Songpyeon 송편

Songpyon (rice cake with pine needles)

August 15th by the lunar calendar is Chuseok, the greatest traditional holiday in Korea, which falls on September 17th this year. Like on other traditional holidays, people have special food eaten largely on Chuseok and one of them is songpyon, mug bean-filled rice cake steamed on pine needles. There is a Korean saying that a woman who makes pretty songpyons would have pretty daughters. Enjoy that special holiday feel by making these cute little bite-sized rice cakes.

Ingredients
5 cups rice flour
1/2 cup sugar
2tsp salt
1 cup red beans
1Tbsp cinnamon

Direction
1. Sift together rice flour and salt once. Then add a cup of boiling water and mix well to make a ball of dough. Knead the dough well to make if soft and pliable.
2. Wash red beans well and steam thoroughly. When the beans are done, mash finely with sugar and cinnamon.
3. Shape the dough into a ball the size of a ping pong ball and using your thumb, make a small crater to put in the filling.
4. Spread pine needles at the bottom of a clay steamer and place songpyons. Repeat the step for a layer after layer.
5. Steam for about 20 minutes or until the rice cakes are done. Prevent songpyons from sticking to each other by painting them with water and sesame seed oil.

Tips
1. There are several types of filling beside red beans. For the chestnut filling, steam chestnuts and mash them with sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Pound roasted sesame seeds together with sugar and salt to make sweet sesame seed filling. For the traditional mug bean filling, repeat the same procedure as the chestnut filling. If you are not too particular about sweet fillings, steam black beans and season with a bit of salt before sticking them in songpyons.
2. To add color to songpyong, Koreans used all natural ingredients like mugworts for green, gardenia seeds for yellow, grapes for purple, and carrot juice for orange. Squeeze out the juice from these ingredients and add to the flour mixture to make colorful, brilliant songpyons.


Credit : huangsy88