Chinese Purple Rice Cake
When we see the purple rice cake with attractive color, curiosity about its production process cant help but well up in our hearts. This production process is still a bit complicated. Come and learn with me.
Required ingredients and substitutes
Main ingredients
Glutinous rice: provides a soft and sticky taste and is one of the main ingredients of purple rice cake.
Purple rice: rich in nutrients, adds unique color and flavor to purple rice cake.
Lotus seeds: increase taste and nutrition, enrich the layers of purple rice cake.
Supplementary ingredients
Dried kiwi, dried mango, dried sweet potato, dried hawthorn: provide different fruit flavors and tastes.
Dried osmanthus: add fragrance.
seasoning
Cooking oil: make purple rice cake more moisturizing.
Fructose, white sugar: provide sweetness.
Substitutes
Glutinous rice: Other types of rice with strong stickiness can be used as substitutes, such as sticky rice, but the taste may be slightly different.
Purple rice: Black rice or a combination with ordinary rice can be selected to replace it. However, after doing so, the color and flavor of purple rice cake will change.
Lotus seeds: If lily is used as a substitute, its taste and nutritional components will be different.
Dried kiwi fruit, dried mango, dried sweet potato, dried hawthorn: Other dried fruits can be chosen according to personal preference to replace them, such as raisins, dried pineapple, etc.
Dried osmanthus: Dried rose petals can be used as a substitute. The fragrances of the two are different.
What tools need to be prepared?
Steamer (with lid): Used for steaming purple rice and glutinous rice in a water bath to ensure that they are fully cooked and have a soft and glutinous texture. The lid can maintain steam circulation and make the steaming process more uniform.
Pestle or wooden spoon for pounding: After steaming, purple rice and glutinous rice need to be pounded with a pestle or wooden spoon to make their texture more delicate and uniform, which helps subsequent shaping and improves the taste. If there is no pestle, the back of the wooden spoon can also be used for pressing and pounding, but it is relatively more laborious.
Gauze: Laid in the steamer, it plays a role of isolation and filtration when steaming purple rice and glutinous rice, preventing ingredients from leaking into the water in the steamer. At the same time, it ensures that steam can evenly penetrate into the ingredients and make them heated evenly.
Multiple ingredient containers: Used for storing various dry ingredients and processed ingredients, such as lotus seeds, dried fruits, fructose, etc., for easy access and organization, and keeping the kitchen countertop clean and orderly.
Food brush for brushing oil: Brush a layer of oil in the molding bowl, which can effectively prevent the purple rice cake from sticking to the bowl after refrigeration and facilitate inversion and demolding. The bristles of the food brush should be soft and not easy to fall off to ensure uniform brushing of oil and avoid excessive or too thin oil layer affecting the demolding effect.
Container for mold molding: Used for molding purple rice cake. Pour the stirred purple rice and glutinous rice into a bowl and use the shape of the bowl to make it form a regular shape. A bowl with a flat bottom and smooth edges is convenient for subsequent demolding and can ensure the integrity and aesthetics of the purple rice cake.
Why steam twice?
There are mainly the following reasons for steaming purple rice cake twice.
First of all, the first steaming is to make purple rice and glutinous rice basically cooked. After boiling, the inside of the rice has not completely reached a soft and glutinous state. By steaming for 30 minutes for the first time, the rice can fully absorb water and become softer further. This is a key step to make the purple rice cake have a soft and glutinous texture.
Secondly, the second steaming is after adding white sugar and cooking oil and stirring evenly. White sugar needs to be steamed to better blend into the rice and make the overall sweetness of the purple rice cake uniform. During steaming, cooking oil can make the texture of the rice more moist, prevent the rice cake from being too dry, and further enhance the flavor and taste of the purple rice cake.
Is there any particularity in the cutting size?
If it's for personal consumption, it depends on personal preference. If you want to eat one mouthful at a time, cut it into small pieces with a side length of 2 to 3 centimeters. It's convenient to eat and is quite good as a snack. If it's used as a staple food or shared with family members, cut large pieces with a side length of 4 to 5 centimeters, which gives a stronger sense of fullness.
For entertaining guests or giving as a gift, the pieces should be cut evenly. A side length of 3 to 4 centimeters is more appropriate. It's moderate in size and easy to pick up, and it also looks delicate. Moreover, the cutting size affects the eating experience. If it's too large, it's difficult to swallow. If it's too small, the original taste and flavor of the purple rice cake will be lost.
INGREDIENTS
Main Ingredients
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·200g glutinous rice
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·300g purple rice
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·75g lotus seeds
Accessories
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·15g dried kiwi fruit
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·10g dried mango
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·10g dried sweet potato
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·20g dried hawthorn
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·10g dried osmanthus
Seasonings
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·10g fructose
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·100g white sugar
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·15ml cooking oil
COOKING STEP
Step 1
Take 200 grams of glutinous rice and 300 grams of purple rice respectively and put them in a container, add an appropriate amount of water and soak for 30 minutes.
