Rice cake

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A birthday cake of tteok (Korean rice cake) Pink seolgitteok cake.jpg
A birthday cake of tteok (Korean rice cake)
Puffed rice cakes, sold commercially in North America and Europe Quaker-Popped-Rice-Snacks.jpg
Puffed rice cakes, sold commercially in North America and Europe

A rice cake may be any kind of food item made from rice that has been shaped, condensed, or otherwise combined into a single object. A wide variety of rice cakes exist in many different cultures in which rice is eaten. Common variations include cakes made with rice flour, those made from ground rice, and those made from whole grains of rice compressed together or combined with some other binding substance.

Contents

Types of rice cakes by region

Types of rice cake include:

Burmese

Burmese cuisine has a variety of snacks and desserts called mont made with various types of rice, rice flour and glutinous rice flour. Sweet Burmese mont are generally less sweet than counterparts in other parts of Southeast Asia, instead deriving their natural sweetness from constituent ingredients (e.g., grated coconut, coconut milk, glutinous rice, fruit, etc.). [1] [2]

Cambodian

Num Plae Ai (phlaeqaay) Khmer sticky rice balls with coconut topping Num Plae Ai.jpg
Num Plae Ai (ផ្លែអាយ) Khmer sticky rice balls with coconut topping

Chinese

Ciba cake with Brown Sugar and roasted soybean flour Ciba cake 2.jpg
Ciba cake with Brown Sugar and roasted soybean flour
Osmanthus cake Sweet Tea Olive Cake.jpg
Osmanthus cake
Pumpkin Tangyuan with red bean paste and black sesame fillings Pumpkin tangyuan (Tang Yuan ) with red bean baste and black sesame fillings.jpg
Pumpkin Tangyuan with red bean paste and black sesame fillings

Filipino

Various traditional Filipino kakanin (rice cakes) "Kakaning Pinoy" (The Filipino Rice Cakes).jpg
Various traditional Filipino kakanin (rice cakes)
Puto, a traditional Filipino steamed rice cake Puto in banana leaf.jpg
Puto , a traditional Filipino steamed rice cake
Bibingka, a traditional Filipino rice cake baked in a clay pot 7032Poblacion Baliuag Bulacan 28.jpg
Bibingka , a traditional Filipino rice cake baked in a clay pot
Filipino puso rice cakes, made from glutinous rice cooked in woven pouches of various designs, are eaten with savory dishes Puso and BBQ Feast - Chicken Skin, Pork Belly, Chicken Liver and Intestines.jpg
Filipino puso rice cakes, made from glutinous rice cooked in woven pouches of various designs, are eaten with savory dishes

Rice cakes are a common snack in the Philippines and Filipinos have created many different kinds. In Filipino, these rice-based desserts are also known as kakanin, which means "prepared rice." It is derived from the word kanin which is the Filipino word for rice. Rice cakes were also formerly known by the general term tinapay (lit.'fermented with tapay '), but that term is now restricted to mean "bread" in modern Filipino. [17] Nevertheless, two general categories of rice cakes remain: puto for steamed rice cakes, and bibingka for baked rice cakes. Both are usually prepared using galapong , a viscous rice paste derived from grinding uncooked glutinous rice that has been soaked overnight. Galapong is usually fermented, as the old term tinapay implies. [18]

Some examples of traditional Filipino dessert rice cakes include:

Some of these rice cakes can be considered savory. Putong bigas, the most common type of puto, for instance, is traditionally paired with the savory pig's blood stew dinuguan . Bibingka galapong can also be topped with meat or eggs. Aside from these, non-dessert rice cakes eaten as accompaniment to savory meals also exist, the most widespread being the puso.

Indian

Idli, a south Indian savory cake Idli Sambar.JPG
Idli, a south Indian savory cake

Indonesian

Lontong, popular in Indonesia and Malaysia, made of compressed rice rolled into a banana leaf Lontong.jpg
Lontong, popular in Indonesia and Malaysia, made of compressed rice rolled into a banana leaf

As a food staple

In Indonesia rice cakes can be plain and bland tasting, and are often treated as a food staple, as an alternative to steamed rice.

