤️❤️the dog❤️❤️❤️ I adore your dog! So cute! 💯
We have the same sort of thing in Indonesia called kue mangkok (bowl cake, even though the size is more cupcake). Another variation we have is bolu kukus, where we use normal wheat flour instead of rice flour. Think of it like this cupcake but with textures of chiffon cake.
You two are just amazing! You're my go-to channel for all things about Chinese cooking.
I'm so excited to make this!! I'm half Hakka and 2.5 gen, living in an area with very few other Hakka people 😭 and sometimes I feel so disconnected. I will be very happy if you make any more Hakka foods!
🙌 I'm half Hakka too and this video made me so happy.
Yay! I ate these as a kid and am looking forward to trying them once more! Thanks for the recipe and, even more, I appreciate the bit of history. I always love to hear more about Hakka culture as my grandfather was Hakka but I never got to learn much at all from that side.
Loving the Hakka representation here :) we do love rice in many forms. The steamed sticky rice flour buns are something everyone should try
this is my favourite childhood snack, used to eat it with coconut shavings
I LOVE THAT DOG!!!!!!! He's sooooooo adorable!!!
This dish is, what I theorize to be, the predecessor to our modern day Puto here in the Philipppines which is arguably Malay in origin which may have very well been a Hakka Faban derivative.
Very interesting recipe! 💖 Thank you for sharing 🙏🌸
We Viets have something similar called “bánh bò” which is made also with rice flour but it also has coconut milk.
My rusty Vietnamese was asking my brain : "Why is he talking about some beefcake ?" :D
@@KenshiroPlayDotA yeahh cow cake ... but its an old recipe thus probably taken the name from those days. You could also use milk for milky fragrance ... Coconut milk has it's own fragrance, different sugar has different flavours too ... Lotsa variant
@@KenshiroPlayDotA you must understand that hakka is not regional clan but been migrating for ages all over China but usually said from north to south ... Hak or translated as Guest means they tend to diversified more then others clan with new local surroundings.
@@KenshiroPlayDotA that bò actually means "to crawl" because the batter is supposed to crawl up the side of the cake tin :D
@@KenshiroPlayDotA I don’t blame you. Some people also thought the word to mean “crawl cake”
Nice😁👌 My grandad(rip) was a baker here in Ireland, he wouldve liked to see these given even rice was seen like "oooh this is new" and all he worked with was basic flour, butter, water ect.
What a coincidence. Literally just 2 days ago I got these nostalgia pangs for my grandma's huat kueh and was looking through chinese recipe videos to try to learn how to make it. And now your video comes at the perfect time to add to my research
Indonesia has a sizable chunk population of Hakka people here. And I actually didn't know how many popular dishes in Indonesia is of Hakka origins. This rice cupcake is very commonly eaten for breakfast. The meat-stuffed tofu, etc etc.
We eat this cake throughout our childhood
Please do more Hakka recipe if you can 🙏
It’s difficult to get authentic Hakka recipe
Please share more Hakka cuisine recipes! Back when I lived in Canada, Hakka style Chinese restaurants were pretty much the only kind we went to. After moving to where I currently am, there aren't any restaurants of that cuisine 😢 I miss Hakka style Chinese food so much!
The legend of bolu kukus, thankyou
These sound amazing! I've always loved the red bean cake, along with the year round favorites of red bean, black bean, lotus, and custard steamed buns.
In Philippine cuisine, we make a similar product called Puto. With butter or with cheese, it's one of my favorites.
