Yellow Rice Cake

Yellow Rice Cake

　　Yellow Rice Cake

　　The making of Yellow Rice Cake is quite intricate. First, select high-quality dry firewood (such as dried tea tree branches or dried rice straw), burn these into ash, and then mix some bayberry leaves into the ash (for coloring) along with a small amount of quicklime (to prevent the cake from feeling too cold after eating). Next, wrap the plant ash in a clean cloth and place it in a bucket, then pour water over it to create the plant ash water used for soaking the rice.

　　At the same time, wash about one-third glutinous rice and two-thirds indica rice, then soak them in the plant ash water for several hours before processing them into a rice slurry. Pour the slurry into a pot and cook it over low heat, stirring constantly to allow the moisture to evaporate without burning, thus forming a soft yet elastic rice cake dough. Take the dough out and place it in a copper basin, then steam it until cooked. After steaming, put the cooked dough into a mortar and pound it for ten to twenty minutes. This results in the golden, tender, and fragrant Yellow Rice Cake.