Yaksik

Ingredients

• 14⅛ ozglutinous ricesoak 1–5 hours before cooking, then drain
• 1 cupWateras cooking liquid, partly or fully replaceable with jujube-pit broth
• 4¼ ozbrown sugarsweetens and colours the rice
• 2 tbspSoy saucefor colour and savoury depth
• 2 tbspSesame oilpart into the cooking liquid, part folded in at the end
• 2 tbspHoneycomplements the sugar
• 2¾ ozDried jujubeswash, pit, cut flesh into strips or pieces; keep pits for the broth
• 7 ozChestnutspeeled or canned and drained, halved or quartered
• 2 tbspPine nutsfold in only at the end
• ½ tspCinnamonto season the rice mixture (optional)
• 1 pinchSaltbalances the sweetness

Method

1. Rinse the glutinous rice thoroughly and soak it in cold water for at least 1 hour, ideally 4 to 5 hours, then drain it well.
2. Wash the dried jujubes and cut them lengthwise along the pit. Slice the flesh into strips or small pieces, roll up a few strips for garnish and set them aside. Keep the pits.
3. Simmer the jujube pits in the water for 10 to 25 minutes, then strain. Use the broth as your cooking liquid — or simply use plain water if you prefer.
4. Peel the chestnuts, or drain canned ones and discard the syrup, then cut them into halves or quarters.
5. Stir the brown sugar, soy sauce, honey, salt and cinnamon into the cooking liquid until the sugar has fully dissolved, then stir in part of the sesame oil.
6. Put the drained rice, chestnuts and jujube pieces into a pressure cooker or rice cooker, pour in the seasoned liquid and give everything a quick stir.
7. Cook under pressure for about 8 minutes and let the pressure release naturally; in an electric rice cooker, run the multigrain or brown rice programme.
8. As soon as it's done, quickly fold in the pine nuts and the remaining sesame oil — mix only until the colour and seasoning are evenly distributed.
9. Transfer the mixture to a pan or small moulds, cover with cling film, press down lightly and let it cool. Once cold, cut into thick slices or cubes, or shape into balls, and garnish with the rolled jujube strips.

Tips and variations

If you don't have a pressure cooker or rice cooker, yaksik also works in the microwave — in that case give the rice the full 5 hours of soaking. For something less malty, sweeten with light or white sugar only and leave out the honey; sweet canned chestnuts in syrup are a convenient stand-in for freshly peeled ones, and it tastes just as good without the cinnamon. Yaksik is classically served cooled and cut into thick slices, but it's lovely warm straight from the pot too. Sweeten the leftover jujube-pit broth with a little honey and drink it alongside as Daechucha.