Hi everybody!
Today I'm making songpyeon!
Rice cake. Small, cute rice cake filled with nuts, sesame seeds, and fruits
We Koreans make and eat on special days.
Special festival day, it's called Chuseok.
Chuseok is Korean Thanksgiving Day.
Celebration of harvest!
So we make this with newly harvested fresh rice.
Actually I posted this recipe nine years ago.
With non-HD.
That was kind of blurry.
I always thought that I should update this recipe
But always I missed the time.
So this year I decided to make this on time so that
you guys can make this and celebrate Korean Chuseok.
"Song (송)" means pine tree.
When we steam this we have to use pine needles.
So yesterday I went to Central Park
Funny thing is that nine years ago I went to Central Park to the same tree
The same tree looks like he recognized me! (laughs)
Nine years after, I asked: "Can I borrow your pine needles, please?"
And then I took some.
So I brought home
And first thing we have to do is wash these nicely.
Very clean.
When you steam this rice cake, it's going to be infused with pine needle flavor.
These pine needles are a very important ingredient to make songpyeon.
So I will put it here.
This is rice flour.
I got this from a Korean grocery store.
You can make your own rice flour.
Follow my recipe on my website.
But I bought this - one package I got from the frozen section.
This rice flour is specially made
for making rice cake
And this rice is soaked in cold water
and hours later, we drain this and we mill it.
That's why this rice flour is still a little wet.
So it has to be sold in the frozen section.
This is a sifter.
When you guys make rice cake very often you should find this kind of sifter.
Very convenient, but if you don't have one, just use a mesh strainer.
And put it over a large bowl like this.
So one...
Two...
Three.
And just a little more.
Maybe a quarter cup more.
Always keep left over rice flour in the freezer.
In the freezer you can keep it for three months.
Use your hand like this.
So you will see this rice flour go through.
And this way is easier...
This coarse rice flour, I'm going to discard.
First we have to make white songpyeon.
So now one and a half cup I'm going to measure.
One...
And a half cup.
And then add salt.
Quarter teaspoon salt.
And a quarter cup hot hot boiling water.
Just keep mixing until you can handle it by hand.
Now I will just wrap this.
So that it's not going to dry out.
White ball is finished!
Before purple ball, I like to make a kind of yellow cute thing.
I will tell you later why I need just a little bit.
Today I like to use all natural food color.
So this is chija, you remember gardenia? Gardenia fruits?
When I make yellow pickled radish, I use this.
This fruit is a very traditional food coloring.
Just like this, a little...
Little crushed.
And then put it here.
Around a quarter cup water.
Already the color is yellow.
So usually overnight you need to soak, and then the color is almost orangish yellow.
And then that's the point at which you can use it.
So I did it last night.
Look at this, this color is almost red!
Kind of reddish-orange.
Around seven or eight hours later, this guy's color will be like this.
So I'm going to use this, just a little bit.
Around two tablespoons rice flour.
Pinch of salt.
Gardinia water
Around one teaspoon.
I like to add some hot water, little bit, half teaspoon.
There is no exact rule.
Because when you see it, it should look like some Play-Doh.
Gorgeous yellow color.
Two tablespoons rice flour, how can you knead?
This is that way to knead.
(laughs)
Yellow ball is done!
(laughs)
We made white and yellow and purple one, we need.
So for the purple one, I will use blueberries.
So let's wash the blueberries...
My small pan.
I'm going to heat it up.
I'm going to boil this and crush this.
Here I'm going to measure one and a half cup rice flour.
And a quarter teaspoon salt.
Let's measure how much it is.
Just a little more than one cup.
I will use all.
Put it here.
So crush this.
I don't add any sugar or salt, just as it is, these blueberries.
Crush these.
When I make mashed potatoes I use this.
It has to be really hot.
Let's strain this. Gorgeous, beautiful purple!
These skins, don't throw away. You can eat it.
Add some water and boil and then just make a nice tea.
Quarter cup.
This blueberry color is so pretty.
In Korea, people use Korean grapes.
The same method we use.
If you can find Korean grapes you can use them,
but in America, not easy to find Korean grapes.
Unless you go to a Korean market, plus the Korean market should sell them when I go there.
That's the key point, isn't it?
The reason I mix with hot water or hot blueberry liquid
is that it has to be very soft and easy to mold.
Look at that, so pretty, huh?
Now we just have these three balls.
