Hey guys, a few notes: 1. As Steph said in the outro, these rice cakes are very gooey. If you'd like a firmer rice cake, don't pound it as much and toss in a mold! Also a very good way to do this. 2. During testing, when we were feeling lazy to make the syrup, we literally just used molasses. Molasses actually has a very nice taste here - so nice we were actually close to using it in the recipe itself. But yeah. If you're a molasses lover, definitely feel free to top with that, alternatively. 3. While I wrote it in the recipe in the description, I am worried that I didn't make this clear enough in the description - be *certain* to pound your rice right when it's piping hot. Don't wait after steaming... you don't want it to cool down. 4. Another thing I think I might've glossed over in the narration is the deep-frying process. For the thumbnail, were frying up some extra rice cakes... so we decided to separately film it with my phone to give a more uncut look. If you're interested: ua-cam.com/video/Ds-t7RbBLV0/v-deo.html 5. So in a couple weeks' time we'll be doing Southwestern Bingfen, probably me - Chris's favorite Chinese dessert (well. either that or Cantonese double-skinned milk). These rice cakes feature prominently in one of the style of Bingfen that we'll be doing :) So that's something that you can keep some extra rice cakes in your freezer for. We still have a *little* bit of testing to do for that one though, so next week's video is going to be an easier one on the testing front - Chinese BBQ spices mixes. One day we'll do a proper Chinese BBQ 101 video, but I still don't think we can get away with grilling in our current apartment. So... at the very least we can go over the seasoning mixes haha
I ate this when I was visiting China but couldn’t remember what it was called! Thank you so much for sharing this recipe and for making this channel. As a Chinese adoptee, I really appreciate being able to learn about the food and culture of China through these videos.
You are right about the roasted soybean flour being kinako (きな粉 or 黄粉) in Japanese. For New Years celebration in Japan you pound the rice and then you dip the freshly pounded rich in kinako and eat it. It is super delicious. It is such a nice experience being in some familiy, friend or neighbours yard watching the pounding and being handed fresh mochi. I guess it is also a bit inaka doing the whole pounding yourself nowadays, but who cares :)
You guys could not be making me miss Chengdu more than I was already. Was dreaming about hot pot, with a cocnut milk drink on the side finished off with this all day today. Man, summer without visiting family adn home sucks, definitely have to try this during summer
Hope you're staying well and healthy abroad. Yeah, now the flight situation sucks but there's not much we can do (I heard there will be more flights resuming gradually). Not sure where you're based but I guess you can at least make something when you can't come home? We'll be making bingfen in two weeks, so there would be one more thing for the summer must eat list.
@@ChineseCookingDemystified Exactly what i've been doing all week! I made liang mian for lunch a couple times this week (I actually filmed a liang mian video and just posted it!), some red bean buns, mung bean ice lollies and kou shui ji. Will be trying this next week! How are you guys holding up?
Yeah, that's on the list! We live in Shunde (Daliang specifically!) so we're quite familiar with the dish. That said... stir fried milk is a bit difficult. It's not hard in theory but it's one of those things that's easy to screw up & overthicken. I've made it a number of times before and I'd say about 60% of the time I'm less than satisfied with the result. Once we can get it consistent!
It's true, I visited 鸡鸣山 in 河北张家口 last summer, the fortress gate was built by bricks that were sticked with a mixture of this rice, sand, and other adhesives.
Amazing as always, I have to say...having been an owner of now my 3rd miniature schnauzer (I'm 37)...your dog is absolutely adorable!!!! Keep up the great videos!!!
Would Dapanji (大盘鸡）be something that you’re interested in making a video on one day? As someone who grew up in China but never took interest in cooking until I was already grown and moved to the US, it’s really cool to watch how all the food I remember eating as a kid was actually made. Seeing all the work put into the food I got to take for granted really reminds me to be grateful for the people in my life. You guys are awesome, and thanks for the work you do!
Thank you for this recipe. I am a big fan of traditional recipes that take a lot of time, effort and skill to make. I have a few questions though: 1. essential and best quality cookware (ie woks, Chinese mortar & pestles, clay vessels, tools, etc.) : ^ Would you please consider doing a comprehensive video/blog post (if you also have a blog or website) about the entire range of tools that one would need to successfully complete all the recipes that you have done (and plan to do in the future)? Certain tools are almost impossible to find or are very expensive to acquire outside of China, so it would be nice to have a complete list to buy everything all at once for those of us who travel to China on occasion every few years. I ask because when things settle down from coronavirus, I plan on heading back to China at some point and I'd like to pick up all the essential cookware, herbs (some seeds to grow things also), etc. so I can make any type of Chinese I'd like. 1a. the same request as above but for spices, sauces, wines, etc. : ^ One thing I love about the philosophy of your videos is that you try to do almost everything from scratch. Some people have different ideas of what "from scratch" means, but your idea seems to match mine in that "from scratch" means making everything and I mean EVERYTHING yourself no matter how long it takes (ie brining, fermenting, drying, etc.). I'm not sure if all Chinese condiments can be made at home, but if they all can, then happily disregard this message. 2. 李子柒 : I wonder what are your thoughts about the traditional techniques used by 李子柒 in her videos? I enjoy her videos, but I don't think I've seen any instructions on how to learn these rare techniques and culinary skills of yesteryear. 3. cookbooks : Do you have recommendations of the best cookbooks written in the Chinese language? I can read Mandarin just fine, so I prefer cookbooks intended for cooks in China versus books for the international audience. I vaguely remember in one of your videos you quickly mentioned a Chinese cookbook, but I didn't catch the name. Sorry, for the long post and again, thank you for the videos. 加油!
