Lemon Eight-Treasure Rice

Lemon Eight-Treasure Rice

　　Eight-treasure rice is often served as a dessert at festive banquets, characterized by its vibrant colors, sweet taste, and sticky, oily texture. Making eight-treasure rice is simple, but if you want to make it more visually appealing and appetizing, it requires a bit more effort.

Ingredients: glutinous rice, also known as sticky rice; steamed lotus seeds; peanuts; walnuts; chestnuts; candied fruits; red bean paste filling; lard.

First, steam the glutinous rice using the same method as regular steamed rice. Then prepare a large bowl, and coat the bottom of the bowl with a layer of lard so that the eight-treasure rice won’t stick to the bowl after steaming. Next, arrange your favorite candied fruits, chestnuts, peanuts, and walnuts on the bottom of the bowl in a pattern. Be careful and mindful of shape and color combinations when arranging them—this will make the finished eight-treasure rice more beautiful. Spread a layer of the steamed glutinous rice over the arranged ingredients. Then create another pattern—this time, you can arrange a circle of lotus seeds around the edge, so when the eight-treasure rice is steamed and ready, it looks like it’s wearing a string of pearl necklaces from afar. Next, evenly spread the red bean paste filling in the center, then neatly arrange some candied fruits and chestnuts along the edge of the bowl. Finally, fill the rest of the bowl up to the rim with glutinous rice and level it out.

Now it’s ready for steaming—just steam it for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, take the bowl out and invert it onto a plate. Because you coated the bowl with lard earlier, the glutinous rice won’t stick to the bowl, and you can easily remove the bowl.