Desserts & Drinks
Yaksik (Sweet Rice with Nuts and Dates)
Prep
240 min
Cook
60 min
Servings
6
Photo: KOREA.NET - Official page of the Republic of Korea · CC BY-SA
Steps
- 1
Soak the glutinous rice at least 4 hours, then drain well.
- 2
Steam the rice over boiling water 30 minutes until just tender.
- 3
Meanwhile melt the brown sugar with the water into a dark caramel, watching it closely.
- 4
Stir the caramel, honey, soy sauce, sesame oil and cinnamon into the hot steamed rice.
- 5
Fold in the chestnuts and jujubes.
- 6
Return everything to the steamer and steam a second time, 25-30 minutes.
- 7
Stir in the pine nuts at the end.
- 8
Press into a tray, cool, and cut into squares.
Did you know — Korean culture
Yak means medicine, and the name is not metaphorical. In older Korean usage, honey was classed as a medicinal ingredient, so foods made with it took the yak prefix - the same logic gives us yakgwa, the honey cookie. Yaksik is traditionally eaten at Jeongwol Daeboreum, the first full moon of the lunar year.
Glutinous rice is steamed here, never boiled. Boiling waterlogs it into paste; steaming leaves each grain intact and sticky enough to hold a cut square together. The soak beforehand is what lets a 30-minute steam cook it through.
The second steam is where yaksik actually becomes yaksik. The first pass cooks the rice; the second drives the caramel, soy and sesame right through the grains rather than leaving them coated on the surface. Skip it and you get sweet rice with sauce on it.
That deep mahogany colour is caramelised sugar, not soy sauce. People reaching for colour tend to add more soy, which just makes it salty and muddy brown. Take the sugar to a genuine dark caramel and the soy can stay where it is.
Troubleshooting
Rice hard in the middle? Under-soaked. Glutinous rice needs a full 4 hours before it will steam through.
Colour pale? Your caramel didn't go far enough. Take the sugar darker rather than adding more soy sauce.
Falling apart when cut? Press it firmly into the tray while still hot and let it cool completely before cutting.