Taiwanese Rice Cake (cooked by microwave oven) presented by May Yeh at Plano Christopher Parr Library July 19, 2008

Taiwanese Rice Cake cooked in the Microwave Oven There are many different flavors of rice cake; here I cooked in two basic flavors of rice cake- hard cakes and soft cakes cooked in the microwave oven. When you are familiar with the basic cooking then you can cook different kind of rice cakes by changing different ingredients. A. BASIC HARD RICE CAKE Ingredients: 1/2 pack of 16oz regular rice flour (2 cups), 4 cups of water, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 2-3 tablespoons fried shallot sliced (or fried onion) Cooking: Put rice flour in a microwavable large container (more than 8 cups), stir in 1 cup of water to smooth and thicken the paste, pour in another 3 cups of hot water, stirring well. Put the container into microwave oven, cook in high power for 4-5 minutes. Stir in salt and fried shallot and cover with microwavable plastic film to cook 8-10 more minutes. (I used a 700W microwave oven, for 1000W or higher power the cooking minutes will be shorter. Test the cook time for the best texture.) Note: You can cook different flavors of hard rice cake. Taro root, fresh radish, beans etc. are the ingredients for the different flavors. They can be stirred in at the time when you stir in salt (after cooked 4-5 minutes). Servings: 1. Put a little vegetable oil in non-stick pan to fry double sides of sliced hard rice cake and serve hot with the sauce. 2. Adding cubic rice cake in soups is also a good dish for a meal. 3. Serve cool is fine, just slice and covered with topping and sauce. B. BASIC SOFT RICE CAKE (Taiwanese name-bowl cake) Ingredients: 2 cups of regular rice flour, 5-6 cups of water, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 2-3 table- spoons of fried shallot sliced. Cooking: Same procedure as cooking hard rice cake except adding 2-5 more minutes for well done. Topping: Dried mushroom, dried radish, ground pork, fried shallot sliced, Taiwanese style spices, black pepper, soy sauce and sugar are the ingredients to prepare for the topping of soft rice cake. Sauce or Dip: Mix sweet chili sauce, soy paste, fresh chopped garlic (optional) and a little water in a bowl to make for the cake’s dip or sauce. Tips: When stirring in salt and fried shallot, the whole flour paste should be stirred thick and smooth so no liquid stays in the container. Some add-on ingredients may need pre-cooked or half-done (vegetable roots, dried mushrooms,...). The above recipes were tested and written by May Yeh, Dallas Texas USA, on 5/21/05. Any question, suggestions and corrections please