【Tianjin】Red Date Rice Cake

Overview

New Year cake is a traditional food of the Chinese nation and a seasonal food during the Lunar New Year. It is a steamed cake made from sticky glutinous rice or rice flour. During the Spring Festival, many regions in my country pay special attention to eating rice cake. New Year cake comes in three colors: red, yellow and white, symbolizing gold and silver. New Year cake is also called Nian Nian cake, which is homophonic with Nian Nian Gao, which means that people's work and life are improving year by year. There is a very ancient legend about the origin of Spring Festival rice cakes. In ancient times, there was a monster called Nian, which lived in the deep mountains and old forests all year round. When it was hungry, it would capture other animals to satisfy its hunger. But in the severe winter, most animals hide and hibernate. When Nian was starving and had no choice but to go down the mountain to hurt the people, he robbed people and used them as food, making the people unbearable. Later, there was a smart tribe called the Gao clan. Every winter, when the monsters were expected to come down the mountain for food, they made a lot of food with grains in advance, rolled them into strips, pressed them into pieces and placed them outside the door, while people hid in their homes. When the New Year came, there was no one to eat, so he was hungry, so he used the food made by people to fill his stomach. After he was full, he went back to the mountain. Seeing that the monster was gone, people all went out of their homes to congratulate each other. They were glad that they had escaped the new year, were safe, and could prepare for spring plowing again. Year after year, this method of avoiding animal harm was passed down. Because the grain bars were made by the Gao family, the purpose was to feed the year, so the year and Gao were combined and called rice cakes (homonym). New Year cake is indispensable, and it will definitely bring good luck on the Spring Festival table. I made it with a bread machine, which saves time and effort, is simple and delicious, and I would like to share it here.

Tags

• staple food
• home cooking
• glutinous rice
• red dates
• water

Ingredients

Steps

1. 1 Wash the red dates and soak them in water.

   

2. 2 Chop the red dates into small pieces and set aside.

   

3. 3 Put the glutinous rice and water into the bread bucket. If the glutinous rice has been soaked in water in advance, the amount of water should be just enough to soak the glutinous rice. If it has not been soaked, the amount of water should be increased. I soaked the glutinous rice for two or three hours in advance, but you can do it without soaking it.

   

4. 4 Select the "rice cake" program, and fifteen minutes before the end of the program, throw in the chopped red dates. (You can also put the red dates earlier. If you put them in earlier, the color of the rice cake will be darker, and the color of the red dates will blend into the rice cake)

   

5. 5 Continue with the "rice cake" procedure.

   

6. 6 At the end of the process, the glutinous rice and red dates have been perfectly combined into red date rice cakes.

   

7. 7 Use a spatula to remove the rice cake from the bread machine and place it on the plastic wrap.

   

8. 8 Wrap the rice cake with plastic wrap.

   

9. 9 In order to get a square shape, I put the rice cakes into a tofu box and pressed it overnight. If I don't want the shape, I can just let it cool.

   

10. 10 Peel off the plastic wrap.

    

11. 11 Slice and plate.

    

12. 12 It tastes great dipped in sugar.

    

13. 13 You can also fry it for a better taste.