White, purple, yellow.
And then we are going to make nice songpyeon.
But songpyeon, as I told you, is filled with some nuts and delicious stuff.
I make three different kinds of filling.
This is a pretty color. Raspberry beans.
A quarter cup. I will use this amount.
I will use honey but you can add some rice syrup or just plain sugar.
Just around two teaspoons.
Next one is pine nuts.
I like to crush this.
Around three tablespoons.
When I crush pine nuts I usually use my rolling pin.
But today is just a little small amount, so I'll just do it this way: pound pound pound. (laughs)
And also I will add honey.
Just one tablespoon amount.
And mix.
And then, next, sesame seeds.
Toasted sesame seeds
Three tablespoons.
And here I will add a pinch of salt and pound. Grind.
Smells good!
Toasted sesame seeds are so crunchy.
And really tasty.
Honey around one tablespoon.
Smells good!
This is my steamer.
I put some water here and I boiled it already.
But I turned off the heat.
This is the steamer basket here, when I'm ready it has to be really boiled
and then I will steam.
So what we have to do is make a shape right now, a beautiful shape.
Oh wow look at that, rice huh?
Around one ounce.
And always cover.
Like this. Because if it dries out you can't make a nice shape.
Make this well.
Yeah? So let's use beans.
Four large beans, right?
With also honey, together.
And seal this...
And make this nice ball.
Like that.
It looks like we sealed this area.
Make a nice ball.
Sesame seeds.
This amount I'm going to leave this.
Later I will make a flower with this.
So here are three different kinds of fillings.
I don't know which one has sesame seeds, etc.
When we make songpyeon with all family members
we just add some beans, nuts, and pine nuts.
Later when it's cooked, we don't know which one is which.
"I hope have sesame seeds!"
And then they chew this: "Oh, this is beans!"
Mom says:"Beans are good for your health, and good for you!"
When you eat this, you'll have fun with your family members.
Next: purple color.
Same way.
There are still some leftover fillings, I'll make another batch later.
And now there are twelve: six white ones and six purple one.
Still one ball left and one white ball left.
So I'm going to make a really nice flower with this.
Purple flower.
And just a tiny amount. And here...
And then now we have to use this yellow.
I'll just make really small balls for the middle of the flowers.
Let's steam! I'm going to line this steamer basket with this wet cotton cloth.
First, I want to turn this off.
Pine needles.
Let's put this here...
This rice cake is not going to rise.
So you can crowd it in.
And then this is another cotton cloth.
When the steam goes up some water might drop down
I like to protect this, so I'm going to add this, one more cotton cloth.
And close.
Let's steam!
From now, steam thirty minutes over medium high heat.
And then five minutes to simmer.
Thirty minutes passed! I'm going to lower the heat.
Very low, and simmer for five minutes.
(stove ignites)
(timer buzzes)
So this is too hot to handle, I'm going to let it cool down just a little bit.
And then I will just transfer this to my serving plate.
Nice pine needles.
Now this is hot, I will just add some sesame oil.
Sesame oil.
I'll bring my tea.
Rose tea.
This is rose petal coated with sugar.
And gorgeous songpyeon.
We call this kkot-songpyeon
Kkot means flowers.
Time to taste!
Remove pine needles.
And I will show you inside what it looks like.
Wow this is sesame seeds.
So pretty!
Mmm!
Mmm-uh-mm.
The texture is very chewy.
Chewy, sweet and nutty because of sesame seeds.
I hope that I can find something else, not sesame seeds, I will choose this purple one.
Wow this is beans!
Raspberry beans.
Pretty! It looks like a fossil! (laughs)
Mmm!
I need tea.
Oh, really tasty.
You can't expect some kind of Western style cake.
This rice cake is not that sweet.
And very chewy and also filling. After eating a couple of rice cakes, I can skip my lunch.
I'm so happy today because everything turned out so nicely.
Even though it took some time to make nice flowers.
If you make for your family and you want to make a lot, you don't have to
make so many many flowers.
Just a couple of flowers will make you really really happy.
But today, this is my video so I put my all energy into each songpyeon.
My love. (laughs)
And this blueberry, when you chew this, you will feel blueberry.
And also you will taste a little bit of pine needle flavor.
This is Korean songpyeon. On Chuseok holiday, why don't you make this?
Happy Chuseok!
Enjoy my recipe, see you next time, bye!