In Indonesia, we have very similliar food too. Some of this type we called "Uli ketan" (in Betawi name i think). Glutinous rice+shredded coconut are mix together, then wrapped in banana leaves. We eat with "tapai ketan" (fermented glutinous rice) . Yum,,, Never try with toasted soybean flour thought, love to try it.
I love eating at a Chongqing noodles restaurant in Sydney. Really nice to know how to make it at home. Definitely will try. Please also make a recipe for ice-jelly brown sugar syrup!
I usually add grated coconut in to the sticky rice and pound them together. The coconut will give oil to the rice dough so it will be less likely stuck in the mortar, plus it also gives more savoury flavour. I wrap it in banana leaves and levae it overnight in the fridge.
@@ChineseCookingDemystified they can be eaten either sweet or savory. We add brown syrup like you do in the video or grated palm/coconut sugar. For savory, we add condiment made from grated coconut stir with dried shrimps and chillies.
Finally you have a large mortar and pestle ^_^ I remember you mentioning in some of your older videos that you only had a small one and a larger one would be useful.
Thanks guys, I didnt know about the finger holes trick or the need to sprinkle with water. I always just soaked 4+ hrs and then steamed 20-25 mins in a buttercloth bag when making Thai sticky rice ... i'm definitely gonna try your method.
@@ChineseCookingDemystified Thanks. 😁 Ive been using the standard flat round stacking bamboo steamer trays (chinese/taiwanese), not the Thai conical woven baskets. Lately Ive been using a lot of rapid pumps from a plant mister of water. I measured that a quick flurry of 60 pumps in sbout 20 sec gives me 1/2 cup with nice even coverage. Every mister is different and must be measured separately. It was still a tad dryish during pounding, but I just occasionally spritzed it a few times with a plant mister, and popped the whole mass in the microwave for 30 sec or so before resuming pounding (I have a 24" ish x 2" diam kilned maple dowel that I use for bread and pastry what also works well for pounding). Made a very respectable batch of plain mochi. I was pleased. As for mortar - i have a cured cast iron mortar with a textured interior that holds about a pint ... great for things like hulling cardamom, or rustic guacamole, but too small for pounded rice, so I used a 3L stainless steel work bowl atop a folded bar towel. I'll keep my eyes peeled for something heavier gauge, cuz it was slightly dented when I was done.
Can you guys go over some of the more common breakfasts from different provinces one day? I would love to understand the nuances of different dishes between North/South and so on. Thank you! 🌻
3:53 i always thought that fact is merely a joke, so i search on wikipedia Turns out, it didn't. Ancient Chinese really used Sticky Rice for construction, even on Great wall
If I may offer a somewhat related suggestion......can you do a video on pumpkin cakes/南瓜饼? I've made some but I'm sure it's not how it's made in China.
That looked suspiciously like grated black sugar, which I guess is technically dark brown sugar. You can add a bit of molasses to your brown sugar if it isn’t that dark. Black sugar can be bought at Asian markets and is usually sold in blocks.
question! if we have a rice cooker with a sticky rice setting, can we use that to cook the rice, or will that result in a heavier or somehow less delicious final product? thank you!!
It is the same. The pounding part is exactly the same, it is just the chosen end preparation that is different. I usually buy sesame Tang Yuan when I want filled mochi because I don't like anko, and for some reason it is impossible to find the plain mochi with kinoko or the sesame filling mochi outside of Japan. It is such a basic way of preparing glutinous rice that it is not strange is used both in China and in Japan
ElementEvil You see, mochi is usually served cold with powdery soft skin. Ci ba is always deep fried and served steaming hot with brown syrup, and its texture gets worse really quickly when getting cold.And they dont taste nearly the same.
This is definitely on my "to make" list! I miss them so much. I'm also on the search for a liang gao recipe (sorry idk the characters!) The sweet brown sugar sauce reminds me of it! I've been told that the sauce for liang gao has alcohol in it though, but I'm not sure.
As much as I love kinako, I also love the more savory way to prepare these rice cakes: Cut the rice cake into flat squares, panfry them until they start to swell and get a nice crispy surface, then serve them in some nori and drizzle a little bit of soy sauce on top. Yaki mochi~
I have a weird question: you mention in this video that we want to sprinkle water over the sticky rice to prevent it from getting hard. That said, my family has never done this, and our sticky rice has always turned out fine, as far as we can tell. My elders are from Laos, and the sticky rice steamers we always use are those Thai style conical baskets that sit in those funny looking stainless steel pots with the flared lips. Does this difference in steaming implements make a difference, or am I missing something here?
i cook for two and what i did was buy a cheap grease can. it's basically a stainless steel container with a strainer on top to remove whatever fell off the food while frying. you can reuse oil 2-3 times unless you fry something with a very strong smell (like some fish) or if the debris is too small (like very fine breadcumbs).
Thank you for these videos!! You're definitely getting my cooking bug going, but I'm in the states; do you recommend any specific online food source for more varied ingredients?