Step 2
Wash 75 grams of lotus seeds, put them in a pot with 300 milliliters of clear water and boil for 20 minutes, then take them out and chop them.
Step 3
Cut 15 grams of dried kiwi fruit, 10 grams of dried mango, 10 grams of dried sweet potato and 20 grams of dried hawthorn into dices respectively, and chop 10 grams of fructose.
Step 4
Pour 1000 milliliters of clear water into the pot and bring it to a boil. First add purple rice and boil it, then add the soaked glutinous rice and boil together for 20 minutes, then take it out.
Step 5
Lay gauze on the steamer, pour the fished out purple rice and glutinous rice into the steamer and place them on the gauze, cover the pot and steam for 30 minutes.
Step 6
After 30 minutes, take out the steamed purple rice and glutinous rice and put them in a bowl, add 100 grams of white sugar and 15 milliliters of cooking oil and stir evenly, then put them back in the steamer, cover the pot and continue steaming for 20 minutes.
Step 7
After steaming, take it out and pound it with a spoon, add 10 grams of dried osmanthus and stir evenly.
Step 8
Take a bowl, brush a layer of oil inside the bowl, pour the stirred purple rice and glutinous rice into the bowl, use a spoon to tidy it up and make it flat, spread dried fruit dices and chopped lotus seeds on it, press it flat and firm, and put it in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.
Step 9
After refrigeration, take out the bowl from the refrigerator, turn the purple rice cake in the bowl upside down on the chopping board, and cut the purple rice cake into pieces of uniform size with a knife.
More recipes worth trying
Classic Chinese Walnut Dessert Soup
Storage instructions
If you plan to eat it on the same day or the next day, then place it in a cool place at room temperature and wrap it tightly with plastic wrap. Otherwise, it will become dry. Within these one or two days, it still tastes good.
If you want to store it for two or three days, then it needs to be placed in the refrigerator's refrigeration compartment and also be tightly sealed. When you take it out to eat, it will still have some softness. If you want to store it for a long time, seal the purple rice cake well and place it in the freezer compartment of the refrigerator. Before eating, let it thaw naturally at room temperature or thaw it slightly by heating it in a microwave oven. However, it should be known that the frozen purple rice cake cannot compare with the freshly made one in terms of taste.
Recipe variations
Adding nuts: When mixing purple rice and glutinous rice, add about 50 to 80 grams of crushed roasted almonds, cashews or walnuts. The purple rice cake made in this way has the crispness of nuts, is better in nutrition, is moister to eat, and the nutty fragrance will penetrate during steaming.
Cheesy flavor: After the purple rice cake is steamed for the first time, lay 50 to 60 grams of cheese slices in the middle and steam again. After the cheese melts, it blends with the purple rice cake and can be pulled into threads. It has a strong milky fragrance and a very special taste.
Innovative savory version: Reduce the white sugar to 50 grams, add 20 grams of salt, 10 grams of light soy sauce and 30 grams of meat floss, and mix well with purple rice and glutinous rice before steaming. It becomes a savory flavor, suitable for people who don't like sweet food. The meat floss also makes the taste more rich.
Adding vegetables: Shred about 100 grams of carrots or pumpkins and soak, boil and steam them together with purple rice and glutinous rice. In this way, the purple rice cake has a beautiful color, has the sweetness and nutrition of vegetables, and is healthier to eat.
FAQs:
If you cook directly with hot water, the surface of the rice will be quickly heated and gelatinized, while the inside has not fully absorbed water, which may lead to half-cooked rice or uneven taste.
Cooking with cold water can make the rice gradually be heated during the heating process. Cooperating with the subsequent steaming steps, it can finally make the purple rice cake more glutinous and delicate, ensuring better overall quality and taste.
If you want to speed up the refrigeration process, you can cut the purple rice cake into small pieces. The small pieces have a large surface area, and the cooling speed will be faster than that of the whole pastry, which can effectively shorten the refrigeration time. The prerequisite for doing this is that you don't mind the purple rice cake being cut into small pieces instead of keeping its original shape.
Put the purple rice cake in a steamer and steam it over low heat for 5 to 10 minutes. The steam can make it absorb some moisture and it will not be dry. But pay attention to the time and dont steam it too softly.
Before wrapping the purple rice cake with plastic wrap, spray 3 to 4 times of clean water on the cake surface. Wrap it up and leave it for a while. It can absorb this moisture and the dry condition will be better.
If you hope that the taste of dried fruits is not too prominent and is only used as an embellishment, then spreading a thickness of 0.5-1 centimeter is fine. In this way, you can have the fruity aroma and a little sour and sweet taste brought by dried fruits, and at the same time, the taste of dried fruits will not cover up the taste of the purple rice cake itself.
REVIEWS