In Indonesia there are kue mangkok which is similar to this. And there also kue moho which made from flour but some people make it mixed with rice flour although personaly I think the texture become not much different from kue mangkok if its make from mixed flour. I prefer kue moho from flour than mixed flour. I just noticed when I talked to my friends that not all people who lives in the same city knows kue moho. My grandparents from both mother & father happens to used being neighbors in an area where most Chinese-Indonesian people in our city lives. A friend from other city who moved to our city did not know kue moho until I bought it for her. Another friend who also born and raised in the same city also did not know kue moho, her family are closer to Javanese culture than Chinese. Both of them become likes kue moho after having a taste. Kue Moho looks more like steamed bun with cracks like the one in this video, but with two colors white & pink and baking paper underneath just like steamed bun. And I don't think many Javanese people knows kue moho, once brought it for snack to work and my friends who are Javanese wondering what it is and they tried it. Since this is near Chinese new year, there are a lot of people sells kue moho in the market with Chinese-Indonesian residents in my city along with kue keranjang (nian gao)
They look so fluffy it should be illegal! 😋
So awesome.. Thank you for showing us how to make these awesome cakes 👍😀
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe!! My parents are both Hakka but I was born overseas and rarely know anything about our culture. I am spending Chinese New Year without them so I will try to make some Hakka foods to make me feel more "at home"
Thanks Steph!
ohh my god .Thk U for this. So much nostalgis about this.
非常感謝您的分享 👍
We have this in Fujian and it's called 碗糕 (bowl cake) named after the device that it was cooked at. It's interesting to see red yeast used in here as white and brown are the most common ones in Minnan area.
I grew up eating this! So good with some sugar
It reminds me of a Filipino cupcake called Puto. Essentially it's the same thing, except they often tend to top it with shredded cheddar (it's not an uncommon thing with their pastries.)
Just curious though, does red rice powder affect the end flavor of the product that you intend to use it for?
Not really, red yeast rice is basically for color :)
All our traditional sweets are rice-based. Yep, puto is often topped with cheese (not necessarily cheddar) but some times salted duck egg. There is even flavored puto whoch color-coded so you know what flavor it is (ex: purple for ube, green for pandan and so on).
We have something that's quite similar in the Philippines called puto. It comes with a variety of toppings, including cheese (which is the best one)
I once had puto in Biñan 7-8 years ago, really great stuff. It's like steamed muffin, interesting texture.
Yup, practically puto.
oh please here we go again with the Pinoy Pride Squad member trying to give fun facts to impress foreigners. So apparently the Puto is just another Chinese Invention like your Lumpia, Pancit, and Jollibee. No need to react. This is just a reaction to your “It comes with a variety of toppings” which is Absolute Bull Sheet. Why do Filipino constantly INVENT trivia about their Chinese food items? Variety of Toppings for the Puto???? Like what Cherries, dried cranberries, Pistacio, Macademia, blue cheese, caviar???? Oh you mean those cheese bit? That is a recent invention and its for people who dont like the taste of Puto. They put a very tiny cheese bit. The Puto is very Filipino. But your comment made it seem that it is not. Because the Desperate attempt to hype it with a Trivia “various toppings” BS made it seem that you dont think it is good enough. You need to glaze it with a Lie.
Nico Dalusong it is not practically puto. It is PUTO with more expensive ingridients!
@@eduardochavacano I don't know why you're being so aggressive but there is puto with salted egg. I don't know about "various" but I do know one other thing that's put on or into puto.
I have always loved your videos for the food, but this extra bit of culinary anthropology makes me want to binge-watch more content like this.
Is it inadvisable to make them at double or triple the size? I have ceramics class coming up so I might try my hand at making my own steaming vessel to try this recipe, but I don’t know if it’s more advantageous to make a few big ones or a bunch of small ones
Oh, there're bigger ones too, but those are steamed in a steamer lined with a wet cheese cloth for steam to come up. There's also something like this : kuehkueh.com.sg/product/religious-festival/5-kati-red-huat-kueh/ (2.5kg). My guess is that double in size would probably still work since it's still a reasonable size?
Also, leavening agents like baking powder can help. But hey, even if they don't crack, they're still chewy sweet rice cakes.
We call this Huat(growth) Kuih (cake)in Penang, Malaysia.
