The strange things I can make from my pantry

So what do you do on the first snowfall of the year? I like to make something yummy and homey so it's usually something I can whip up fairly quickly from stuff in my pantry. In my case it's something I love to eat once winter rolls around - Yakbap.  Sweet sticky rice cake with dried fruits and nuts.  When I made this batch I used dried cranberries and dried red dates (Jujubes).  Normally chestnuts would go into it but I couldn't find any with those nasty sulfates in it (my mother swells just at the word) so I found some slivered almonds I had almost used up. I say sweet but it's really lightly sweet - not cloyingly sweet like alot of other deserts I like to much down on.  Anyone who knows me knows I have a REAL sweet tooth.


The cake came out great but the point I am trying to make is that I heard a good kitchen has to start with a well stocked pantry of staples. Well there's staples and there's staples.  I have the normal stuff, flours, pasta, beans, sugar, chocolate chips, etc. But then there's stuff that my Mom's side f the family would consider necessities - red pepper flakes (the stuff you make kimchee with), fermented bean paste, sheets of nori, rice (three different types in this house), dashi stock - well you get the picture.  Like a little, tiny Korean embassy behind my stairs.

I found most of the stuff to make the rice cakes siting in there. The only things I had to buy for it was 1) the sweet rice because I had run out, only had the brown glutinous stuff left which I can make cakes out of too but just wanted white for this batch, and 2) the red dates. I do try to keep a lot of dried fruit around but that one just slipped my mind. I have enough now to fill a 2 quart jar - you never know when a red date emergency will pop up.

 

Keep stuff you think of as staples in your pantry.  Add more things as you think of your life wasting away without and don't restock on thing you haven't touched until it goes bad.  I have a friend of mine who keeps fried, crispy and salted onion pieces in a jar for just such an occasion.  My life wouldn't be complete without little dried anchovies kept at hand.  It's your boat, you float it your way.

2 cups sweet rice (rinse it a few times first)
2 3/4 cups water
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp honey (or maple syrup, corn syrup - something sweet and liquid)
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp toasted sesame oil
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup dried cranberries (or raisins or any chopped dried fruits)
1/2 cup dried red dates (or different dried fruits)
1/2 cup slivered almonds (I usually also throw in 1/2 cup cooked halved chestnuts)
optional 2 tbsp white wine or saki or other liqueur of choice

Mix all ingredients in rice cooker then cooker according to the cookers instructions (Gotta love a 1 pot desert).  Oil a 9 x 9 cake pan and spoon cooked mixture in to cool. I put mine in the fridge afterwards because I love it cold.  Comes out chewier that way.