Hmm so the problem with getting stuff online is that it's almost universally more pricey than getting it at your local Chinese/Asian supermarket. Amazon can be decent for certain ingredients, but it's often overpriced. I would call Amazon a last-resort scenario. If you're Canada-based, there's an excellent Chinese supermarket called bigcrazy that delivers throughout Canada. If you're USA-based, for Sichuan food (and some other ingredients) there's a online store called Mala Market that, while not cheap, carries a good selection of very high quality stuff. There's also a website called Posharpstore that claims to have... a lot of stuff, but take a *long* time with orders (we've had people try to use them and they're super super variable... I'd love to be able to recommend them, but I just don't know). Yamibuy has some stuff as well. For Europe, I'm not familiar enough with the market unfortunately :/ As always though, the very best bet is your local Chinese supermarket - Chinatown-based businesses could always use your support in these times!
@@ChineseCookingDemystified in case you want to know, here in poland I can get like 95% of the stuff you talk about, via markets and online sources. All the companies seem to import directly from China, so we can score the "authentic bonus points" easily
I'm trying to think of how to recommend the bamboo roasted rice bean cakes for the common man outside of Asia... and, idk, maybe one day enough eccentric Americans will plant a sufficient quantity of bamboo. It is really great as a privacy hedge that's appealing and the literal natural environment for chickens if you do that hipster homestead stuff.
Ha the problem with Xiaolongbao is that they're actually already covered pretty well in English language sources at this point. Try these recipes: www.chinasichuanfood.com/xiao-long-bao-soup-dumplings/ thewoksoflife.com/steamed-shanghai-soup-dumplings-xiaolongbao/ One day we *will* get to them though, I promise :)
I wonder if this is kind of similar to Korean rice cakes? The ones used in tteokbokki. After the rest in the cold, it kind of looked like that? I would just assume that this is more hydrated and softer
Hmmm, kind of! Not really imo but I can see where you’re coming from. You’re right in that they’re more hydrated and softer though, and they’re usually a bit bigger too.
Korean tteok uses non-glutinous rice i.e. ordinary rice (short-grain) which makes the resulting texture different when it's cooked. The starch in ordinary rice is a different sort from that in glutinous rice so tteok holds its shape better when cooked in liquid but is less stretchy and soft than the rice cakes in the video.
What about a meat tenderizer? Many of them come with a flat side which I would assume works but what about those with small spikes on them? Do you think that would lead to uneven mashing and worse product?
Is this served as a part of a dinner, or is it eaten mainly as a dessert? It looks good either way, but just wondering how it's usually consumed in China.
There's not *so* much of a separation - outside of banquets, sweets are usually not a separate course, per se... usually just eaten as part of dinner as another dish. Think... the way sweets pancakes and such are consumed in an American brunch. If you would prefer to eat them after a main course, certainly no one would bat an eye :)
Yeah, laoganma would be a good one. And stuff like sweet bean paste or hoi sin would work great too. You can mix some savory sauce together plus some water to create your own dipping sauce. We did Kewpie mayo+laoganma too, also works great. Think of it as white rice and play!
@@ChineseCookingDemystified thank you. I have some laoganma, I might give the kewpie combo a try soon. I might take the recipe slightly more into a mochi direction and use a stand mixer though. Gotta be a little lazy with it.
Theoretically you can, but my worry is that it'll be too sticky and end up breaking the machine. If you're trying that route, watch your machine carefully for overheating.
Yes, you can make this in a stand mixer. Use the kneading hooks. It will not quite have as good a texture, but it will taste better than what you can buy frozen.
I know you mentioned that a typical stone mortar and pestle didn't work great, but would a large one work better? Or is there something in particular about a stone mortar that makes it difficult?
Nah actually a large stone mortar (keyword: large) would be best. We just also wanted to pick up a mortar for Yunnan/Thai/other SEA food... which're generally wood.
Korean rice cakes don't use glutinous rice but normal short-grain rice so they're firmer and have a bouncier texture than the sticky stretchy texture of rice cakes made with glutinous rice.
I recently found this channel thanks to J Kenji Lopez-Alt and I'm loving all these recipes. I'm having a bit of trouble picturing the flavour of this dish, just so we are clear there is no salt at all?
Yes, there's no salt as it's a sweet snack. If you want to add a bit of salt, you can either add it to the syrup, or add it to the rice during pounding.
This is how mochi is supposed to be made. The mochi made from glutinous rice flour is just made that way because it is more convenient an cheaper in and industrial setting.
Glutinous rice dumplings made by mixing glutinous rice flour with water, shaping it into a dough and boiling it won't work, though. You'll end up with a different thing. You have to make rice cakes by pounding the steamed glutinous rice flour which in a home setting sounds like a recipe for disaster.
Glutinous rice flour renders a different style of rice cake, we use in the Cantonese sweet type (super super sticky and gooey). But pounding the steamed rice directly and using it straight makes a different end product. While there's another kind, you use the rice flour, steam it, and then pound, that's the common rice cake you will see. They all have different texture and usages.
@@ChineseCookingDemystified yes we call them injolmi, the only thing different is that we dont add syrup. We do that with dokbokki type rice cakes but we fry them in butter then drizzle pancake syrup on them, i think its more of a Korean American type of thing. I remember loving tgat chewy taste so well! I think I might make some tomorrow morning!😀 but These Syrup rice cakes look delicious, I bet they'd also taste lovely with toasted nut flour, mixed in with the soy flour.
