Tag Archives: traditional

TRADITIONAL RICE CAKE BALLS- GYEONGDAN (경단)

So if you don’t already know- I LOVE MAANGCHI!Kaos avatar 127 I really appreciate how simple she makes her recipes and her videos are great. When I make one of my own I hope they turn out as wonderful as hers.

Anyways enough about Maangchi. Today I was in serious mood for some rice cake balls, but I didn’t have any rice flour. The constant hunger pangs, however, have kept me from thinking of anything else. And so I thought – lets write this recipe down! In Korea rice cakes are everywhere, and come in all different ways! You can make them or buy them. And they are often made on special occasion year round.
I’ve made this recipe many times and each time I’ve changed up the ingredients I used to coke the balls (from cocoa powder to powdered sugar).  Kaos avatar 150Take this recipe and make it your own!

Maangchi saves the day!


Ingredients:

Directions:

Step 1:
Make red bean paste (this recipe is solely intended for the rice balls, for amore general recipe go here.

  1. In a pot, place 1 cup of washed red beans and 4 cups of water and heat it over high heat for 10 minutes.
  2. Lower the heat to low medium and simmer for 50 minutes.
  3. Check if the beans are cooked fully. Remove extra water from the beans and crush them with a wooden spoon.
  4. Add 1 cup of brown sugar, 1 tsp. of salt, 1 tsp. of cinnamon powder into the red bean paste and set it aside.

Step 2:
Prepare 3 bowls where 3 different kinds of powder will be placed for the rice cake balls

  1. Black sesame seeds:
    • Rinse and drain ½ cup of black sesame seeds in running water using a strainer.
    • Heat a pan over medium heat and pour in the sesame seeds.
    • Cook the sesame seeds by stirring with a wooden spoon.
    • The sesame seeds will pop, then lower the heat and keep stirring until they are crispy. (5- 10 minutes)
    • When the sesame seeds cool down, grind them with a coffee grinder.
    • Transfer the sesame seeds powder to a bowl and add 2 tbsp. sugar and a pinch of salt and mix it.
  2. Put ½ cup of toasted soybean powder (kong gaa ru in Korean) in a bowl and add 2
    tbsp. of sugar and a pinch of salt and mix it.
  3. Put ½ cup of mugwort powder (ssook gaa ru in Korean) in a bowl and add 2
    tbsp. of sugar and a pinch of salt and mix it

Step 3:
Make rice cake dough.

  1. In a bowl, place 2 cups of sweet rice powder, 2 tbsp. of sugar, 1 tsp. of salt.
  2. Pour 2/3 cup of hot water little by little while you are mixing it with a spoon
  3. Mix the dough by hand.
    *Tip: if you feel the dough is too wet, add some plain flour
  4. Put the rice cake dough into a plastic bag and set it aside

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Step 4:
In a big pot, place a lot of water and boil it

Let’s make rice cake!

  1. Take the rice cake dough out from the plastic bag and place it on the cutting board.
    Tip: To protect the dough from being stuck to the board, sprinkle some plain flour before placing the rich cake dough.
  2. Divide the dough into 2 and roll each one to make cylinder shape and cut it into 18-20 pieces.
  3. Roll each piece of rice dough with your hands and make a hole in the middle of the ball with your thumb. Then turn the ball into a cup.
  4. Put the bean paste into the middle.
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  5. Close it tightly and place it on a plate.
    Tip: While you are making rice balls, the rest of dough may get dried, so cover them with wet cloth or paper towel.
  6. Carefully put all the rice cake balls into boiling water. When the rice cake balls are cooked, they float. It will take about 3 -5 minutes until they float.
  7. Prepare lots of cold water in a big bowl.
  8. Put the cooked rice balls into cold water and drain them.  floating777927
  9. Roll the cooked rice balls in the 3 different colors of powder and transfer them to a plate.

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