Nian Gao 年糕 Chinese New Year Pudding

There are so many foods that are so significant at Chinese New Year. Which one is the most significant? The most must-have? It just might be the dessert, 年糕 or 糕 in Mandarin, the New Year's pudding. 年糕 is very different in each different part of China. In Hawaii, to make proper 年糕, you need to start with tea leaves. Tea leaves, not the kind you drink, are so significant to Hawaiian culture that when the priest or kahu comes to bless your house, he uses tea leaves to splash the holy water. The Chinese that immigrated to Hawaii 250 years ago understood that difference and adopted it to foods like 叶菜 and 年糕. While I've got the tea leaves in my yard, we'll need to go pick up the other ingredients. I'm not sure about where you live, but in Hawaii, the Chinese ingredients we need are readily available at the supermarket. In other places around the world, you would just use water. But in Hawaii, the secret ingredient to give your 年糕 that subtle but special fragrance is coconut water. I would go out and crack open another coconut, but it's really a lot of work. The key ingredient to this pudding, of course, is sugar. To get it to taste right, you need 黃糖 or Chinese block sugar. If you don't have it available, I suppose you could try with regular brown sugar, but I don't think it's going to taste the same. Now, you need to dissolve the sugar in the coconut water, but you only want to warm the coconut water. Do not let it boil. It's just like stirring sugar into your coffee. But because these are solid blocks of sugar, it takes a while to break up. You need to be patient. I was literally standing there stirring for 15 minutes. Honestly, I shouldn't be eating so much sugar, but it's just too culturally significant at New Year's for me to pass up. Once all the sugar is dissolved, let it cool completely before bringing in the 糯米粉 or glutinous rice flour. Again, I'm using the Chinese-style 糯米粉 here. I'm honestly not sure what it would taste like if you use the Japanese mochiko flour instead, but 年糕 and mochi do have distinctly different textures, so you might just want to experiment and see. Just stir it in slowly. You don't want any big lumps here. If you get any, you need to break them up until your mixture is nice and smooth. 年 means year. 糕 means a pudding. Of course, we're using pudding in the British sense of the word. Think figgy pudding, not like tapioca pudding. Now we just need a spoonful of oil for the right texture, but I'm going to use sesame oil to impart just a little nutty fragrance. 年糕 is as significant to Chinese New Year as figgy pudding is to Christmas. While the mixture cools, you can clean up, trim, and debone the tea leaves and oil them up with a little oil. If you don't have tea leaves, you can use aluminum foil to line your bowl, but again, it's not going to taste quite the same. It's a very subtle difference, but it's just not local-style 年糕 without the tea leaves. Here's something that my popo never did. I'm going to use a springform pan to steam this in. No, it's not traditional, but 年糕 is so sticky, it's hard to get out of the pan, so this should help with that. I have such fond memories of my popo's 年糕. Just the perfect texture and so, so fragrant. Unfortunately, my popo never showed me how to make it before she passed away, so I had to ask my auntie how to make hers. This is still my family's recipe, just not my popo's, which will have to live on only in my memory. 糕 is also the word for hire, so 年糕 sounds like you're reaching new heights or getting promoted in the new year. Now, we just stick it in the steamer for a good six hours. Six hours is a really long time, so I almost guarantee you're going to run out of water at the bottom. So every two hours, add some more water in. If you don't, then your poor 年糕 is going to burn. Now, as soon as it comes out, we're going to sprinkle a little bit of 芝麻 or sesame seeds on top of it. Because it's still hot and moist, the sesame seeds should stick really nicely. And then we top the whole thing off with a 紅棗 or Chinese red date, also called jujubees, right in the center. It's just like the cherry on top. And that's it, my 年糕 or Chinese New Year pudding. So why is it that this dessert is so significant and a must-have at Chinese New Year? Well, for one thing, it's super sticky. The stickiness is said to bind your family together in the coming year. The round shape, like the moon, represents harmony. You'll never see a square 年糕. The sweetness, although not too sweet, represents the sweetness of life. And all those little sesame seeds on top represent posterity or having many little children in your lineage. The red date represents happiness because of that red color. When you're happy and lively, your face flushes red. That's why red is such an auspicious color to the Chinese. It's the color of life. The tea leaves bring good luck and ward off misfortune. Every element is filled with significance. But all I know is that it tastes heavenly. That is so good. Sweet, but not too sweet. It's really sticky to cut, but once it's in your mouth, it's got a really smooth mouthfeel. But what do you do with your leftover 年糕? In Hawaii, you can't just leave it out. The heat and the humidity mean that it won't last more than a day or two without getting moldy. But once you stick it in the fridge, it's gonna get hard. You're gonna lose that ooey gooey texture. Well, there are a number of ways that different families eat their leftover 年糕. Let's try the most elaborate one first. That's to deep fry your 年糕 the same way that you would a katsu. You need some flour, two eggs, and some panko or Japanese breadcrumbs. Just roll the 年糕 in the flour and then the egg and finally the panko and deep fry it for about two minutes on each side. It's just a little over the top. Think of like a deep fried Mars bar. That's really crunchy and yummy. But honestly to me, it just has that fried taste. I know a lot of families that just pan fry the 年糕 in egg. So let's lose the flour and the panko and just dip it in egg and see how that comes out. The word for date, 早, also sounds like the word for early 早. So having the red date is like getting a jump on things in the new year. The early bird gets the worm. It's got a really nice sweet salty balance. But my favorite way of eating the leftover 年糕 is the way my auntie does it. Just lightly fry it directly. You have to be very careful doing it this way because as you know, sugar burns very easily. So just keep flipping it frequently. If you do it right, the outside will form a delicate crispy crust and the inside will get warm and gooey again. It's very similar in fact to toasting a marshmallow. Just heavenly. And it's got such delicate fragrances from all the different local ingredients we used. Ooh, that's actually a lot of sugar for me. Just need to wash it all down with some nice hot tea. Of course, the flavor of the 年糕 would pair best with a Chinese tea like oolong or jasmine. But you know how fond I am of my Yitouan green tea. And that hits the spot. Until next time. 再见 and ahui hou.