BELLALEAN: Blueberry Rice Cake

This is a Korean rice cake. Traditionally, it is called Bek Seul Gi but today a lot of young generations like to modernize its shape and ingradient to make it prettier like a cake. However, the basic method is the same and you can use other fillings instead of bluberry such as strawberry, pumpkin and chestnuts etc.

It is fun to make and once you know the process, it is very easy to make.

This is also a non fat and less sugary cake.
My children also like it for a snack. The ingredients will make the same size rice cake shown above. This size serves 8 people.

Ingredient

Rice flour 4 cups
Bluberry powder 1TBSP
Bluberry Jam 2TBSP (you may need some more for garnish if you like)
Sugar 4 TBSP
Water 3TBSP

*Above ingredient will vary depending on how moist the rice flour is. The rice flour used in this recipe is prepared at home and ground at a local mill. You need to soak rice at least for 4 hours and ground it finely. If you have a miller, you might try to do this process at home. Add 1tsp salt in every 1kg of ground rice.

Here is how to make it.

1. Sieve through the rice flour. Use fine sieve if you would like soft texture.

2. Mix the rice flour with bluberry powder and then sieve through a sift. Add the bluberry jam and water - depending on how watery your flour mixture, you may have to adjust the amount of water. The right amount of water can be estimated by squeezing handful of rice mixture to make a chunk. Then gently shake this chunk on your palm. If the chunk scatters too easily, then the mixture is still too dry. Add 1tsp of water and mix it well. Squeeze a handful of mixture again. If the chunk forms and relatively keeps its form by gently shaking on the palm, you have the right amount of water.

3. Sieve through a fine sift. This time, sifting will feel a lot more harder. You may need to use a scrapper to sieve the mixture through forcefully. Once sifted, avoid stirring with the hands. This will make lumps in the final cake. Now, you need to add the sugar. It is very important to gently and lightly mix the flour mixture with the sugar, avoiding too much stirring.

4. Line the bottom of a steamer with a pre-cut cloth - something similar to a cheese cloth which can stand heat and moist but let steam pass through. I used cooking silicon cloth on the bottom. With a knife, gently make cuts to divide the cake- the finished cake will come out already being divided into proportions.

5. Steam it on high heat for 20 minutes. When you steam it, make sure you cover inside the lid with cloth to prevent the water vapour dropping onto the cake. Take it off the gas and let it stand for 5 minutes without opening the lid.