Thanks for posting this, my mom used to make this when we were kids in which she made the brown version using the brown slab sugar. Thanks for the nostalgia! This recipe is about 90% there compared to Bak Tong Gou. Sweet white rice cake with a touch of tanginess. It is like a cross between jello and rice pudding sponge cake. I am sure you guys are working on it soon! Cheers!
More and more, I'm here for the dog content.
What the dog doin’?
@@dbxvhero9006 controlling Steph, Steph is actually a puppet and the dog is the puppeteer
Sounds good.
Awesome!
They look very much like Phillippine Puto. The cultural similarities are interesting, probably strongly related to the close geography and history of the two southeast-asian countries :O
i love your dogs little beard
Us Indonesian have something similar, we call them “Kue Bolu”. It’s a colorful sweet cake, usually flavored with pandan leaves.
I’m sure that one is descended directly from this bun style
Also in Malaysia and Singapore I believe - well definitely Malaysia at least. Love kueh bolu.
Kueh bolu is Hokkienese version of Bot Ban
what a stunning thumbnail! :D
Question you ever make anything using crab?
You know you've been to this channel for too long when you heard the word "first" at any point of the video and you would just subconsciously shout out "long yau!"
2:01
My grandmother is Haka, and use to make pork belly something using these red yeast and shitake . Well from what i remember. Unfortunately she passed, and no one knows the recipe. If u know such a thing , can u enlighten me .plzzzz. THK U
Did you ask Mandy on the “Souped up Recipes” channel? I think she is Hakka and may be able to help. Good luck.
Sounds like something that belongs to the "糟汁/红糟" (red yeast lees/liquid) category of dishes. I believe it's called 红糟肉.
Using red yeast in cooking is quite common, I've seen it from Zhejiang to Fujian and in Hakka areas. But Hakka and Hokkien are the two cuisines that use red yeast heavily.
This looks really cool! I'm really curious about the texture of this. Also I don't think I've seen yeast used with rice dough the same way you use it with wheat dough! That's super cool!
My Mom is of Hakka origin on her father's side. She makes stuffed everything, stuffed tofu, tofu puffs, green peppers etc... so these stuffed everything comes from an attempt by their ancesters to make buns without wheat?? Hahaha I'll tell her about that
that's one theory, hahaha. but it kinda makes sense and has been sticking around for long enough.
What can you do if you don't have osmotolerant yeast?
In Thailand, with large number of Thai of Chinese descent, we also have a variation of this recipe here. In Thai we call it ถ้วยฟู, literally means "fluffy cup". The water used is usually scented with jasmine flower and the cups used are small ceramic cups about half the diameter of the one in this video. Also while we used cooked rice, most recipe here used rice flour instead since we already use rice flour for other dessert, with addition of baking powder for more leavening.
i try your siu mai in it turns out amazing since then im already your subs
In my country, we call this kue mangkok (bowl cake) and it's so delicious!
i found my local asian food market sells pasuban in the bakery! i really enjoyed them. i will still try to make my own with your recipe
We have a similar treat in the Philippines known also as a bad word in Spanish lmfao. It makes the phrase “I’m gonna eat some puto” sound terrifying without context.
It came from the Tamil word puttu.
Video request: 韭菜盒子
It never ceases to amaze me how many things you can do with rice. Sad that in the west most people just boil it as a side..
It is the ultimate side to a vegetable or protein.
I mean, it IS a good side. This is like complaining that most mexicans only make tortillas with wheat compared to the entirety of european baking. Different cultures use foods differently and for different results that taste good.
there is also fermented rice if u wanna try lol
@@REDDAWNproject I suppose that's fair..
Yay new video
That looks AWESOME
This is almost exactly the same batter as the Hausa culture’s masa, except masa is pan fried. Very interesting.
Interesting. Vietnamese has a rice cake called banh bo. Banh comes from the Chinese ban. I wonder if bo comes from the Hakka bot. Because bo in Vietnamese doesn’t make sense. It means cow or crawl. Although inside the rice cake does look like cow tripe.