Thank you! I now know the korean name. I was thinking there would be a korean version since pounding glutinous rice is such a intuitive thing to do and there is food made with both in Japan and China. I love seeing the different takes these countries have between them for similare food.
Which kind? Shanghai ones cooked in savory dishes and eaten as main course? Or sweet Beijing ones eaten as deserts? Shanghai ones are hard and have to be soaked until soft before cooking.
IIRC, I said 'one day we'll walk that mile with you', "one day" has not quite arrived :) If you would like, SoupedUp Recipes had a good demonstration of Peking Duck, and Kenji over at SeriousEats has some cool ideas to get it to work in a Western kitchen.
Authentic Peking duck has to be roasted using a certain kind of aromatic wood to give duck right kind of flavor. I wonder if it's possible for Chris to get that wood...
I imagine this is delicious, but pure-carb recipes like these are dangerous for people like, i.e. those who are liable to finish the entire batch two minutes after preparing it.
![Red Braised [Anything], Home-style](/img/n.gif)
Hey guys, a few notes:
1. As Steph said in the outro, these rice cakes are very gooey. If you'd like a firmer rice cake, don't pound it as much and toss in a mold! Also a very good way to do this.
2. During testing, when we were feeling lazy to make the syrup, we literally just used molasses. Molasses actually has a very nice taste here - so nice we were actually close to using it in the recipe itself. But yeah. If you're a molasses lover, definitely feel free to top with that, alternatively.
3. While I wrote it in the recipe in the description, I am worried that I didn't make this clear enough in the description - be *certain* to pound your rice right when it's piping hot. Don't wait after steaming... you don't want it to cool down.
4. Another thing I think I might've glossed over in the narration is the deep-frying process. For the thumbnail, were frying up some extra rice cakes... so we decided to separately film it with my phone to give a more uncut look. If you're interested:
ua-cam.com/video/Ds-t7RbBLV0/v-deo.html
5. So in a couple weeks' time we'll be doing Southwestern Bingfen, probably me - Chris's favorite Chinese dessert (well. either that or Cantonese double-skinned milk). These rice cakes feature prominently in one of the style of Bingfen that we'll be doing :) So that's something that you can keep some extra rice cakes in your freezer for.
We still have a *little* bit of testing to do for that one though, so next week's video is going to be an easier one on the testing front - Chinese BBQ spices mixes. One day we'll do a proper Chinese BBQ 101 video, but I still don't think we can get away with grilling in our current apartment. So... at the very least we can go over the seasoning mixes haha
I have a quick question. Can you use Japanese short grain rice in this recipe.
I ate this when I was visiting China but couldn’t remember what it was called! Thank you so much for sharing this recipe and for making this channel. As a Chinese adoptee, I really appreciate being able to learn about the food and culture of China through these videos.
You are right about the roasted soybean flour being kinako (きな粉 or 黄粉) in Japanese. For New Years celebration in Japan you pound the rice and then you dip the freshly pounded rich in kinako and eat it. It is super delicious. It is such a nice experience being in some familiy, friend or neighbours yard watching the pounding and being handed fresh mochi. I guess it is also a bit inaka doing the whole pounding yourself nowadays, but who cares :)
I love the super chewy gooey and chewy Japanese new year's rice cake, especially the grilled ones.
So this is basically just kinako mochi but in fried stick form. I mean, that sounds amazing, honestly.
You guys could not be making me miss Chengdu more than I was already. Was dreaming about hot pot, with a cocnut milk drink on the side finished off with this all day today. Man, summer without visiting family adn home sucks, definitely have to try this during summer
Hope you're staying well and healthy abroad. Yeah, now the flight situation sucks but there's not much we can do (I heard there will be more flights resuming gradually). Not sure where you're based but I guess you can at least make something when you can't come home? We'll be making bingfen in two weeks, so there would be one more thing for the summer must eat list.
@@ChineseCookingDemystified Exactly what i've been doing all week! I made liang mian for lunch a couple times this week (I actually filmed a liang mian video and just posted it!), some red bean buns, mung bean ice lollies and kou shui ji. Will be trying this next week! How are you guys holding up?
it seemed like you went from 200,000 to 300,000 subs in less than a month. you still deserve a million more
Hello, can you show us how to make "Stir Fried Milk", 大良炒鮮奶? I want to see some these types of, kind of, wierd recipe from China...
it's buffalo cheese, yes that cheese. 大良牛乳 is usually eaten with congee
Yeah, that's on the list! We live in Shunde (Daliang specifically!) so we're quite familiar with the dish. That said... stir fried milk is a bit difficult. It's not hard in theory but it's one of those things that's easy to screw up & overthicken. I've made it a number of times before and I'd say about 60% of the time I'm less than satisfied with the result. Once we can get it consistent!
Chinese Cooking Demystified Oh！That is my hometown.
@@min_nari 大良牛乳 and 大良炒鮮奶 is not the same thing. They're just both from大良
I had to look up 'sticky rice city wall'. TIL... Thank you for the history lesson!
Yeah, I am honestly amazed that such a thing is possible.
I was wandering if you can eat the wall after all this years
It's true, I visited 鸡鸣山 in 河北张家口 last summer, the fortress gate was built by bricks that were sticked with a mixture of this rice, sand, and other adhesives.
