Fried Pounded Glutinous Rice Cake with Brown Sugar Syrup (Hong Tang Ci Ba)

Course: Chinese New Year, Street Food, Sweets

Cuisine: Chinese

Prep Time: 30

Cook Time: 40

Soak the rice:: 4

Total Time: 5 10

Servings: servings as a snack

Calories: 326kcal

Author: Marvellina

Moist, sticky, and chewy pounded glutinous rice cake is deep-fried and eaten with brown sugar syrup and a sprinkle of roasted soybean flour is a popular Sichuan sweet treat known as hong tang ci ba.

Print Recipe

Equipment

Ingredients

250 gr glutinous rice
300 gr water if cooking with pressure cooker
Oil for deep frying

Brown sugar syrup:

100 gr brown sugar
80 gr water

Serve with:

Roasted soybean flour or use store-bought

Instructions

If steaming the rice on the stove:

In a large bowl, combine the rice with enough cold water to cover it at least by 2 inches. Soak for 4 hours or overnights
Drain off the soaking water and transfer it into a steaming plate. If you use a bamboo steamer, you don't need a plate. Just line the bottom of the bamboo steamer with a muslin cloth or cheesecloth and scatter the rice on top. Poke a few holes on the rice with your finger so the rice steam evenly. Steam over medium heat for 25-30 minutes or until the rice is cooked through and proceed to the pounding step

If cooking the rice with Instant Pot:

You don't need to soak the rice. We will cook the rice using the pot-in-pot method. Fill up the inner pot of Instant Pot with 1 cup of water. Put a trivet in there. Put the rice and water inside a container, preferably metal, such as 6-inch round metal cake pan. Make sure the rice is submerged in water
Close the lid and turn the steam release valve to sealing. Press "pressure cooker" and make sure it's on high pressure. Set the timer to 20 minutes and then natural release and proceed to the pounding step

Pound the rice:

Transfer the rice to a large heat-proof mixing bowl, like a stainless steel bowl and use a rolling pin or a pestle if you have one, to pound on the rice until it is sort of gooey, but you can still see some bits of the rice grains. I don't recommend pounding it all the way into a paste consistency because the rice cake will be too soft and doesn't hold up as well when you fry them. They will fall apart

Transfer into a pan and chill:

Line a square 7 or 8 inch square cake pan with parchment paper. Cover the top with another piece of parchment paper and press the rice down to compact and flatten it as much as you can. Keep it covered with a parchment paper and keep it chilled in the fridge overnight or in the freezer for at least 4 hours so you can cut it into shapes without much difficulty

Prepare the brown sugar syrup:

Put the sugar and water in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Then lower the heat to let it simmer until the syrup is thickened slightly. Remove from the heat. The syrup thickens further when it cools down completely. This can be kept at room temperature for about a week or in the fridge for 2-3 weeks

Cut and deep fry:

Remove the rice cake from the pan by lifting the parchment paper up. Turn the rice onto a chopping board. Cut into 1-inch cube or strips, it's up to you. I prefer cubes
Preheat about 2 inches of oil. When you put a skewer into the oil, you'll see bubbles. The oil is ready. Put the first cube into the oil and let it fry for about 10-15 seconds and then put another one in. Repeat this process and fry in small batches, 4-5 pieces at a time. If you put all of them all at once, they will stick to each other badly. Don't try to touch them yet during initial frying as they will stick. Let them fry for about 30 seconds or so or until you see a thin crust forms and it won't be sticky anymore. They will just brown lightly. Remove from the oil to an absorbent paper towel
Once you are done frying all of them. Bring the oil back to hot. Test with a skewer again. We will fry for the second time. Starting from the first batch you fry earlier. This second round you can fry more as they won't stick to each other anymore. Fry for another 10-15 seconds. This time they will get more prominent golden brown. Remove to an absorbent paper towel. Frying them twice make them extra crispy and they hold up better too

If you choose to pan fry:

Heat up about 2 Tbsp of oil on a non-stick skillet. Add the rice cake cubes on the pan and pan fry over medium heat until they form crust and lightly golden brown on all 6 sides. Just to let you know that the pan-fried version take a bit longer to cook and the shape and color won't be as uniform

To serve:

Drizzle the rice cake cubes with brown sugar syrup and a sprinkle of roasted soybean flour and serve immediately. Only do this when you are ready to serve as the brown sugar syrup will soften the rice cakes if they are soaked in the syrup for too long

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

Nutrition