Ba Bao Fan (八宝饭) — Eight Treasure Glutinous Rice: New Year Dessert — Cook

Ingredients

500 g glutinous rice, soaked overnight in cold water, drained
2 tbsp lard or vegetable shortening, plus extra for greasing the bowl
3 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp Shaoxing wine
Eight treasures
30 g dried longans, pitted
30 g raisins
30 g red dates (jujubes), pitted
30 g lotus seeds, pre-cooked or canned
30 g preserved melon, cut into small pieces
30 g wolf berries (goji berries)
30 g preserved plum, cut into small pieces
30 g pumpkin seeds, shelled
For the filling
100 g sweet red bean paste
For the glaze
250 ml steaming liquid, collected from the steamer after cooking
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp cornstarch, slaked in 1 tbsp cold water

Method

1
Place the drained glutinous rice in a steamer basket lined with muslin. Steam over vigorously boiling water for 25–30 minutes. The rice is done when every grain is cooked through, fully translucent, and cohesive when pressed between the fingers.
2
Turn the hot rice into a wide bowl. While it is still hot, fold in the lard, sugar, and Shaoxing wine, working them in thoroughly. The rice must be seasoned at this stage: it should be sticky, glossy, and faintly sweet to taste.
3
Brush the interior of a heatproof bowl or mold generously with lard. Arrange the eight treasures — longans, raisins, red dates, lotus seeds, preserved melon, wolf berries, preserved plum, and pumpkin seeds — in a deliberate decorative pattern across the base and up the sides. This arrangement becomes the visible face of the finished dish; every piece should be placed with that inversion in mind.
4
This is where the dish lives or dies. Press a firm, even layer of seasoned glutinous rice over the decorations, working carefully so as not to disturb the pattern. Make a hollow in the center of the rice and spoon in 3–4 tbsp of red bean paste. Press the remaining rice over the paste to seal it completely, smoothing the surface flat. The seam must be tight: any gap will allow the paste to escape during steaming.
5
Set the filled bowl in a steamer over boiling water. Steam for 30–40 minutes. The ba bao fan is ready when the entire mass is heated through, the rice is uniformly tender and deeply sticky, and the bowl feels uniformly hot to the touch when held through a cloth.
6
Remove the bowl from the steamer and collect the steaming liquid for the glaze. Run a thin knife around the inner edge of the bowl to release the rice. Place a warmed serving platter over the bowl and invert quickly and confidently in one motion. The ba bao fan should unmold cleanly, the decoration uppermost and intact.
7
Combine the steaming liquid, sugar, and slaked cornstarch in a small saucepan. Stir over medium heat until the mixture thickens to a translucent, lightly coating glaze. Pour evenly over the unmolded ba bao fan so that the fruit and nut decoration glistens.