Old fashioned chinese snacks are always made with simple ingredients and complicated workmanship.Great video btw.
Amazing as always, I have to say...having been an owner of now my 3rd miniature schnauzer (I'm 37)...your dog is absolutely adorable!!!! Keep up the great videos!!!
You’re always so thorough! 😭🙌🏼
I love this channel!
In the japanese stores in Düsseldorf you can purchase these sticky rice cakes named MOCHI. Great video teaching how to make it yourself.
Both are sticky rice cakes but this one is very different: crispy outside, gooy inside and fried. Feels different chewing it.
This channel is just getting better and better.
I like it !
Would Dapanji (大盘鸡）be something that you’re interested in making a video on one day?
As someone who grew up in China but never took interest in cooking until I was already grown and moved to the US, it’s really cool to watch how all the food I remember eating as a kid was actually made. Seeing all the work put into the food I got to take for granted really reminds me to be grateful for the people in my life. You guys are awesome, and thanks for the work you do!
This dish is actually so popular around the whole country now. I dont think there is a lot of Chinese people know that it's a Sichuan thing.
I'm reading a Chinese novel and they're making this. These look so good!
Thank you for this recipe. I am a big fan of traditional recipes that take a lot of time, effort and skill to make.
I have a few questions though:
1. essential and best quality cookware (ie woks, Chinese mortar & pestles, clay vessels, tools, etc.) :
^ Would you please consider doing a comprehensive video/blog post (if you also have a blog or website) about the entire range of tools that one would need to successfully complete all the recipes that you have done (and plan to do in the future)? Certain tools are almost impossible to find or are very expensive to acquire outside of China, so it would be nice to have a complete list to buy everything all at once for those of us who travel to China on occasion every few years.
I ask because when things settle down from coronavirus, I plan on heading back to China at some point and I'd like to pick up all the essential cookware, herbs (some seeds to grow things also), etc. so I can make any type of Chinese I'd like.
1a. the same request as above but for spices, sauces, wines, etc. :
^ One thing I love about the philosophy of your videos is that you try to do almost everything from scratch. Some people have different ideas of what "from scratch" means, but your idea seems to match mine in that "from scratch" means making everything and I mean EVERYTHING yourself no matter how long it takes (ie brining, fermenting, drying, etc.). I'm not sure if all Chinese condiments can be made at home, but if they all can, then happily disregard this message.
2. 李子柒 :
I wonder what are your thoughts about the traditional techniques used by 李子柒 in her videos? I enjoy her videos, but I don't think I've seen any instructions on how to learn these rare techniques and culinary skills of yesteryear.
3. cookbooks :
Do you have recommendations of the best cookbooks written in the Chinese language? I can read Mandarin just fine, so I prefer cookbooks intended for cooks in China versus books for the international audience. I vaguely remember in one of your videos you quickly mentioned a Chinese cookbook, but I didn't catch the name.
Sorry, for the long post and again, thank you for the videos. 加油!
Thanks for all the amazing content! Whenever I start I can't stop watching them one after another! Just started too please let me know your opinion!
In Indonesia, we have very similliar food too. Some of this type we called "Uli ketan" (in Betawi name i think). Glutinous rice+shredded coconut are mix together, then wrapped in banana leaves. We eat with "tapai ketan" (fermented glutinous rice) . Yum,,, Never try with toasted soybean flour thought, love to try it.
Love how thorough you guys are!
I love eating at a Chongqing noodles restaurant in Sydney. Really nice to know how to make it at home. Definitely will try. Please also make a recipe for ice-jelly brown sugar syrup!
"ice-jelly brown sugar syrup"
I usually add grated coconut in to the sticky rice and pound them together. The coconut will give oil to the rice dough so it will be less likely stuck in the mortar, plus it also gives more savoury flavour. I wrap it in banana leaves and levae it overnight in the fridge.
Are these ones eaten as sweet or savory, or both?
@@ChineseCookingDemystified they can be eaten either sweet or savory. We add brown syrup like you do in the video or grated palm/coconut sugar. For savory, we add condiment made from grated coconut stir with dried shrimps and chillies.
Ahhhh, I love this dish!!! I always order it if it’s on the menu, and now I can try and make however many I want at home!
The roasted soybean powder is also used in many Korean dishes and is known as bokkeun konggaru.
It's looks so good, I've got to try it out for sure.
Finally you have a large mortar and pestle ^_^
I remember you mentioning in some of your older videos that you only had a small one and a larger one would be useful.
Yeah! It's been a long time coming. Finally bit the bullet and got one for this recipe :)
Thanks guys, I didnt know about the finger holes trick or the need to sprinkle with water. I always just soaked 4+ hrs and then steamed 20-25 mins in a buttercloth bag when making Thai sticky rice ... i'm definitely gonna try your method.
Use chopsticks to poke holes all the way to the bottom if you're using those deep Thai rice steaming gadgets.
@@ChineseCookingDemystified Thanks. 😁 Ive been using the standard flat round stacking bamboo steamer trays (chinese/taiwanese), not the Thai conical woven baskets. Lately Ive been using a lot of rapid pumps from a plant mister of water. I measured that a quick flurry of 60 pumps in sbout 20 sec gives me 1/2 cup with nice even coverage. Every mister is different and must be measured separately.
