Puffed rice cakes

Rice cakes are cakes made ​​from rice, which are widely used, especially in Asia and are often eaten on special occasions. The basis for both grain rice and mashed rice.

In Japan, the most famous Mochi are called, in China they are called niangao, Singapore cheww kueh and India Idli. Many styles are available in the Philippines and Vietnam. The rice cakes can be both sweet and savory. They differ from a rice pudding by the firmer consistency. In some Asian countries, rice cakes are eaten for breakfast.

China

The Japanese mochi correspond in the nian gao China for Chinese New Year. They come in a sweet or savory pie, partly they are enriched with cream and cinnamon. Easier rice cakes hot in China zong zi. They are prepared from glutinous rice and sodium carbonate, wrapped in bamboo leaves, tied and served with honey or sugar. There are different versions of the preparation. In the rou zong version often contain rice cake pork or ham, also mushrooms, soy sauce, sugar, pepper, garlic or shrimp.

Philippines

In the Philippines, there are numerous variations for rice cakes, each region has developed its own specialties. The main variants are:

• Puto: This small rice cakes are made ​​from rice flour ( Galapong ) and are slightly sweet. For the preparation of the rice is soaked overnight and then ground in a mortar large. Each city and each region has its own traditional recipes. Filled with meat hot cake puto pao. Especially at Christmas, there are puto bumbong in purple rice which is steamed in bamboo tubes and eaten with grated coconut and brown sugar. On Christmas Eve there in San Fernando Putong Salot with anise and to panara, a filled pastry with vegetables. Also known are Manapla puto from Manapla that are steamed in banana leaves. Puto maya is actually not a cake, but a dessert made from glutinous rice which is cooked in coconut milk.
• Suman is a dessert made from glutinous rice, which is often eaten with a syrup made from sugar and coconut, but also with chocolate sauce, or ripe mangoes. It has often the shape of a cake, if it is attenuated in a mold.
• Biko is a major rice cake made from glutinous rice which is cooked with coconut milk and sprinkled with toasted coconut at the end.
• Cuchinta is a rice cake with a rather reminiscent of jelly consistency, which is cooked with sugar in a brine, so that he gets a light brown color.
• Bibingka is made from rice flour, coconut milk, sugar, eggs and baking powder. The dough is baked in a mold in the clay oven. The cake is eaten, sometimes with a circulation of water buffalo cheese, boiled duck eggs and butter. Otherwise, it is served with grated coconut. In the nine days before Christmas will be sold in front of churches Bibingka with ginger tea.
• Sapin - sapin ( sapin = layer) is a layered dessert made from rice flour, coconut milk and sugar. It is used a round shape, each layer is colored differently. The cake is afterwards sliced.

Hawaii

In Hawaii, the rice cake butter are called mochi. They are prepared from rice flour, sugar, butter, eggs and coconut milk. The term mochi is Japanese culture historians on the basis of the recipe but more of a Filipino influence. There are several variants of this cake, which can be, for example, even sweetened bean paste Yamspaste or cocoa powder is added. In the 1990s, Ice Cream Mochi became popular, which was probably originally invented in California. For this, a scoop of ice cream is coated with a layer of glutinous rice and frozen along with this; this creation is available in a variety of flavors.