Hi everyone, today I am going to show you how to make Chinese Niangao.
I have mentioned it in a previous video that the ways of making Niangao and ciba are very similar to each other.
The difference is that the main ingredient of Niangao is rice, with a little bit of glutinous rice to adjust the glutinousness.
You may find the ratio of rice and glutinous rice on my blog.
To begin with, soak rice and glutinous rice for about 3-4 hours.
Once done, drain and mix the two together.
Put them in a blender, and pour in some water.
Water should be just enough to cover the two ingredients.
Blend them into a rice paste.
The finer the better.
Transfer the paste to a deep dish.
Line a strainer with a piece of gauze.
Pour the rice paste in and drain.
Or you can pour them in a large piece of gauze, and then hang it somewhere.
Both can drain the excess water, and it takes about 6 hours.
Or you can leave it overnight.
But the paste may be dried out a little bit.
Don't worry about it, just add more water.[If you don't have a blender, you can mix glutinous rice flour and Cheng flour, add in water and knead into dough.]
Make it like a soft dough.
And it's like a plasticine.
In a deep dish, lightly grease the bottom with vegetable oil.
Place the rice dough in it, and press flat.
Steam over hot water.
Bring it to a boil and then steam over high heat for about 40 minutes until cooked through.
Once done, you can see some water on top.
Just wipe them off with a piece of clean gauze.
The rest of the work is very much the same as we make ciba.
Lightly oil your working surface.
Line a piece of cling film on top, and then oil the film as well.
While the rice batter is still hot, remove it to the cling film.
Find yourself a pestle, or a rolling pin.
Wrap one end with cling film,
Brush some vegetable oil on it.
Now you can pound your niangao with pestle.
The more and harder you pound it, the springier it will become. So that depends on your physical power.
Pound niangao to your liking.
During the process, rub a little vegetable oil on it occasionally.
Let the oil blend in and be absorbed by niangao to create a better texture.
Now divide your niangao into two portions.
One is for sliced niangao, and the other half is for long niangao strip.
Roll and knead the first portion into a long rice dough about 3cm in diameter.
And then set aside.
Roll and knead another portion into a long rice dough about 1.5cm in diameter.
If your cutting board is not big enough, you can do it separately.
They look like these when both are done.
Let them rest for a while.
And then, wrap each of the rice dough with cling film, and leave them in the fridge overnight.
During that time, the water comes out, so that they will firm up and set in the fridge.
Now they won't stick to each other.
Remove the cling film, and then cut the wider rice dough into thin slices.
And then cut the other rice dough into several 4-5cm long strips.
You can store them in the freezer.
You can either make a savory stir-fry niangao or add it to a soup.
The other ones can be served in hot pot, or made into Korean tteokboki(stir-fry rice cake).
There are so many ways to serve niangao, so I won't talk about it one by one. I believe everyone has his own preference of niangao.
A homemade niangao is richer and springier, and you can adjust the texture to your liking by changing the ratio of rice and glutinous rice.
I hope you like this simple Chinese niangao, and thanks for watching.