Bacon Rice Cake

Last year I experimented with rice cakes for ride food. I first heard about it on YouTube from skratch labs. Like allen lim, I grew up eating glutinous rice balls on special occasions like Dragon Boat Festival. In Chinese tradition, the rice balls are wrapped with Bamboo leaves and they can have a wide variety of fillings. Some have pork belly, others have quail eggs and there's even vegan ones.

I made a batch of bacon rice cakes yesterday for today's rice and it turned out nice. Here's the recipe I used.

3 Cups sushi rice (medium or short grain)
5 tbsp mirin vinegar (rice vinegar with sugar)
1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
2 tbsp maple syrup
5 tbsp soy sauce
10 strips of bacon - I used maple smoked bacon
4 tbsp sesame oil

For me, I like the rice to be nice and mushy. It makes very easy to eat and stays moist. One note, don't use short grain rice, it won't hold and doesn't get sticky mushy. Chinese call it glutinous rice because it's soft and sticky.

Before you cook the rice, rinse it 3-4 times and then soak it in water for 1 hr. This is a trick for chinese rice balls. Cook the rice. I use a rice cooker, which has a "sweet rice" setting. If you don't have a rice cooker, add 3 1/2 cups of water and bring it to a boil. Once it boils, turn it down to simmer and cook for 30min. While the rice cooks, cook the bacon.

With a spatula, mix the vinegar, soy sauce and sesame oil with the rice. Add the bacon, sesame seeds and maple syrup. Once it's all mixed, put it in a square pan that's about 3-4" high. Cut the cakes into squares and wrap them like the skratch labs video.

Time time, I think I'll use 3 tbsp mirin and add either more maple syrup or mini chocolate chips.