It was still a tad dryish during pounding, but I just occasionally spritzed it a few times with a plant mister, and popped the whole mass in the microwave for 30 sec or so before resuming pounding (I have a 24" ish x 2" diam kilned maple dowel that I use for bread and pastry what also works well for pounding). Made a very respectable batch of plain mochi. I was pleased.
As for mortar - i have a cured cast iron mortar with a textured interior that holds about a pint ... great for things like hulling cardamom, or rustic guacamole, but too small for pounded rice, so I used a 3L stainless steel work bowl atop a folded bar towel. I'll keep my eyes peeled for something heavier gauge, cuz it was slightly dented when I was done.
You see sellers pounding sticky rice for this in Chongqings Hong ya dong and ci qi kou. Tasty stuff.
What an amazing accidentally vegan recipe! Thanks team - love your work.
Gluten sensitive vegans in shambles.
@@martytu20 haha you must be very happy!
best if fried in lard
Can you guys go over some of the more common breakfasts from different provinces one day? I would love to understand the nuances of different dishes between North/South and so on. Thank you! 🌻
We'd love to but that...requires a whole series of videos though. It's so so so vast and different.
3:53 i always thought that fact is merely a joke, so i search on wikipedia
Turns out, it didn't. Ancient Chinese really used Sticky Rice for construction, even on Great wall
Yeah it was more of an additive to concrete though than mortar in and of itself though. Still pretty cool :)
Doggo licking the finger at the end at least getting a treat!
If I may offer a somewhat related suggestion......can you do a video on pumpkin cakes/南瓜饼? I've made some but I'm sure it's not how it's made in China.
Im always impressed of how round soybean is.
That looks really good, I need to make some.
Wow, that's some really dark looking dark brown sugar.
That looked suspiciously like grated black sugar, which I guess is technically dark brown sugar. You can add a bit of molasses to your brown sugar if it isn’t that dark. Black sugar can be bought at Asian markets and is usually sold in blocks.
You can use muscavado sugar as that is closer to chinese brown sugar.
@@adbreon Or you could take regular sugar and just add molasses until you're at the right level. Brown sugar is just sugar with molasses after all.
Oh I love 红糖糍粑 A great treats when I having savoury meal ❤️
question! if we have a rice cooker with a sticky rice setting, can we use that to cook the rice, or will that result in a heavier or somehow less delicious final product? thank you!!
I love how much Chinese love rice. Even desserts are made out of rice but they are delicious tho 😍
How is that different from saying "even desserts are made out of wheat...?"
This made me sooo hungry for Sichuan hot pot, and of course, also these rice cakes! I don't think I've had one since the last time I was in Chengdu.
this reminds me a lot of Japanese mochi
Though they taste hardly similar.
@@sasionx4785 mochi is made in the exact same way
It is the same. The pounding part is exactly the same, it is just the chosen end preparation that is different. I usually buy sesame Tang Yuan when I want filled mochi because I don't like anko, and for some reason it is impossible to find the plain mochi with kinoko or the sesame filling mochi outside of Japan. It is such a basic way of preparing glutinous rice that it is not strange is used both in China and in Japan
ElementEvil You see, mochi is usually served cold with powdery soft skin. Ci ba is always deep fried and served steaming hot with brown syrup, and its texture gets worse really quickly when getting cold.And they dont taste nearly the same.
@@sasionx4785 Ciba is not always deep fried although the one in this video is. Check this out: ua-cam.com/video/nS89xEIsS5I/v-deo.html
This looks amazing. I will give it a try! Thank you.
This is definitely on my "to make" list! I miss them so much. I'm also on the search for a liang gao recipe (sorry idk the characters!) The sweet brown sugar sauce reminds me of it! I've been told that the sauce for liang gao has alcohol in it though, but I'm not sure.
As much as I love kinako, I also love the more savory way to prepare these rice cakes:
Cut the rice cake into flat squares, panfry them until they start to swell and get a nice crispy surface, then serve them in some nori and drizzle a little bit of soy sauce on top. Yaki mochi~
I have a weird question: you mention in this video that we want to sprinkle water over the sticky rice to prevent it from getting hard. That said, my family has never done this, and our sticky rice has always turned out fine, as far as we can tell. My elders are from Laos, and the sticky rice steamers we always use are those Thai style conical baskets that sit in those funny looking stainless steel pots with the flared lips. Does this difference in steaming implements make a difference, or am I missing something here?
gahhh this looks so good i can just imagine what this would taste like with latik/coconut syrup 😭
deep fried rice cakes are the best o)--
I'm always hesitant trying the deep-fry recipes as it's a lot of oil and only cooking for one - any tips on reusing/storing the cooking oil?
i cook for two and what i did was buy a cheap grease can. it's basically a stainless steel container with a strainer on top to remove whatever fell off the food while frying. you can reuse oil 2-3 times unless you fry something with a very strong smell (like some fish) or if the debris is too small (like very fine breadcumbs).
@@Arashi441 thanks for tip! Will look into it! (though already have enough random gadgets in the kitchen!)
Pounding rice remind me of West Africa, Ghana. Pounding FuFu or rice like this
Thank you for these videos!! You're definitely getting my cooking bug going, but I'm in the states; do you recommend any specific online food source for more varied ingredients?
