Hobaktteok (호박떡)

I'm kinda in a crappy mood at the moment, and the only thing that I think can calm me down slightly is if I write up a blog post. Since I can't access my other bog for some reason, I will just post up a food blog.

The past couple of days have been cold in the morning but warmish in the afternoon so I thought that I would introduce you to a dessert that is perfect for weather like this. Hobaktteok (호박떡) is just pumpkin rice cake. This is a perfect way to enjoy the winter warmer like a dessert.

It is a pretty dessert so I guess that you can use it for special occasions by decorating it up once you have finished making it.

There isn't much to say about it so I guess that I will just move on to the recipe:

Ingredients
500 g short-grain rice powder
½ tablespoons) salt
100 g sugar
250 g sweet pumpkin (or normal pumpkin and sugar, about 50g sugar)
8 g (2 ea) jujube
8 g (16 ea) pumpkin seeds

Method
1. Scrape out the inside of the pumpkin.
2. Sprinkle salt on the rice powder and sieve.
3. Wipe the jujube with damp cotton cloths. Cut the flesh around seed and cut into flower shape. Wipe the pumpkin seeds with dry cotton cloths.
4. Boil water for steaming. Put the pumpkin, steam it for 15 minutes.
5. Scrape the flesh from the pumpkin.
6. Add pumpkin flesh and sugar into the rice powder. Mix thoroughly by rubbing, then sieve.
7. Boil water for steaming. When it boils, layer damp cotton (cheese) cloths on the bottom of the pot.
8. Put the put the mixture of rice and pumpkin into the mold, smooth the surface.
9. Make a slight criss crossing patterns with knife. Garnish with jujube and pumpkin seeds.
10. Steam for about 15 minutes.





And there you have it, quite a simple traditional Korean dessert that you can eat in Winter to warm you up.