Fried Nian Gao with Crispy Batter

Are you eating this today? If you have leftover or hardened nian gao (glutinous rice cake), as we often do after Chinese New Year, there's no better way to revive them than giving them a coat of batter and frying them up! A crispy coat on the outside, and gooey sweetness on the inside. Best way to have nian gao, I say!

It's just a simple coat of batter, but I never realised there were so many variations! I found one post that tested 5 different batter recipes.




I just used this:

• 40-50g flour (all-purpose should be fine, I just used cake flour since I had some open)
• 1 egg
• half teaspoon baking powder (this makes it extra crispy!)
• half teaspoon salt (optional)
• 2 ice cubes (stir until almost melted, but make sure batter remains cold)

So it's a bit like a tempura batter. Stays crispy for a bit longer after frying too.



Here's wishing everyone 年年有余! May you all have abundance year after year.