How to Prepare Your “Tikoy” (Sticky Rice Cake/Pudding)

Happy Chinese New Year to all!

And with merriment comes food, inevitably. The Chinese family dining table is never at a loss for the usual Chinese food and delicacies for the new year media noche including the ever-present noodles (pansit) for long life and sticky rice cake/pudding for prosperity.

The Chinese new year is never complete without the “tikoy” (rice cake/sticky pudding). It symbolizes good luck, prosperity, and family bonding (“stickiness”) for the whole year.  Whatever you believe in or don’t is not the issue in this article, it’s how good tasting your tikoy is. =)

My family has been prepraing tikoy annually ever since I can remember. It’s regular preparation is actually not complicated and is just a breeze.

Prepare:

1. Beat egg yolks in a bowl.  A one-half large-sized tikoy needs about 10 beaten egg yolks with albumen.*
2. Heat your pan with 1/4 cup cooking oil.

Steps:

1. Slice the circular tikoy into small 1 inch by 2 inches rectangles at about 1 centimeter thick. While doing this, start to heat your pan.
2. Dip the tikoy slices into your preparation of beaten egg yolks.
3. Place the tikoy slice by slice in the pan when the oil’s temparature is ready. Make sure no slice is on top of another.
4. Cook per batch by about 2 minutes on each side or until the egg coating has turned reddish brown.
5. Remove the tikoy from pan and let some oil settle.

* If you want creamier preparations, do not include the albumen (egg white) and beat only the egg yolks. But you have to double the number of eggyolks to compensate.

Your tikoy is now ready to serve. Enjoy your Chinese New Year!