Korean recipes:
Rice cake (songpyeon)
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.
Ingredients:
Frozen rice flour, salt, water, sesame seeds, sesame oil, dried and skinned mung beans, brown sugar, white sugar, pine needles, mugwort powder (ssook garu in Korean), strawberry Jell-o powder.
Make the dough:
- 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.
Enjoy your songpyeon and happy Chuseok!
I just made these yesterday! I went to a local temple in Busan and made them with a group of foreigners and Koreans. We steamed them in a huge iron pot over a wood fire. It was great! Yummy!
I’m having trouble finding ingredients to make your recipes now that I’m in Korea! Isn’t that funny? I go to the local Lotte Mart and I can’t find kong garu or chapssal garu anywhere! Or any large quantities of black sesame seeds, or pine nuts, or big bunches of spinach. I think I need to start shopping at the shijang.
Happy Chuseok!
September 8th, 2008 at 10:02 amThese look so delicious! You two are also adorable in your traditional dresses. Today I’m going to be making red pepper kimchi with cabbage and daikon from my garden, so I’ll be sure to send you pictures! Maangchi, do you ever miss living in the countryside?
September 8th, 2008 at 10:16 amAw adorable outfits ^^
maybe a silly question, but: can I replace that frozen flour with normal fine rice flour? and should I in that case then get non-glutinous rice flour?
get a bit confused by the many variations of something so “simple” as rice flour…
September 8th, 2008 at 11:04 amTo Josh,
Josh, oh, you are living in Busan now! Yes, the songpyun you made with others sounds very delicious! That’s how my grandmother made! Konggaru (roasted soybean powder) and chapsalgaru (sweet rice powder) are sold in a big grocery store in Korea. Ask a sales clerk to find the ingredients next time you go to lotte mart. Happy chuseok!
To http://extraschmaltz.blogspot.com/
Of course I miss the life in country side. I used to follow my grandmother to pick some green chili pepper, corn, and other vegetables. She prepared simple but the most delicious lunch with the fresh vegetables we picked together. I envy you! : )
To Jo,
September 8th, 2008 at 1:58 pmThe rice powder I use in this video is made with short-grain rice. Ask this question in forum in my website. You may get good answer there from others.
Hi Maangchi. I have a question about frozen rice flour. Is there any reason why the rice flour is frozen? In some asian stores they sell rice flour that isn’t frozen. Do they freeze the rice flour to keep it “fresh”. I find that unfrozen rice flour has a certain off-taste.
September 9th, 2008 at 1:06 amuberathlete
September 9th, 2008 at 8:31 amfrozen rice powder is made with rice soaked in water and ground. The powder is a little wet, so it has to be kept in the freezer, Otherwise, it will go bad easily.
I think this is the ricecake I had at the Chuseok celebration at my church. I liked it so much because it reminded me of the Vietnamese Bánh dày my grandma used to make. Only difference was we ate it with a savory Vietnamese pate and steamed them on bannana leaves!
I think I’ll give this recipe a spin once I get back home from college! Thanks Maangchi!
September 25th, 2008 at 9:56 pmdantyba,
September 26th, 2008 at 7:40 amInteresting! I love steamed rice wrapped and steamed in banana leaves.
Just out of curiosity, since mugwort kind of a hard thing to find down here, are there any substitutions I can use? Also are there other types of traditional colors?
October 4th, 2008 at 5:45 pmdantyba,
October 4th, 2008 at 6:33 pmYou could use any green vegetable such as spinach.
Hi Maangchi, thanks for your recipes. I am from Singapore. Lately, I have this keen in trying out to make Korean food at home. By chance I get tof ind your blog and I find it is great. Especially the videos I can learn from your demonstration too. It is great. Thanks so much. There is one question I would like to ask you. I wanted to try out making songpyeon at home. In Singapore I couldn’t find any pine needles. Can I use something else to substitute it or can I omit the pine needles? Beside that, in your recipe you are using frozen rice flour. That day I went to the korean supermarket in Singapore, they do not have frozen rice flour. Can I use the normal rice flour to substitute frozen rice flour? Thanks so much. Hope in future can see more Korean recipes and video demo from your blog. Thanks and wish you all the best.
November 13th, 2008 at 11:33 pmViolet
Yes, you can make songpyeon without pine needles.
“frozen rice powder is made with rice soaked in water and ground.”
So if you want, soak some short grain rice in water for about 12 hours, drain it, and grind it finely.
I have never used dried rice powder to make songpyeon, so I can’t give you clear answer.
Thank you!
November 14th, 2008 at 8:04 amHi, I have been watching your cooking videos at youtube, and I think you are an excellent cook! You make it a lot easier to make these dishes, and they look so yummy. I have been wanting to try songpyeon for a while now, and I would love to make them on my own to see what they taste like but I don’t have any of the proper fillings. Is there any other sweet filling that I could use other than sesame seed, and bean paste? Thank you!
December 21st, 2008 at 5:34 pmJoongie Love,
December 21st, 2008 at 5:53 pmHow about using dried raisins?
Oh, I never thought of that. ^^ Thank you very much, I will try using that. ^_^ I appreciate the help!
December 22nd, 2008 at 10:16 am