Songpyeon is a Korean traditional rice cake to eat on Chuseok, which is celebration of the year’s good harvest. Traditionally it’s made with the rice of the first harvest of the year. Chuseok is August 15 by the lunar calendar, which is usually in the middle of September by the solar calendar. This year it’s September 14th.
Prepare a package of rice powder (2 lbs) usually sold frozen at a Korean grocery store. Just before using it, you must thaw it until the powder is at room temperature.
Put rice powder through a sifter to make the powder fine. Tip: If your rice powder is very fine, you can skip sifting. If your rice powder is coarse, you may have to grind it with a food processor or coffee grinder before sifting.
Prepare 3 stainless bowls and put 1 cup of finely sifted rice powder into the each bowl. (Bowl A, B, and C)
Boil 2 cups of water for your rice dough.
Bowl A (white songpyeon): add a pinch of salt and 3 tbs of boiling water and mix it with a wooden spoon. (it’ll be too hot if you use your hands at first) Knead the rice dough for about 5 minutes. Put the dough into a plastic bag and set it aside.
Bowl B (pink songpyeon): add a pinch of salt, a pinch of strawberry Jell-o powder, and 3 tbs of boiling water. Mix it with a wooden spoon and knead the rice dough for about 5 minutes. Put the dough into a plastic bag and set it aside.
Bowl C (green songpyeon): add a pinch of salt, 1 ts of ssookgaru (mugwort power) and 3.5 tbs boiling water. Mix it with a wooden spoon and knead the rice dough for about 5 minutes. Put the dough into a plastic bag and set it aside. Tip: You will need to add 3.5 tbs of water because of the 1 ts of ssookgaru.
Make the filling:
Roasted sesame seeds powder filling:
Grind ¼ cup of roasted sesame seeds using a coffee grinder for 15-20 seconds.
Transfer the ground sesame powder into a small bowl and mix it with ¼ cup of brown sugar and a pinch of salt. Tip: if you grind too long, the powder will become sticky from the oil in the seeds.
Mung bean powder filling:
Wash and drain ¼ cup of dried and skinned mung beans and put them in a pot with a thick bottom.
Add ¼ cup of water and a pinch of salt to the pot and simmer it for 30 minutes. Tip: Be sure not to burn it - simmer over the lowest heat.
Open the pot and use your wooden spoon to crush the beans into fine powder. Tip: if you make more than ¼ cup of mung bean powder, you may have to use your grinder or food processor to grind it finely.
Transfer the crushed mung bean powder into a small bowl or container and wait until it cools down.
Add ¼ cup of white sugar and mix it. That’s it!
Let’s make songpyeon now!
Break off a piece of rice dough about 1 inch in diameter and roll it between your palms to make a rice ball. Then press your thumb in the center of the ball to make it shaped like a cup.
Fill the cup with either sesame filling or mung bean filling using a small spoon, and seal it using your thumb and index fingers.
Place all the raw rice cakes (songpyeon) on a plate.
Wash your pine needles thoroughly with a little dish soap. Towel dry them.
Put some water (4 cups) into a steamer and boil it. When it starts boiling, place a damp cotton cloth on the bottom of the steamer tray.
Make a bed of pine needles on the wet cloth and put the raw songpyeon on top. Put more pine needles on top of the songpyeon, too. Tip: Pine needles stop the songpyeon from sticking together and give them a good flavor.
Steam it for 25 minutes over medium high heat.
Prepare some cold water in a large bowl, and drop in a little sesame oil.
Dump your steamed songpyeon into to the cold water and quickly remove pine needles. Take them out, put them on a plate to serve.
Peel the ginger skin, wash it, and slice it to make half cup.
Place the ½ cup of sliced ginger into a pot or kettle.
Rinse 5-6 cinnamon sticks and put them into the pot.
Add 7 to 7½ cups of water and boil for 20 minutes over high heat.
Lower the heat to medium and boil it for another 25 minutes. If it boils over, take off the lid.
Add 1 cup of sugar. Stir it and cool it down.
Remove the stem of each persimmon and wash them.
Remove the cinnamon sticks and sliced ginger from the tea using a colander.
Pour it into a glass jar or glass bowl and add the cleaned dried persimmons.
Cover the lid and keep it in the refrigerator for at least 12 hours. It will keep for a couple of days.
Serve cold with ice cubes. Use a ladle to give each person a small bowl of punch. Each serving should have one persimmon in it with a few pine nuts sprinkled on top.