Actually, the Meizhou hakka pronunciation of the dish is more like fat (a like in ah) ban. I think bot is the Cantonese pronunciation of the same Chinese character
Yes, it was introduced into Vietnam by the Hakka. You can find the dish in Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines and many other Southeast Asian countries.
Huat kueh!
I don't think I can find osmotolerant yeast. Could I swap it for active dry? Do you think it reasonable?
If I’m not mistaken this can be a “healthy” item since it doesn’t use wheat flour?
... Cheers...
Looks like a strawberry smoothie. I never would have guessed that rice is used different ways.
You would be surprised what all you can do with rice, since moving to China I have learned many different ways to use rice
Looks delicious, i shall have to nab some deeper ramekins and try this out
I will give this a try! I’ve done something similar with fat goh but it used jiu niang as leavening. I hope one day you can show use how to make a proper bai tang gao (bak tong go)! To this day the instant yeast recipes don’t taste like the real deal
Looks dank need to make some
What do I use of yeast if I live in Europe? I cannot get hold of red yeast and the other one😭🥺. Help please 🙏🏻
requesting for mei cai kou rou please
Are these the same as the Lucky Cakes, or Fat Gao?
this looks so good and it’s gluten free?! 😭 so happy
Ooh! Rice based sweets! We have bibingka and puto!
I’m betting a popover pan would be a good mold
So what you’re saying is, as someone with celiac disease, I need to visit southern China? Sign me up!
It's popular in malaysia too....all this while I thought it was of hokkien origin:)
There's also a Hokkien version! It's popular throughout the south - you also see it in Cantonese food and Chaozhou (Teochew) food as well. No clue which version came first, but wandering around Meizhou, they felt particularly prominent.
0:43 "Mom, if I don't get a fluffy rice cake soon, I'm going to eat this plant."
There is the same thing in Thailand called ขนมถ้วยฟู (khanom thuai fu, also lit. "fluffy cupcake"), which I guess that Hakka immigrants also brought them in.
what does khanom mean actually? I've seen it in many Thai dishes' names.
Khanom meant sweets or light snacks, it is mostly used to describe desserts though
ah, thanks! The first dish I learned from is khanom jin haha, I guess it probably means light snack in this sense.
Edit: actually just saw another comment in another video saying this, maybe that's where's it from, I don't know Thai or Mon so I'm definitely not the one to judge.
"Actually, ขนมจีน (khanom chīn) is a corruption of Mon word : ခၞံစိန် (khanoṃ cin; ขฺนํจิน์/ขะนอมจิน) meaning "boiled rice" or "cooked noodle" (Mon is one of the major ethnic group in Burma/Myanmar). Thai people just misheard it to be "khanom chīn" meaning "Chinese snack", but the etymology of the word really has nothing to do with China. จีน (chīn) here is စိန် (cin) meaning "boiled" or "cook", and originally pronounced short, while จีน meaning "China" pronounced long, like the word "jean"."
I've never heard of osmo tolerant yeast before. Interesting
I wonder what kind of adjustments would be needed to use homemade rice malt syrup (I used ground sprouted barley to make mine but it's similar to what's in stores; just a bit less refined) instead of sugar? I'll have to make it your way first and play around! these look like something I'd definitely want to eat.
My ball didn’t puff out of the cup and crack I let the yeast sit for about three hours what am I doing wrong do you think maybe there wasn’t enough water maybe it was too thick?
it may be a couple reasons, I had that problem before. if your cup is taller than it's narrower, and if you use the batter right away when it reaches twice its volume (when the fermentation is too long it may also weaken the strengthen of the batter and flat out at the end), then one possible cause I can think of it's that maybe the batter is too thin. because the thinner the batter, the more likely it becomes a pancake.
Can you do a under rice dish
the brown coloured 发粄 with coconut sugar flavour is the best one.
重庆这边叫发糕!
Wah roti kukus. Chinese descendants in Indonesia still makes to this day
is that small 发糕？