Chinese New Year Lucky Food: Steamed Sticky Rice with Eight Treasures (八宝饭)

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八宝饭 (Ba Bao Fan)



Chinese dessert has many varieties that are so unique and special to its own tradition. I still have the vivid memory of my parents making a special dessert to celebrate Chinese new year, i.e., the steamed sticky rice with 8 treasures. 8 is just a number, it means numerous sweet ingredients used in the recipe, mostly dried fruits and red bean paste. In the old days, making this dessert required lots of effort, it was only made during the spring festival when people had plenty spare time.

The hardest part of making this dessert in a traditional way is to make the red bean paste, which took a few hours. It started with simmering the red bean for a couple of hours, then removing the bean skin, consolidating the bean starch, then boiling the bean starch with sugar and pork fat. It was quite a lengthy process.

Fortunately these days, we can purchase the ready to use red bean paste from the Chinese grocery stores. Dried fruits can be purchased from stores as well. It can be any fruit you love.

I used microwave to make the cooked sticky rice first, and did not add any sugar to the rice, which keeps this recipe very healthy. The sugar from the dried fruit and red bean paste will be good enough to make the dish taste sweet.

For more fun cooking ideas, see Recipes by Category.

Ingredients
  • 1 cup of sticky rice
  • dried fruits (such as mongo, plum, pineapple, resin, cherry, kiwi, apricot, etc.).
  • 2-3 tablespoon sweet red bean paste (available in most Chinese grocery stores).
Preparation Time: 40 minutes
Cooking Time: 20 minutes
Servings: 4

Cooking Steps

1. Use microwave to prepare the cooked sticky rice, takes about 25 minutes. 

Follow the steps in Microwaved Sticky Rice. Keep the cooked rice covered to maintain the rice's moisture.

Prepare the dried fruits while the sticky rice is being microwaved

2. Get dried fruits (mongo, pineapple, plum, etc.), cut into small bits. Get a couple of tablespoon resin, rinse clean if needed. Adjust the portion of the fruit according to your taste. 1/4-1/3 cup should be enough.

Prepare the sticky rice for steaming

3. Get another medium size bowl, place the fruit bits evenly onto the bottom of the bowl.


4. Use a spoon to scoop sticky rice on top of the fruit bits, fill about 1 inch thick rice to cover the fruit bits.



5. Place 2-3 tablespoon red bean paste onto the rice layer, use a spoon to spread the bean paste flat to the center of the rice.


6. Place the rest of the rice onto the bowl, use a spoon to spread the rice flat and even.


7. Get a plate, cover the bowl, then hold the plate and bowl tight, then flip upside down. Gentle shake the plate and bowl, remove the bowl upwards. the rice will form a nice bowl shape on the plate.







Steam the sticky rice, this takes about 20 minutes

8. Place the plate with the sticky rice inside a steamer, steam for 20 minutes after the water boils. Take out the plate, let it cool down a little bit, use spoon to enjoy the warm dessert.

Tip: The longer the rice is steamed with fruits, the softer the rice and fruits will be,. It is also OK to re-steam the plate.
 

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