Seollal (Lunar New Year)

In Korea you celebrate the Solar New Year like we do but they also celebrate the Lunar New Year (Seollal).  This is one of Koreas most celebrated holidays.

I have been working on trying to say Happy New Year in Hangul and it is tricky 새해 복 많이 받으세요  (Sae Hae Bok Mani Ba Deu Se Yo). I ask JonJon to to help with the pronunciation the problem is when you ask them to say something in Korean it sounds all mumble-jumble so I have come to realize that if I can ALMOST say it right and then say it really FAST and Quiet.....I can probably master the korean language.

A traditional food item you would eat for Seollal would be duk gook.   This is a soup with dumplings and thinly sliced rice cakes.  If all goes well this upcoming weekend I am going to attempt to make this.  

This past weekend I attempted to make Seonpyeon or Korean rice cakes.  It was a successful/unsuccessful endeavor.

 First you start by sifting the rice powder. About 2 cups for each color you choose to make. 

Below is the raspberry puree I made to make the dough pink.  You do so by blending berries with some water then putting through a strainer.    I also made a puree out of blueberries to make a purple dough

Next you add in 4Tbs. of either boiling water or the boiling colored juices you choose to add to change the color. 

Then you kneed this for 5 minutes.  If it sticks to your hands add 1Tbs. more of rice powder at a time until you can manage the dough.

Wrap your dough in plastic wrap and allow to rest for 30 minutes

You make your filling by grinding 1/2 cup roasted seseame and mix honey and sugar and a pinch of salt.  Then you shape dough into 1 inch circles and add a 1/2 tsp to the center and seal in a half moon shape.

 Here is where my "attempt" was unsuccessful. You put down a paper towel in your steamer then layer some pine needles, your rice cakes, then more pine needles then steam for 15 minutes.

My first batch I steamed at too high of a temperature and they all melted together into a big mess.     Second attempt I steamed at a lower temperature by lowering my stove heat and leaving the lid cracked and they turned out perfect.

After the 15 minutes you remove them from the pan and quickly dip into cold water to remove the pine needles.

Third batch I was running low on pine needles and wasn't sure what the purpose of those were (to add flavor, give aroma ??) well now I know.....

Rice cakes are sticky little boogers and almost impossible to remove from the pan/paper towel without the pine needles so batch number three was also ruined and now I know the importance of the pine needles.

When you remove these from the pan the pine needles are stuck all over each rice cake but you can get them out of the pan and off the towel and as soon as you dip this into the cold water you are able to remove and needles and then lay your rice cake onto you serving platter.

 Lesson learned and I ended up with only a small batch of rice cakes but the good news is the boys said they tasted just as they should so it was still a success and I will be prepared next time with ample pine needles.

Happy Lunar New Year