When I see deep-fried glutinous rice cakes in the Taste of China cookbook, that immediately translated into “MUST MAKE” and “MUST EAT” by my processor sitting above my shoulder 🙂
I mean, glutinous rice, sugar, deep-fried…hello? what can possibly be any better than this at the moment ?
The best part, besides, how good it tasted, was also how easy it was to make this. Only few ingredients and if you know how to follow instructions, I promise you will have 99.9% success rate 🙂
The boiled glutinous rice is pressed into a cake pan and then being deep-fried and dip into sugar. My mouth is watering just by typing this.
DEEP-FRIED GLUTINOUS RICE CAKES/ ZONG BAO (6-8 large pieces)
Ingredients
- 1 lb glutinous rice or sweet rice
- 2 cups water
- 1 Tbsp peanut oil
- Peanut oil for deep-frying
- Sugar for dipping
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine the rice with enough cold water to cover it at least by 2 inches. Soak for 8 hours or overnights. Drain well
- In a medium-sized pot, combine the rice and water. Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat, cover, and cook for 40 minutes
- Using kitchen paper towel, rub 1 Tbsp of oil on all sides of an 8-inch square cake pan. Press the rice into the pan by using the greased aluminum foil (be careful it's hot!), and press down on all sides until the rice is compressed as much as possible. Allow the rice to cool completely, probably about 2-3 hours or longer
- Turn the rice onto a chopping board. It should fall out in one piece. Cut the rice into 3 x 1 1/2 inch pieces
- Heat a wok or large frying pan until hot. Add the oil, and when it is hot, drop in the rice squares, a few at a time, and deep-fry until they are golden brown and crispy. Don't try to turn them when they are not brown yet, as they kinda stick to the bottom of the wok/pan. Drain the squares thoroughly on kitchen paper towel. Serve warm with a dish of sugar for dipping
Notes
Feel free to pan fry the rice cakes too if you don't want the deep-fried version. You just need about 1 Tbsp of oil to pan fry and add more as needed
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5 comments
Looks great! All I have is Mesquite Oil to fry in so I made mine with soy sauce, onion and garlic and ate them as a savory dish. But thank you for the steps that you show. I could not have made my version without yours. When I next shop I will purchase Peanut Oil and more Rice so I can try your delicious looking recipe.
Thanks again, have a great day.
PS- I pan fried as my Oil supply was limited. It worked beautifully.
Thank you for stopping by. Great idea to turn it into savory dish. Yes, pan frying will be another great alternative if you don’t want to deep-fry
Hi! Do you think this would be able to be baked, rather than deep-fried? My Mum loves “lor mai”-based things but also needs to watch her health. Thanks!
Hi There,
You know, I’ve never bake this before, so I can’t really tell you how they’ll turn out. But I think you can probably try pan-frying it instead of deep-frying ? I think it will work out really well. The glutinous rice is already cooked, so just need a little browning and to add that extra crispiness and I think you can achieve that with pan-frying. You don’t need that much oil with pan-frying.
nice japanese rice for me