Stir-fried Preserved Pork with Yellow Rice Cakes

Stir-fried Preserved Pork with Yellow Rice Cakes

　　Stir-fried Preserved Pork with Yellow Rice Cakes. Made before the Spring Festival, this is a traditional Hakka-flavored snack from Gan County. It is said to have been listed as a local tribute during the Ming Dynasty. Originally made from dahuo rice, it has a yellow hue, fragrant aroma, and soft texture. Known as “Yellow Rice Cakes,” it is a distinctive food item. After the 1960s, polished round-grained rice became commonly used, making the process more elaborate. Nowadays, machines are used in all regions for production, and Yellow Rice Cakes are available every lunar December. Making Yellow Rice Cakes involves first filtering water through the ash of yellow rice straw by pouring boiling water over it to create an ash solution. After cooling, the rice is soaked overnight. The next day, it is steamed in a bamboo steamer to make rice. This steamed rice is then mixed with the ash solution, spread out to dry, and steamed again. It is subsequently placed in a large stone mortar and pounded with a hard hardwood stick until it becomes a sticky mass. After pounding, it is kneaded evenly by hand, cut into pieces, and shaped into various forms. Due to the labor-intensive process, it often requires help from relatives and neighbors to make. Even after machine-made Yellow Rice Cakes became popular, a small number of families still make them manually in winter. The finished cakes are yellow in color and delicious in taste. They are usually soaked in the ash solution and stored in jars, where they can be kept until the summer of the third year. Some are chopped, dried, and then stir-fried with sand or deep-fried to create various types of snacks. These cakes are known for being soft and tender, fragrant with a smoky flavor, refreshing, and long-lasting when stored.