Vegan Bunny Elle

A literal treasure with a long history, this traditional Chinese dish is simply ingenious. And how much treasures can you count? 😉

Ba Bao Fan, which literally means eight treasure rice in Chinese, is a culturally significant dish as it’s always served at the most important occasions – weddings, Lunar New Year’s Eve, milestone birthdays etc. It’s made of a sticky rice base filled with different types of stuffings – the “treasures”.

It doesn’t have to be literally eight different types of fillings, the number eight is a lucky number in Chinese culture and it’s often used in a figurative sense to describe many. The flavor of this dish depends on the choice of fillings which can be either savory of sweet! The savory version often contains cured meat, sausage, mushrooms, seafood, whereas the sweet version is filled with jujube dates, lotus seeds, pumpkin or sunflower seeds, sweetened red beans, and various candied fruits like longgan, tangerine, etc.

My fave is the sweet version, the layers of different textures from the candied fruits and nuts pair so nicely with the soft, chewy, fluffy sticky rice and especially with a generous drizzle of brown sugar syrup, it’s heaven in a bite!

Ba Bao Fan 8-Treasure Sticky Rice Pudding

An iconic cultural dish that never disappoints. It’s sweet, chewy, soft, fluffy, filled with many different textures and flavors from the stuffings aka, the “treasures” 😉

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Ingredients Method Video Notes

Ingredients

  

• 2/3 cup sticky rice sometimes also called sweet rice
• 1/3 cup purple rice
• 4 tablespoon Authentic brown sugar see notes
• Chinese jujube dates see notes
• Lotus seeds as needed
• Pumpkin seeds as needed
• Raisins as needed
• Sweetened red beans as needed, see notes
• 1 cup water
• Cooking oil for greasing

Method

 

1. Wash and soak the sticky rice and purple rice in plenty of water overnight, or at least 6 hours;
2. Discard the water and rinse the rice one more time, set aside;
3. Lightly grease the bowl you're using, place jujube dates and lotus seeds at the bottom, you can arrange them in whatever pattern you like, add one layer of rice to cover them, then sprinkle one tablespoon of brown sugar;
4. Place pumpkin seeds and lotus seeds around the wall of the bowl, or use any other nuts or candied fruits you like, the placement and amount of fillings you add are entirely up to you;
5. Add another layer of rice, and sprinkle another tablespoon or brown sugar;
6. Place the red beans around the bowl, followed by the next layer of rice and brown sugar;
7. Finally add the raisins around the bowl, add final layer of rice and finish by sprinkle on the last tablespoon of brown sugar;
8. Pour the water into the bowl, the water should just submerge all the rice with a little extra;
9. Transfer the bowl to your steamer pot and bring to boil, once you see white steam coming off the steamer, let it steam for 40 minutes;
10. Remove and let the rice bowl cool down slightly, then flip it over onto a plate, you'll see the pretty pattern of all the fillings you added! Serve hot with brown sugar syrup or other syrup of your choice, enjoy!

Video

Notes

1. The quality of brown sugar is very important for this dish, it’s the key to the rich complex depth of flavor as well as the nutritional benefits of all the valuable minerals in authentic, wholesome black sugar. I’ve had good results with this Chura Kokuto Black (Brown) Sugar from Japan.
2. Chinese jujube dates are very different than medjool dates! Please do not substitute. You can usually find jujube dates in Asian grocery stores and they’re of course always available online, these two brands are my favorite among all the ones I’ve tried: Premium Jujube Red Dates and Nestlady Premium Jujube Dates
3. Red beans are often used in Asian desserts, you can use storebought or make your own with anko red beans or kidney beans. Once you’ve cooked the beans, drain the liquid then cook the beans with some sugar or your preferred sweetener.