Mala Market is great
Hmm so the problem with getting stuff online is that it's almost universally more pricey than getting it at your local Chinese/Asian supermarket.
Amazon can be decent for certain ingredients, but it's often overpriced. I would call Amazon a last-resort scenario. If you're Canada-based, there's an excellent Chinese supermarket called bigcrazy that delivers throughout Canada. If you're USA-based, for Sichuan food (and some other ingredients) there's a online store called Mala Market that, while not cheap, carries a good selection of very high quality stuff. There's also a website called Posharpstore that claims to have... a lot of stuff, but take a *long* time with orders (we've had people try to use them and they're super super variable... I'd love to be able to recommend them, but I just don't know). Yamibuy has some stuff as well.
For Europe, I'm not familiar enough with the market unfortunately :/
As always though, the very best bet is your local Chinese supermarket - Chinatown-based businesses could always use your support in these times!
Chinese Cooking Demystified for Canadians you can also try T&T Supermarket
@@ChineseCookingDemystified in case you want to know, here in poland I can get like 95% of the stuff you talk about, via markets and online sources. All the companies seem to import directly from China, so we can score the "authentic bonus points" easily
Yummy, Looks so tasty, Thank you and take care my friend
I'm trying to think of how to recommend the bamboo roasted rice bean cakes for the common man outside of Asia... and, idk, maybe one day enough eccentric Americans will plant a sufficient quantity of bamboo. It is really great as a privacy hedge that's appealing and the literal natural environment for chickens if you do that hipster homestead stuff.
You can also use a stand mixer instead of pounding the rice.
oh hell no... cleaning that shit up after a blend of sticky rice will ruin your entire day
@@kueapel911 Yeah I think that honestly just giving it a quick pound on a chopping board would be easier...
When is shaolongbao vid coming? I really want to make that some day
Ha the problem with Xiaolongbao is that they're actually already covered pretty well in English language sources at this point. Try these recipes:
www.chinasichuanfood.com/xiao-long-bao-soup-dumplings/
thewoksoflife.com/steamed-shanghai-soup-dumplings-xiaolongbao/
One day we *will* get to them though, I promise :)
Thank you 👍
@@ChineseCookingDemystified Yes but you are becoming the authority in this field! You should not shy away! The people love you!
I wonder if this is kind of similar to Korean rice cakes? The ones used in tteokbokki. After the rest in the cold, it kind of looked like that? I would just assume that this is more hydrated and softer
Hmmm, kind of! Not really imo but I can see where you’re coming from. You’re right in that they’re more hydrated and softer though, and they’re usually a bit bigger too.
Korean tteok uses non-glutinous rice i.e. ordinary rice (short-grain) which makes the resulting texture different when it's cooked. The starch in ordinary rice is a different sort from that in glutinous rice so tteok holds its shape better when cooked in liquid but is less stretchy and soft than the rice cakes in the video.
been too long since I had any of that! I might try with pandan !
Could you make this using glutinous rice flour to make it easier?
6:32 Love your doggy!
Had this when I first got to 重庆市 on Hotpot Mountain.
Instead of a shijiu, can one not use a food processor?
Theoretically you can, but I worry that it'll so sticky that the machine will be overheating.
Do you think a stand mixer with a hook could develop the needed consistency with the rice?
I'd say no as the rice really needs a good pounding. There are mochi makers that my Mom uses to make a similar version of these rice cakes.
I love this!
Hi I'm Chinese I love eating ci ba but I don't have a bamboo steamer any replacements?
just use a regular steamer. no need bamboo.
Any set up with holes at the bottom will do, we just need the steam to come through.
@@ChineseCookingDemystified I was wondering where I could a t-shirt with a bottle of liao jiu saying aka shao xing cooking wine
Any idea how these were made before electricity/freezers were available?
Does it work with normal long grain rice
What about a meat tenderizer? Many of them come with a flat side which I would assume works but what about those with small spikes on them? Do you think that would lead to uneven mashing and worse product?
Totally, just wrap some seran wrap on it.
I've only got a Laos mortar and pestle. Going to give this a stab.
Is this served as a part of a dinner, or is it eaten mainly as a dessert? It looks good either way, but just wondering how it's usually consumed in China.
There's not *so* much of a separation - outside of banquets, sweets are usually not a separate course, per se... usually just eaten as part of dinner as another dish. Think... the way sweets pancakes and such are consumed in an American brunch. If you would prefer to eat them after a main course, certainly no one would bat an eye :)
What would you recommend for seasoning/sauce/etc to make a savory version?
red chilli oil or laoganma with light soysauce and sprinkled with toasted sesame
Yeah, laoganma would be a good one. And stuff like sweet bean paste or hoi sin would work great too. You can mix some savory sauce together plus some water to create your own dipping sauce. We did Kewpie mayo+laoganma too, also works great. Think of it as white rice and play!
@@ChineseCookingDemystified thank you. I have some laoganma, I might give the kewpie combo a try soon. I might take the recipe slightly more into a mochi direction and use a stand mixer though. Gotta be a little lazy with it.
For zongzi what is the best sticky rice?
Short grain sticky rice :)
how about making it salty?
Would this be possible to make in a stand mixer instead of pounding? Or is the pound and stretch action essential to the development of the cakes
Theoretically you can, but my worry is that it'll be too sticky and end up breaking the machine. If you're trying that route, watch your machine carefully for overheating.
