Kugao, commonly called jing gao in Shaanxi, is a very famous traditional snack in Guanzhong area. It is steamed with glutinous rice and red dates or candied dates. Many sellers in Xi 'an will also add a proper amount of red kidney beans to add another flavor. It's a bit like the eight-treasure rice I ate when I was a child, and it's much the same.

I remember the first time I ate this food was near Huimin Street when I went to Xi 'an ten years ago. That cold winter, steaming white gas, warmed the sweetness of the whole stomach, and I still remember it now.

The ingredients needed to make this traditional snack are150g of red kidney beans and 300g of dried jujube. Wash the red kidney beans after you buy them and soak them 24 hours in advance. This bean is very hard, so you must soak it in advance.

Soak 800 grams of glutinous rice 5-6 hours in advance until there is no white heart in the middle of the rice. There are many choices about glutinous rice (glutinous rice), which can be long or round. The taste of long grains is better, but we can't buy them in the market here, so we have to choose round southern glutinous rice.

Boil the soaked red kidney beans in a pot of cold water for 15 minutes, then take them out and control the moisture for later use. Boiled kidney beans will be softer and rotten when steamed.

After the dried jujube is cleaned, it is steamed on the steamer for 15 minutes, in order to better remove the stones. If you feel more troublesome, you can directly choose the seedless candied dates sold in the market instead.

Choose a container, first put the soaked glutinous rice into the bottom layer, which is about 40% of the glutinous rice.

Spread a layer of jujube or candied dates, the proportion is about half.

After spreading jujube, spread a layer of glutinous rice, which is about 20% of the glutinous rice content in the whole ingredients. Then put red kidney beans, the proportion is 100% of the number of red kidney beans.

The fifth layer is the last 40% glutinous rice left.

Just put the last remaining jujube or candied jujube on the top. The color is really beautiful.

The amount of water added is about the same as that of jujube after spreading.

Pour the water into the steamer, and transfer the glutinous rice cake into the steamer. After the fire is started, turn to slow fire and steam for about 3-4 hours. During this period, you must pay attention to adding water irregularly, and you can't dry the pot. This is a long process. If there is a pressure cooker at home, it can be replaced. The steaming time cannot be determined, so judge for yourself. The most traditional cooking utensil is retort, which is a very old steamer in ancient China. It is made of pottery, copper, wood and iron, etc. After folk inheritance, the iron retort has been preserved to this day, and the sticky cake steamed with it has a special flavor.

The steamed glutinous rice cake is very beautiful in color and rich in jujube flavor. Because the time is long enough, the jujube will be smoothed with a shovel and it is very sweet.

If you like something sweeter, you can sprinkle a little sugar on the other half, and the hot air will directly melt the sugar into liquid and blend it with the glutinous rice cake.

Dig a tablespoon with a shovel, layer by layer, fresh and beautiful in color, super appetizing.

You can enjoy the delicious food when you put it in a small bowl. It is delicious for a long time, with good shapes and colors, moderate hardness, which is very suitable for the elderly and children, and the taste is very mellow. When you come to such a bowl in winter morning, you will find that the happiness and sweetness of life are so high.