Spring Festival food

New Year's Cake

During the Spring Festival period, the northerners eat jiaozi, but southerners like to eat niangao, New Year's cake.In Chinese,Gaois a homonym for high.Niangaois also calledNian Nian Gao, which is a homonym for "higher each year", symbolizing progress and promotion at work and in daily life and improvement in life year by year.

Niangao, a sweet, sticky, brown cake, is a popular Spring Festival treat, made of glutinous rice or millet flour and garnished with anything from bean to jujube paste, assorted fruits and preserves. Often given as a gift, it is delicious when steamed, fried, fried with eggs or even eaten cold. By tradition, it is believed eating niangao will bring good luck.

Ingredients:

2-1/2 cups packed dark brown sugar (black sugar)

1/2 cup vegetable oil, flavorless

4-1/2 cups sweet rice flour (glutinous flour), found in Asian markets

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

sesame seeds

Preparation:

1. Heat the brown sugar and the vegetable oil together; stir constantly, until sugar melts. Cool slightly.

2. Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir cooled brown sugar mixture into the flour.

3. Drop batter by the spoonful into a bowl of sesame seeds.

Coat completely then place balls into a steamer.

4. Cover and steam 50-60 minutes