Rice cake


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.

Types of rice cakes by region

Types of rice cake include:

Burmese

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.

Cambodian

  • Ansom chek is a banana leaf sticky rice cake. It is served all year long but it is most prevalent during Bun Pchum Ben or "Ancestors' Day" festival. It is served either with a banana filling or pork fat strips and beans then they are wrapped with layers of banana leaf and steamed.
  • Num kom is steamed sweet sticky rice flour cake filled with palm sugar, freshly grated coconut and roasted sesame seeds. It is traditionally made and eaten on Memorial day for ancestors, Visak and especially Cambodian New Year. It takes the shape of a pyramid to represent Buddhist pagoda towers.
  • Num Krok is sticky rice cake that is mixture of rice flour, coconut milk, chopped shallots and a little salt, dipped in fish and chili sauce and sometimes palm sugar. It is made with an iron pan.
  • Num plae ai is sticky rice balls with palm sugar on the inside and rolled in fresh coconut for a beautiful cover.
  • Num akor is one of the most popular Cambodian/Khmer dessert. It is a dessert that is served during Khmer New Year and festivities. It is made with rice flour and topped with fresh shaved coconut. It comes in many colors.
  • Nom Chak-Kachan also known as sticky rice layer cake. It is made with sticky rice, tapioca flours, and coconut milk. It comes in a number of colors with green and yellow layers being the most popular.

    Chinese

  • Chongyang cake is a steamed rice flour cake, with bean or bean paste as inner layer, decorated with jujube, chestnuts, almonds, and osmanthus. It is specially made for Chongyang Festival.
  • Ciba cake is made by glutinous rice pounded into paste, often molded into shapes of balls or cuboids, and usually dipped into brown sugar syrup and roasted soybean flour after being fried or steamed.
  • Erkuai, a reference to the shape of one of its common forms. Erkuai is generally stir-fried or grilled and rolled around a youtiao. It's a popular food in Yunnan Province.
  • Fa gao is a steamed cupcake-like pastry, most commonly consumed on the Chinese new year. It is made of rice flour, leavening, sugar.
  • Jian dui are a type of crisp and chewy hollow glutinous rice pastry often filled with red bean and coated with sesame on the outside
  • Funing big cake is made with glutinous rice flour and various nuts as garnishes. It is molded into cuboid shape, steamed, and then sliced to paper-like pieces.
  • Lüdagun is a traditional Manchu snack in China. It is a round sticky rice pastry with honey and red bean paste filling, rolled with yellow soybean flour dusted over.
  • Nuomici is glutinous rice ball, filled with a sweet filling with dried coconut flakes dusted on the outside.
  • Mi gao, Nuo mi gao, or Jiang mi gao, is a cake that directly made with glutinous rice, added dates or longan pulp or red bean, steamed thoroughly, and cut to pieces or blocks.
  • * Zèng gao, called as Jing gao in Shaanxi dialect, is a rice cake steamed originally with an ancient Chinese food vessel Zèng, and now people use steamer to cook it. It is layered repeatedly with glutinous rice, red bean, glutinous rice, dates and raisin. It is similar to Mi gao, however originate from different regions and cooked by different cookware.
  • Nian gao includes many varieties, all made from glutinous rice that is pounded or ground into a paste and, depending on the variety, may simply be molded into shape or cooked again to settle the ingredient.
  • Osmanthus cake is a traditional sweet-scented Chinese pastry made with glutinous rice flour, honey sweet-scented osmanthus and rock sugar.
  • Qingtuan is made of glutinous rice mixed with Chinese mugwort or barley grass juice, resulting in green colour, usually filled with sweet red or black bean paste. It is a seasonal snack, and especially made for the Qingming Festival.
  • Song gao is a Shanghai snack composed of rice flour, sugar, and water, with azuki beans embedded throughout the cake.
  • Tangyuan is made by mixing glutinous rice flour with a small amount of water to form balls and is then cooked and served in boiling water.
  • White sugar sponge cake is a steamed rice cake that is typically consumed in square pieces or triangle with some ropes attached to it.

