Yaksik is the dessert of the Welcome Spring menu for the #buildthemenu column.
Literally “medicinal food” or “medicinal rice,” it is a Korean dessert prepared by steaming glutinous rice and mixing it with chestnuts, jujubes (대추 Daechoo), pine nuts and ganjang – a type of Korean soy sauce made from fermented soybeans (meju) and brine – to color the rice.
It is seasoned with honey or brown sugar, sesame oil and cinnamon.
It is traditionally consumed during Jeongwol Daeboreum (정월대보름), a Korean festival that falls on January 15 in the lunar calendar, but also for weddings and hwangap holidays.
Yaksik is commonly believed by South Koreans to be beneficial for those suffering from digestive problems and frequent heartburn, and it is also believed that the jujube eases nervous tension, anxiety, and insomnia.
Chestnuts, in turn, contain important vitamins C and B that improve disorders such as diarrhea.
Yaksik is a type of Korean hangwa, or traditional Korean sweets.
Other Korean hangwa you can find on the blog:
- Difficulty: Medium
- Cost: Economical
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Portions: 8 People
- Cooking methods: Steaming
- Cuisine: Korean
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 4 tablespoons water
- 1/4 cup brown sugar (or honey)
- 2 tablespoons sesame oil
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- to taste cinnamon powder
- Dried jujubes
- 2 tablespoons raisins
- 2 tablespoons pine nuts
- boiled chestnuts
- 2 tablespoons cranberries (Optional)
- 2 cups glutinous rice
Steps
Prepare the syrup by melting the sugar in a saucepan with two tablespoons of water, for about 6 minutes. Then remove from heat and add another two tablespoons of water.
Steam the rice according to the gohan rice recipe found in the Gunkan recipe.
Combine the brown sugar with the oil, soy sauce, sesame oil, cinnamon, and mix, then add the dried jujubes cut in half, raisins, pine nuts, chestnuts, and optionally cranberries.Also add the rice and syrup and steam for 30 minutes.
Let it cool in a pan (8×8 inches) covered with film and then cut into 8 pieces.
The jujubes also known as Chinese dates, natsume or tsao, have a flavor similar to that of an apple, you can also replace them with dried dates.
