Nutritious home-made Nian Gao （年糕）

Chinese New year is less than a week away! This year I decided to try making Nian Gao from scratch, with a slight healthier twist. I replaced gutinous rice flour with whole glutinous rice, and refined white sugar with premium jaggery sugar. I managed to reduce the sugar content by half from the original recipe without impacting the taste of the nian gao.

A bit about jaggery sugar - Jaggery sugar is made by evaporating the water from sugar cane juice or palm sap. Jaggery contains more nutrients than refined sugar because of its molasses content. Molasses is a nutritious by-product of the sugar making process, which is usually removed when making refined sugar. Including the molasses adds a small amount of micronutrients to the final product. The whole process of making nian gao is very easy; the time consuming part is only the process to layer the steaming container with banana leaves and the steaming process. The end result is a very fragrant and chewy nian gao. It is definitely more superior than the commercial ones in terms of quality, taste and nutritional content.

Recipe

Utensils

• 6cm diameter round cake pan x 2

• Banana leaves x 4 long sheets

Ingredients (makes 2 x 6cm diameter nian gao)

• 300g glutinous rice

• 150g jaggery sugar

• 80g water

Method

1. Wash and soak glutinous rice for at least 4 hours or overnight.

2. Wash and blanch banana leaves in boiling water for about 5 minutes to soften. This is to prevent the leaves from breaking during layering.

3. Cut the banana leaves into a width slightly smaller than the diameter of your steaming pan, and long enough for the leave to extend above and folded over the rim of the pan. Line the leaf horizontally and then vertically like a "+" (overlapping at the bottom of the dish) and then diagonally like an "X" to make sure all the side and bottom of the pan are covered. Repeat this pattern for 2 more times. Fold over the excess and tie with a rubber band to maintain the shape. Cut 2 round banana leaves according to the diameter of the pan. Line the bottom of the pan once the above layering are done. Repeat with the second round pan.

4. In a blender, blend soaked glutinous rice, jaggery sugar and water till smooth, about 3-5 minutes (duration might vary depending on blender performance).

5. Pour the mixture equally distributed into the lined round pans.

6. Steam over medium heat for 3 hours.

7. Leave to cool at room temperature for at least 6 hours. It should firm up and make it easier to remove the nian gao from the pan without losing its shape.

8. As the amount of sugar is reduced, this nian gao does not keep at room temperature as well as the usual nian gao. Store the cooled and dried nian gao in an airtight container in the fridge.