A little about nian gao
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It is directly translated as 'sticky cake' and it's made of glutinous rice flour and brown sugar. People eat this during Chinese New Year so as to grow taller, as the gao 糕 sounds like tall 高. I should eat more right? I did, but it only made me gain weight!
It's actually very simple and fast. For me, I whip up within 10 minutes and all my family members love it!
For the nian gao, I bought those with banana leaf and when you touch, it is quite hard. According to my dad, he didn't want to get soft nian gao as it is quite hard to cook. Hence I just follow his instruction.
In supermarkets, the small size is usually the 300g and the larger ones are 600g. Hence for the instructions below, it is for half of the small nian gao (serves 3 people).
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| Fried Nian gao |
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Nian gao (150g)
1 beaten egg
2 tbsp of flour (whisk)
1 tbsp of cooking oil
Some salt
Steps
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1. Cut nian gao into small and thin slices.
2. Prepare the batter of beaten egg, flour, oil and salt. Make sure you whip them until it is uniform.
3. Place cooking oil into the pan till it's hot.
4. Dip the nian gao pieces into the batter.
5. One by one, place them into the oil. Turn when the flour has turned brownish.
6. Serve.
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| Left: Cut thin slices of nian gao. Right: Dip them into the batter. |
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| Fry them in hot cooking oil. |
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| My son, Josh enjoying his first taste of nian gao! |
I'm really amazed that Josh loved my fried nian gao. Of course I didn't let him eat alot. He only ate two pieces. The joy I saw on his face was priceless!
For a gentle note, to really enjoy this dish, you can drink hot camomile tea! Delicious!