Pingyuan Yellow Rice Cake

Pingyuan Yellow Rice Cake

　　Pingyuan Yellow Rice Cake

　　The process of making Yellow Rice Cake is quite intricate. First, high-quality dry firewood (such as dried tea tree branches or dried rice straw) is selected. This firewood is burned to ashes, and then some bayberry leaves (for coloring) and a small amount of quicklime (to prevent the resulting yellow cake from feeling too cold after eating) are added to the ashes. Then, the plant ash is carefully wrapped in a clean cloth and placed in a bucket, where it is rinsed with water to create an ash water solution used for soaking the rice. Meanwhile, about one-third glutinous rice and about two-thirds non-glutinous rice are washed and soaked in the ash water for several hours, after which they are ground into a rice slurry. The rice slurry is then poured into a pot and simmered over low heat. It's important to stir continuously during cooking to allow the moisture to evaporate without burning, resulting in a soft yet elastic cake dough. The dough is taken out and placed in a copper basin, then steamed until cooked. Finally, the steamed cake dough is pounded in a mortar for ten to twenty minutes. This yields the golden-yellow, tender, and fragrant Yellow Rice Cake.