Niangao is a quintessential New Year food for a couple of reasons. Like many New Year foods, it’s a homonym or approximate homonym of a lucky phrase or idiom. In this case, niangao sounds very similar to “nian nian gao sheng,“ getting better every year.
There’s also a folk story that says that niangao was fed to the Kitchen God, a god who watched over everyone while they cooked, as a bribe to ensure a favorable report to the Jade Emperor.
But apart from anything else, niangao tastes great so let’s get started.
First we have to boil the sugar in the water. Keep stirring until all of the sugar has dissolved. Allow the solution to cool.
Boil a pan of water and add the Chinese dates (or other dried fruit) to soften it up. This will take about 30 minutes, but don’t leave it in for too long or you will start to lose flavor. Remove the pits from the dates.
Take a large bowl and put the glutinous rice in it. Now pour in the sugar water solution, plus a little bit of milk and start kneading the dough. Add a little bit of water until the dough has a nice smooth texture. Take about half of the dates and knead them into the dough.
Place the dough in a well-oiled cake pan. Sprinkle the rest of the dates and the sesame seeds on the top and cover the surface.
Steam the pudding over a saucepan of boiling water until the cake starts to separate from the side of the baking pan. Allow to cool then place in the refrigerator over night.
Serving suggestion: Cut the cake into quarters, then serve as is, or microwave for a few seconds to warm it up.
(JOHN PHILLIPS, STAFF WRITER)
過年時，餐桌上絕對少不了年糕。它和許多年菜一樣，諧音都蘊含吉祥之意。年糕諧音「年高」，象徵「年年高升」。
民間傳說年糕是用來討好家中灶神的牲禮，希望祂返回天庭向玉皇大帝述職時，能多美言幾句。
除此之外，年糕也是極美味的一道餐點，
我們現在就準備動手吧！
首先，把糖和水一起煮滾。持續攪拌，直到糖全部溶解。待糖漿冷卻。
燒一鍋水，把紅棗（或其他乾果）放入滾水中煮軟，約三十分鐘後撈起，以免滾煮太久失去風味。去掉棗核。
把糯米放進大碗中，倒入糖漿和一點牛奶後，開始揉捏糯米團。一點一點加水，直到糯米團呈現平滑手感。再取約75公克的紅棗加入糯米團一起揉捏。
把糯米團放在塗了油的蛋糕烤盤內，灑上剩餘的紅棗和白芝麻後封住表面。
把黏稠的米漿團放入蒸鍋中蒸煮，直到年糕和烤盤壁之間出現空隙。把年糕放冷後，放入冰箱隔夜保存。
食用建議：把年糕切成四等份即可食用，也可放入微波爐加熱幾秒後再享用。
（翻譯：林倩如）
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