Here is the recipe for how to make red bean paste.
In a pot, place 1 cup of washed red beans and 4 cups of water and heat it over high heat for 10 minutes.
Lower the heat to low medium and simmer for 50 minutes.
Check if the beans are cooked fully. Remove extra water from the beans and crush them with a wooden spoon or use your food processor to grind it.
Add 1 cup of brown sugar, 1 ts of salt, 1 ts of cinnamon powder into the red bean paste and set it aside.
Put the red bean paste in a pot.
Pour some water (about 4- 5 cups) and 1 cup of sugar (depends on your taste) and boil it.
Mix one cup of sweet rice powder, a pinch of salt and 1 tbs of sugar in a bowl.
Add 1/2 cup-1 cup of hot water in “3″ and mix it with a spoon first and fold it by hand to make dough. (The amount of hot water varies depending on the dryness of sweet rice powder you use, so first use 1/2 cup of hot water to make your dough and put more hot water while kneading the dough)
Make small rice balls with the dough about 0.5 cm diameter.
When the red bean soup boils, add the rice balls and cook it.
Keep stirring the soup and it will get thicker.
Ladle the soup into a bowl and add a few pine nuts on top and sprinkle some cinnamon powder and serve it.
Rice cake is very familiar food for Koreans. Whenever special occasions come, the first thing my mother and grand mother planned was to make rice cake. However these days people are more likely buying rice cake rather than making their own. I am going to make gyung dan, rice cake balls and show you it can be a good gift.
In a pot, place 1 cup of washed red beans and 4 cups of water and heat it over high heat for 10 minutes.
Lower the heat to low medium and simmer for 50 minutes.
Check if the beans are cooked fully. Remove extra water from the beans and crush them with a wooden spoon.
Add 1 cup of brown sugar, 1 ts of salt, 1 ts 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
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 tbs sugar and a pinch of salt and mix it.
Put ½ cup of toasted soybean powder (kong gaa ru in Korean) in a bowl and add 2
tbs of sugar and a pinch of salt and mix it.
Put ½ cup of mugwort powder (ssook gaa ru in Korean) in a bowl and add 2
tbs of sugar and a pinch of salt and mix it
Step 3:
Make rice cake dough.
In a bowl, place 2 cups of sweet rice powder, 2 tbs of sugar, 1 ts of salt.
Pour 2/3 cup of hot water little by little while you are mixing it with a spoon
Mix the dough by hand. *tips: if you feel the dough is too wet, add some plain flour
Put the rice cake dough into a plastic bag and set it aside
Step 4: In a big pot, place a lot of water and boil it
Let’s make rice cake!
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.
Divide the dough into 2 and roll each one to make cylinder shape and cut it into 18-20 pieces.
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.
Put the bean paste into the middle.
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.
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.
Prepare lots of cold water in a big bowl.
Put the cooked rice balls into cold water and drain them.
Roll the cooked rice balls in the 3 different colors of powder and transfer them to a plate.
"Debbie, You can skip oysters, but if you don’t add rice flour porridge to your kimchi paste, the paste will be too thick. Then it will be difficult for you to..."
- Maangchi in Kimchi and Kaktugi December 27, 2008
"Nishu, oh, thank you very much. I am going to post the information on the forum then. Thanks a lot."
- Maangchi in Black bean paste December 27, 2008
"lilian Ph, oh, I’m sorry to hear that! Next time, use more water and cook longer. Don’t give up! : )"
- Maangchi in Rice cake (gyungdan) December 27, 2008
"pimky, mostly it’s used in side dishes such as seaplant salads, radish salads…"
- Maangchi in Apple vinegar December 27, 2008
"Hello! Maangchi, I am from Singapore, thank you so much for sharing your Korean recipes… I love love Korean food. I just have a question, I make my kimchi..."
- Debbie in Kimchi and Kaktugi December 27, 2008
"hey maangchi i am not able to send information there so i m sending here adress of korean store in New Delhi ,India {A-Mart korean grocery store} A-1 Mahipalpur..."
- Nishu in Black bean paste December 27, 2008
"i tried making it before but at the end the dough is un-cook in the middle. and it turn out hard"
- lilian Ph. in Rice cake (gyungdan) December 26, 2008
"i want to know what is the use of vinegar in korean food? for example in salad, rice???"
- pimky in Apple vinegar December 26, 2008
