Yaksik (Sweet Rice with Nuts and Dates)

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.

Press it while it is hot. Turned out onto a lined tray and pressed down firmly under something flat, yaksik sets into a slab you can cut cleanly into squares once cool; left loose, it crumbles at the knife. It also keeps unusually well — wrapped tightly it holds for days at room temperature and freezes without complaint, which is part of why it became a holiday food made in quantity. The chapssal is what makes that possible.

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.