Songpyeon (송편)

September 20th is Chuseok (추석), an yearly harvest festival in Korea held around the Autumn Equinox, at which songpyeon (송편), a  half-moon shaped rice cake, is traditionally eaten. It is steamed with pine needles, which lend their selves to the songpyeon's fragrance and taste. The character song (송) stands for a pine tree. It comes in different colors and is usually filled with sugar, honey, and sesame seeds or sometimes chestnut or mung beans. 

There aren't many pine trees in NYC where I can just pick pine needles off of. I went to US Evergreen in the flower district, and they let me take a pine bough for free. Use non-glutinous rice flour (쌀가루 or 쌀떡가루), which is usually in the frozen section, and not glutinous sweet rice flour to make the songpyeon. It's said that if you make pretty songpyeon, you'll have a pretty daughter. I say just try your best to make it look like a half moon.

Songpyeon (송편) (vegan)

Makes 18-20 songpyeon

3 cups rice flour (if frozen, thaw before use)

1 cup boiling water

1 tablespoon mugwort powder or matcha

1/4 cup cooked kabocha squash (Place a damp towel over the kabocha squash and microwave it for about 10 minutes to cook it.)

1/2 cup ground roasted sesame seeds 

2 tablespoon brown sugar & 1 tablespoon honey or 3 tablespoons honey

Pinch of salt 

1 ounce pine needles, rinsed and drained

2 tablespoons sesame seed oil.

For each type of dough, sift 1 cup rice flour into a bowl. For the white dough, mix in 4 tablespoons boiling water. For the green dough, mix in the matcha and 5 tablespoons boiling water. For the orange dough, mix in the kabocha squash and 5 tablespoons boiling water. Knead each dough for about five minutes. If the dough is too stiff, add a little more boiling water. Cover the dough with plastic wrap, and let it rest for about 20 minutes.

Mix the sesame seeds, sugar, honey, and salt together for the filling.

Tear off a small piece of the dough, and roll into an approximately 1 inch ball. Make a dent in the center of the ball, and put about a 1/2 teaspoon filling in the dent. Seal the edges together, and shape the dough into a half-moon shape.

Place the songpyeon without touching each other onto a steamer. Cover with pine needles. Steam for about 20 minutes. 

Take out the songpyeon and drop in cold water. Remove the pine needles and drain the songpyeon. Coat the songpyeon with sesame seed oil.