It was quite a day of cooking on my part. Not to mention all the dishes I washed during the cooking process. However, it was all worth it as it usually is every Chinese Lunar New Year celebration.
I’ve already published posts on how to make spring rolls and shiu mai so you can check them out to know how to make them at home. What I will focus on this post is what we call Tikoy in the Philippines or Nian Gao in Chinese. As you’ll discover, it is actually very sticky but as days pass, it’ll get harder which you can re-steam or fry as I have known it growing up.
What’s in it:
- Glutinous rice flour, 600 g
- Wheat starch, 14 g
- Coconut milk, 200 ml
- Coconut oil, 1 tbsp
- Brown sugar, 1 c
- Water, 500 ml
Equipment:
- Steamer
- Mixing bowl
- Aluminum containers
- Sauce pan
- Spatula
After preparing all your ingredients you’ll want to start dissolving the sugar in water cooking at medium heat until you no longer see any grains then set aside. In a mixing bowl, mix together the glutinous rice flour and wheat starch. Add coconut milk in the sugar water and stir well. Pour the mixture into the mixing bowl and blend thoroughly until all lumps have been smoothed out. Add the coconut oil and blend thoroughly once more. Pour the mixture into the containers and leave them in the steamer for an hour. Take them out and let cool until ready to serve.
You may choose to either eat it as it is, or add sesame seeds on top, or even coat it with egg batter and then fry it like I did. It really is up to you and if you’re adventurous enough then maybe you’ll try them all. Take note that you can have this all year round as we do. We have it mostly as a snack for Merienda. I hope this post has inspired you to try it out yourself. ‘Til next time.