  • Burasa, a type of rice dumpling cooked with coconut milk packed inside a banana leaf pouch. It is a delicacy of the Bugis and Makassar people of South Sulawesi, Indonesia, and often consumed as a staple to replace steamed rice or ketupat. It is similar to lontong, but with richer flavour acquired from coconut milk.
  • Ketupat, or packed rice is a type of rice dumpling of Indonesia. Also can be found in Brunei, Malaysia, and Singapore. It is made from rice that has been wrapped in a Rhombus or kite shaped woven palm leaf pouch and boiled. As the rice cooks, the grains expand to fill the pouch and the rice becomes compressed. This method of cooking gives the ketupat its characteristic form and texture of a rice dumpling. Ketupat is usually eaten with rendang or served as an accompaniment to satay or gado-gado. Ketupat is also traditionally served by Malays at open houses on festive occasions such as Idul Fitri (Hari Raya Aidilfitri). During Idul Fitri in Indonesia, ketupat is often served with opor ayam (chicken in coconut milk), accompanied with spicy soy powder.
  • Lontong, popular in Indonesia and also can be found in Malaysia, is made of compressed rice that is then cut into small cakes. It is traditionally made by boiling the rice until it is partially cooked and packing it tightly into a rolled-up banana leaf. The leaf is secured and cooked in boiling water for about 90 minutes. Once the compacted rice has cooled, it can be cut up into bite-sized pieces. The dish is usually served cold or at room temperature with sauce-based dishes such as gado-gado and salads, although it can be eaten as an accompaniment to other dishes such as Satay and curries.
  • Nasi himpit, can be found in Indonesia and Malaysia. Unlike ketupat or lontong, nasi himpit is not cooked in a wrapping. Instead, the already boiled or steamed rice is pounded in a mortar into paste which is then molded and cut into a cube before eating. It is often eaten with Sayur lodeh or Soto.

As a snack

Kue lapis, multi-layered colorful sweet glutinous rice cake Kue Lapis.jpg
Kue lapis, multi-layered colorful sweet glutinous rice cake

Numerous types of Indonesian kue (traditional cake) are made using glutinous rice or rice flour. They can be sweet or savoury. Varieties include:

  • Arem-arem, a smaller lontong filled with vegetables and meat.
  • Klepon, balls of glutinous rice flour filled with gula jawa (red palm sugar) and boiled or steamed. Afterwards the balls are rolled in grated coconut. In Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula, they are called "onde-onde".
  • Kue lapis, a layered colorful cake made of glutinous rice flour, coconut and sugar.
  • Lemper, a savoury snack made of glutinous rice filled with chicken, fish or abon (meat floss). The meat filling is rolled inside the rice in a fashion very similar to Chinese zongzi. A variant of lemper which instead of being wrapped with a banana leaf is wrapped inside of a thin egg omelette is called semar mendem.
  • Lepet, a sticky rice dumpling mixed with peanuts cooked with coconut milk and packed inside janur (young coconut leaf or palm leaf). It is a delicacy commonly found in Javanese and Sundanese cuisine and often consumed as snack.
  • Lupis, compressed glutinous rice served with grated coconut and coconut sugar syrup.
  • Nagasari or kue pisang, a traditional steamed cake made from rice flour, coconut milk and sugar and filled with slices of banana. [21]
  • Putu, green pandan-colored rice flour filled with coconut sugar and steamed in bamboo cylinder.
  • Serabi, a type of pancake made from rice flour with coconut milk or just plain shredded coconut as an emulsifier.

Japanese

Dango, a Japanese dumpling made from rice-flour Mitarashi dango by denver935.jpg
Dango, a Japanese dumpling made from rice-flour

Korean

Tteok, Korean rice cakes Korean culture-Doljanchi-01.jpg
Tteok, Korean rice cakes

Steamed rice cake in an earthenware steamer was the oldest principal food for Koreans before sticky rice took over upon the invention of the iron pot. [22] Now, there are hundreds of different kinds of Korean rice cake or "tteok" eaten year round. In Korea, it is customary to eat tteok guk (tteok soup) on New Year's Day and sweet tteok at weddings and on birthdays. It is often considered a celebratory food and can range from rather elaborate versions or down to the plain-flavored tteok. Rice cakes are chosen for particular occasions depending on their color and the role they play in Korea's traditional yin-yang cosmology. [23]

Sri Lankan

Taiwanese

Vietnamese

Steamed Banh bo, a sweet, chewy Vietnamese sponge cake made from rice flour Banh bo hap.jpg
Steamed Bánh bò, a sweet, chewy Vietnamese sponge cake made from rice flour

In other cuisines

Bangladeshi style rice cake, originally known as Bhapa Pitha, eaten with molasses as a sweetener Bhapa Pitha Bangladeshi Style, 3 February, 2013.jpg
Bangladeshi style rice cake, originally known as Bhapa Pitha , eaten with molasses as a sweetener
Tahchin or Persian baked Saffron rice cake. Decorated with Barberries, Almond and Pistachio slices Tachin.jpg
Tahchin or Persian baked Saffron rice cake. Decorated with Barberries, Almond and Pistachio slices

See also

References

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