Yes, you can make this in a stand mixer. Use the kneading hooks. It will not quite have as good a texture, but it will taste better than what you can buy frozen.
I know you mentioned that a typical stone mortar and pestle didn't work great, but would a large one work better? Or is there something in particular about a stone mortar that makes it difficult?
Nah actually a large stone mortar (keyword: large) would be best. We just also wanted to pick up a mortar for Yunnan/Thai/other SEA food... which're generally wood.
Do you think I can get similar results using my rice cooker for the steaming portion?
I dunno if glutinous rice we use is the same rice, but my mom usually cook that in rice cooker. Dunno about how many water used though
So it's like sweet fried Korean rice cakes called tteok. Assuming I can deep fry pre made store bought tteok for this. Thanks 😋
If you keep those rice cakes in the freezer, you have to thaw it before you deep fry it, it's a lot firmer than this ones.
Korean rice cakes don't use glutinous rice but normal short-grain rice so they're firmer and have a bouncier texture than the sticky stretchy texture of rice cakes made with glutinous rice.
@@vivida7160 So it's more similar to the rice cake from the eastern coastal area in China then, also our regular rice cake.
I recently found this channel thanks to J Kenji Lopez-Alt and I'm loving all these recipes. I'm having a bit of trouble picturing the flavour of this dish, just so we are clear there is no salt at all?
Yes, there's no salt as it's a sweet snack. If you want to add a bit of salt, you can either add it to the syrup, or add it to the rice during pounding.
It seems very similar to mochi. Do you think we can just use glutinous rice flour, make mochi, then deep fry that for similar results?
This is how mochi is supposed to be made. The mochi made from glutinous rice flour is just made that way because it is more convenient an cheaper in and industrial setting.
Glutinous rice dumplings made by mixing glutinous rice flour with water, shaping it into a dough and boiling it won't work, though. You'll end up with a different thing.
You have to make rice cakes by pounding the steamed glutinous rice flour which in a home setting sounds like a recipe for disaster.
Is there a way to sub in glutinous rice flour in this?
What's wrong with using glutinous rice flour to achieve the same result, without all the fuss of steaming whole rice and pounding it?
Glutinous rice flour renders a different style of rice cake, we use in the Cantonese sweet type (super super sticky and gooey). But pounding the steamed rice directly and using it straight makes a different end product. While there's another kind, you use the rice flour, steam it, and then pound, that's the common rice cake you will see. They all have different texture and usages.
@@ChineseCookingDemystified Thank you for your prompt reply
are you serous that it is used in concrete?
Oooh oooh do erkuai next! 😂
Fascinating. So, that kinako-kuromitsu-mochi combination is not unique to Japan, like I had previously thought!
We eat this in Korea though its a bit different...my Mom used to feed me this for beakfast.
Saaw Manngchi did one not long after this video, not sure if you're taking about the same thing~
@@ChineseCookingDemystified yes we call them injolmi, the only thing different is that we dont add syrup. We do that with dokbokki type rice cakes but we fry them in butter then drizzle pancake syrup on them, i think its more of a Korean American type of thing. I remember loving tgat chewy taste so well! I think I might make some tomorrow morning!😀 but These Syrup rice cakes look delicious, I bet they'd also taste lovely with toasted nut flour, mixed in with the soy flour.
rice cakes are safe for dogs, right? Especially dogs named after obscure Austrian economists, right? asking for a friend
Can we use jaggery instead of brown sugar for this?
Sure, the taste would be slightly different but it would still be great. Add a touch of molasses to round it out if you like!
Her English is better than mine 😔
what kind of oil?
Sunflower or sesame?
I'd eat this savory and spicy!
Sticky rice is glutonious rice right?
Yep, that's right.
Practically the same as Korean injeolmi - now I'm craving it really bad!
Thank you! I now know the korean name. I was thinking there would be a korean version since pounding glutinous rice is such a intuitive thing to do and there is food made with both in Japan and China. I love seeing the different takes these countries have between them for similare food.
yes ❤️
Yay a vegan recipe :)
Glutinous Rice Cake next please (年糕)
That'll be a Lunar new year thing~
Which kind? Shanghai ones cooked in savory dishes and eaten as main course? Or sweet Beijing ones eaten as deserts? Shanghai ones are hard and have to be soaked until soft before cooking.
One please 😋😋🙏🙏🤓🍵
2:35 as always, first longyau
You once promised us Peking duck! Or Beijing duck if you prefer...
IIRC, I said 'one day we'll walk that mile with you', "one day" has not quite arrived :)
If you would like, SoupedUp Recipes had a good demonstration of Peking Duck, and Kenji over at SeriousEats has some cool ideas to get it to work in a Western kitchen.
Authentic Peking duck has to be roasted using a certain kind of aromatic wood to give duck right kind of flavor. I wonder if it's possible for Chris to get that wood...
这一集的女主人出老大力了😂
i love mochi
I Just saw this in a video of Trevor
Just pulled out a hammer and smashed bowl of rice on my mum's cutting board. Now i am homeless.
Are these like youtiao?
no there more like rice cakes if they were were really stretchy
I imagine this is delicious, but pure-carb recipes like these are dangerous for people like, i.e. those who are liable to finish the entire batch two minutes after preparing it.