Mugwort Rice Cake

Mugwort Rice Cake

　　Mugwort, a naturally growing herbaceous plant with medicinal value, is well known. However, the fact that mugwort can be used to make delicious rice cakes is lesser known—this is a folk delicacy skillfully crafted by the people of Guangxi. At the end of the first lunar month, mugwort sprouts tender green leaves. On the thirtieth day of the first lunar month, every household sends someone to the fields and hillsides to search for and gather fresh mugwort in preparation for making mugwort rice cakes.

　　Mugwort rice cake is a purely natural green food that is not only delicious and highly nutritious but also has medicinal benefits. Once made, it boasts a vibrant emerald color and emits a faint fragrance of mugwort. Its chewy texture and sweet yet not greasy taste delight the palate, making one want to eat more and more—until, almost unknowingly, they’re so full they can hardly bear it but still crave another bite.

　　The process of making mugwort rice cake is extremely simple and easy to follow, consisting of three steps. First, burn the core of glutinous rice stalks to ash, then boil the ash with water and strain it through a piece of gauze to make alkaline water. Next, add washed mugwort to the filtered alkaline water and simmer until the stems and leaves become soft and mushy. Then, use a bamboo sieve or gauze to drain the cooked mugwort, filtering out the alkaline water. Rinse the mugwort repeatedly with clean water until most of the adhering alkaline residue is removed. Squeeze the mugwort into clumps to remove as much moisture from the cooking and rinsing process as possible, then set it aside on a plate. Second, mix an appropriate amount of glutinous rice flour with warm boiled water to form a sticky dough, then knead it together with the mugwort clumps until the mugwort is evenly distributed throughout the dough (if possible, it’s best to pound the cooked mugwort clumps in a stone mortar). If the dough becomes too dry and hard after kneading, add some hot water and continue kneading until the consistency is similar to thick congee. Third, pan-fry the prepared mugwort dough in tea oil until it forms flat pieces. After removing from the pan, sprinkle brown sugar or white sugar on top of the mugwort cake slices (choose sugar based on individual constitution—those with frequent indigestion should use brown sugar). Then fold the mugwort cake slices like a quilt into a square shape. At this point, the mugwort rice cake is complete, and you can freely enjoy its sweet and fragrant deliciousness.

　　Source: Tianlin County People's Government Website