    Filipino

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, but that term is now restricted to mean "bread" in modern Filipino. 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.
Some examples of traditional Filipino dessert rice cakes include:
  • Ampaw is a Filipino sweet puffed rice cake. It is traditionally made with sun-dried leftover cooked white rice that is fried and coated with syrup.
  • Baye baye is a type of rice cake made from coconut and ground green rice or ground corn kernels
  • Bibingka is a type of rice cake made with galapong and coconut milk or water, with its bottom lined with banana leaves. It is traditionally baked using specially made clay ovens and preheated charcoal. Often topped with desiccated coconut, grated cheese, salted duck egg and muscovado sugar.
  • Biko, also called sinukmani or wadjit, is a type of rice cake made from coconut milk, sugar, and whole glutinous rice grains
  • Espasol is made from rice flour cooked in coconut milk and sweetened coconut strips, dusted with toasted rice flour
  • Kutsinta is a steamed rice cake made with rice flour, brown sugar, lye, and freshly grated mature coconut meat
  • Mache are boiled glutinous rice balls flavored with pandan and coconut
  • Masi are boiled or steamed glutinous rice balls with a peanut and muscovado filling
  • Moche are boiled glutinous rice balls with bean paste fillings served with hot sweetened coconut milk
  • Palitaw is a boiled rice cake disk covered with freshly grated mature coconut meat and sugar
  • Panyalam is similar to bibingka but is fried instead of baked. It is popular among Muslim Filipinos and the Lumad people of Mindanao.
  • Puto is a general term for steamed rice cakes popular all over the country with numerous variations
  • Puto bumbong is a steamed rice cake cooked in bamboo tubes and characteristically deep purple in color
  • Salukara is similar to bibingka but is cooked as a large flat pancake traditionally greased with pork lard
  • Sapin-sapin is made from glutinous rice flour, coconut milk, sugar, water, and coconut flakes sprinkled on top. Its distinguishing layered appearance is achieved by using food coloring
  • Suman is made from glutinous rice cooked in coconut milk, and often steamed in banana leaves
  • Tupig, a rice cake made from galapong, coconut milk, sugar, and young coconut wrapped in banana leaves and baked directly on charcoals
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.
  • Binalot is a generic term for rice with various accompanying dishes wrapped in banana leaves
  • Kiping is a thin wafer-like rice cakes uniquely molded from real leaves. Usually eaten dipped with vinegar, but can be eaten as a dessert with sugar.
  • Pastil is a packed rice dish with shredded beef, chicken, or fish wrapped in banana leaves
  • Puso is a widespread class of rice cakes made from glutinous rice cooked inside woven pouches of various designs. These are differentiated from other non-dessert rice rice cakes wrapped in leaves, in that the leaves in puso are woven into complex designs, not simply wrapped around the rice cakes.

    Indian

  • Patoleo are sweet rice cakes steamed in turmeric leaves consisting of a filling of coconut and palm jaggery. These are prepared by the Konkani people during their festivities.
  • Pitha, in the Bengali, Assamese, Bihari, and Oriya cuisines, is usually a thin-flat cake prepared from a batter made with soaked and ground rice. They are usually cooked on a hot griddle or frying pan and could be fried in oil, roasted over a slow fire or baked and rolled over a hot plate once made. In West Bengal and Bangladesh, special pithas are made in different processes such as steaming or stuffing, the bhapa and puli pithas being examples respectively. Special festivals where pithas are generally made include Nabanna in Bengali culture, Bihu in Assam and many festivals in East India.
  • Idli in South Indian cuisine. The cakes are usually two to three inches in diameter and are made by steaming a batter, which is fermented overnight, consisting of black lentils, and rice approximately 1:2 ratio with a bit of salt. Usually eaten with coconut chutney or sambar – a type of lentil soup flavoured with tamarind.
  • Puttu in South Indian cuisine, consists of firm cylinders of steamed ground rice with layers of coconut.
  • Vattayappam in Kerala cuisine are round cakes made with fermented rice batter, coconut milk, desiccated coconut, and jaggery. Vattayappam are quite similar to Vietnamese Bánh bò in appearance and texture.
  • Kozhukatta of Tamil cuisine are steamed rice dumplings or cakes that take a variety of forms - savoury and sweet. For example, "thengai poorana kozhukattai" are sticky rice balls stuffed with a filling of shredded coconut and palm sugar. They are similar to the Odia Manda pitha and Cambodian "Num Plae Ai."