brown sugar fried mochi

Sichuan food isn’t only famous for its mala flavour! A lot of Sichuan restaurants have this brown sugar fried mochi (紅糖糍粑, cí bā in Mandarin) on their dessert menu. It’s essentially deep-fried glutinous rice smothered in roasted soybean powder (pretty much the same as Japanese Kinako powder) and brown sugar syrup. Mochi lovers- you might not want to miss this recipe!

Traditionally, the mochi part is made using steamed white glutinous rice. But if you want to save time and effort, you can substitute it with glutinous rice flour (100g) mixed with some hot water (~60-70g) to create the rice cake dough. But I enjoyed the process of making the rice cake and pounding it to relieve stress, so I made this entire recipe from scratch.

ingredients for making brown sugar fried mochi:

• 200g glutinous rice
• 50g brown sugar
• 50g water
• 50g soybean (or ready made roasted soybean powder)
• 1 tsp white sugar

OR:

• You can substitute 200g glutinous rice + 50g water with 100g glutinous rice flour + ~60/70g water

steps:

part 1: sticky rice

1. Wash and drain your rice once before soaking them in water for at least 3 hours, or preferably overnight.
2. Steam the rice over medium-high heat for 20-30 mins until it becomes sticky rice. Splash a little bit of water on the rice 2-3 times throughout the steaming process to prevent the rice from drying out.
3. Transfer the hot sticky rice to a large bowl, pound and knead it until it becomes a dough. Once it becomes a dough shape, wrap it in cling film and shape it into a rectangle about half an inch thick. Then refrigerate for 2 hours so that it holds its shape.

part 2: toasted soybean powder

1. While we wait for the rice cake to refrigerate, wash the soybeans with clean water, then pat dry.
2. In a pan on medium-low heat, toast the soybeans for 10-15 mins whilst constantly stirring. You can tell they’re ready when the soybeans start to crack and change colour. Remove from heat.
3. Once the soybeans have cooled down, grind it into a fine powder.

part 3: brown sugar syrup

1. In a pot, add brown sugar and water. Bring it to a boil and keep stirring for 30 sec to a minute until it thickens, then set aside to cool down.

part 4: fry the rice cake + assemble

1. Take the rice cake out from the fridge and chop it into rectangular sticks.
2. Heat a good amount of oil on a frying pan on medium heat, pan-fry all four sides of the rice cake for 10-15 mins or until it reaches desired golden brown colour.
3. Transfer to a plate, sprinkle some soybean powder with a sieve, drizzle the brown sugar syrup and enjoy!

tips:

1. If you have a big enough mortar and pestle, you can use that to pound the sticky rice. I wrapped a rolling pin with cling film, then used that to pound the sticky rice in a large mixing bowl instead.
2. I used a coffee grinder to grind the soybeans into a fine powder consistency. You can make a larger batch and store this in the fridge for up to a week and use it to sprinkle on other desserts!
3. Instead of pan-frying, alternatively you can deep-fry the rice cakes until golden brown as well!

more dessert recipes:

• Sweet potato mochi pancakes
• Cheese mochi balls
• Hong Kong style egg tartlinks

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