Songpyeon 송편

Traditional Songpyeon (송편)

Songpyeon (pine flavored half-moon-shaped rice cake)

Rice flour is kneaded with hot water and stuffed with beans, chestnuts, or sesame seeds to make half moon-shaped or clam-shaped dumplings. Then, it is steamed on a layer of pine needles. It is a representative food of Chuseok (추석) holiday (Korean Thanksgiving day).


Ingredients

Songpeoun shell : rice flour 5 C, salt 1 Tbsp, parboiled mugwort 20g, gardenia, boiling water 1 C, sesame oil 2 Tbsp.

Songpyeon stuffing: 5 chestnuts, fresh beans 1 C, salt 1 tsp, white sesame seed 1/2 C, honey 2 Tbsp.

Red bean stuffing: skinned, crushed boiled red beans 1 C, salt 1 tsp, honey 2 Tbsp, cinnamon powder


Directions

1) Divide the regular rice flour into 3 groups to make dough with 3 different colors. Add boiling water to the first one to make white dough, add gardenia juice to the second one to make yellow dough, and add parboiled mugwort to the third one to make green dough. Knead the doughes for long and cover with wet cloth.

2) Skin and crush boiled red beans. Strain with a sieve. Mix with salt, honey, and cinnamon powder. Make 2cm-size balls for stuffing.

3) Skin the chestnuts, and cut into 3~4 pieces. Boil fresh beans, and season with salt. Roast white sesame seeds, crush, and mix with honey.

4) Cut the rice dough into chestnut-size balls. Make a dent in the middle of a ball by pressing the middle with a thumb while gently holding the edge. Put the stuffing into the dent, wrap the edge in, and seal tightly to make clam-shaped rice cakes.

5) Place pine needles at the bottom of a steamer and arrange songpyeon side by side but not touching each other. Place another layer of pine needles and songpyeon. Steam for about 30 minutes. Once cooked, rinse in cold water and remove pine needles. Drain the water off, and coat with sesame oil.

Gamja Songpyeon (감자 송편)

Gamja Songpyeon (half-moon shaped potato cake)

During the summer, when potatoes were in abundance after the harvest, those were easy to bruise and unable to be kept for long. Those were set aside to make gamja songpyeon and this cake became a delicacy in mountain areas. Potato starch is kneaded with hot water to make thin and flat doughs. Then red bean stuffing or kidney bean stuffing is placed on flat dough, shaped by gently pressing hands leaving fingerprint on the outside of a cake, and steamed.


Ingredients

Dough : potato starch 5 C
Stuffing : fresh kidney bean 3 C, salt 1 1/2 tsp, sesame oil


Directions

1) Knead potato starch with hot water.
2) Boil fresh kidney beans and season with salt.
3) Take small amount of dough, put stuffing, and make rectangular shapes by gripping with hands.
4) Steam shaped cakes and brush sesame oil.


credit :-
recipe source taken from Tour2korea.com
picture source thru google search

additional info on songpyeon HERE and Chuseok HERE


ps : Happy Chuseok evbody ! ^^