Looking for a particular post or topic? Search here!

Where My Readers Are From

Flag Counter

Who's Reading HFM Life

Thursday, January 17, 2019

Steamed Nian Gao/年糕 (Kuih Bakul) with Freshly Grated Coconut

Nian Gao is a popular delicacy during the Lunar New Year. It’s a sweet and sticky steamed cake made of glutinous rice flour, water and sugar.  Yup, it's a high carbo, high calorie and high in cholesterol dessert. A big NO NO for weight watchers and those with health issues. But I only get to eat this once a year, so at this time of the year, I will just pretend that I do not know that this is a fattening food. Just enjoy it first and deal with it later, ha!

I like eating my Nian Gao steamed and coated with freshly grated coconut, with a pinch of salt. That's the best way to enjoy it. You get to savor the aroma and flavor of the Nian Gao without other ingredients like yam, sweet potato or egg masking the taste of the Nian Gao in the other method of prepping Nian Gao, i.e. deep frying Nian Gao with yam and sweet potato.

Before the mil left for Hong Kong last week, she bought a few Nian Gao to bring along to HK.  She gave one to us and I steamed the Nian Gao while it was still fresh and had not turned moldy yet.


Prepping the Nian Gao when it is still fresh, soft and ultra sticky is really tricky and messy!  I have not found a better way of removing the leaves from the fresh Nian Gao and got the gooey slime stuck to all 10 of my fingers like glue!  It took me some time to wash off the Nian Gao from my hands.  Next time, I will chill the Nian Gao in the fridge, then slice it when it's cold and hard. I think it's easier to handle it when it's cold.

Steaming only takes 10 minutes. Twirling the sticky Nian Gao with a chopstick and coating it with coconut is pretty time consuming too. All in, I took almost an hour to prep this.



Steamed Nian Gao with grated coconut is our girls' favorite CNY dessert too.  We managed to wolf down the entire large size Nian Gao in 2 days. It tasted even better the next day, when chilled and slightly hard.




My mum has recently learned how to make Nian Gao using her Philips Pressure Cooker and I can't wait to try them when we go back to Ipoh for CNY next month!





No comments: