Songpyeon: Filled Rice Cake Technique

Songpyeon are the traditional rice cakes made for Chuseok (Korean harvest festival) — small, half-moon shaped rice cakes filled with sesame seed, chestnut, or bean paste, steamed over pine needles that perfume the cakes as they cook. The technique requires understanding the behaviour of rice flour dough: it has no gluten and holds together only through the gelatinisation of the starch with hot water.

Glutinous or non-glutinous rice flour mixed with hot water to form a dough, portioned, filled with sweetened sesame or bean paste, shaped, and steamed over fresh pine needles until cooked through.

• Japanese mochi (same hot-water rice flour dough principle), Chinese tang yuan (same glutinous rice flour balls — same hot water technique), Vietnamese bánh dẻo (same rice flour hot-water dough for moo

Songpyeon's flavour is subtle — the mild sweetness of the rice dough, the nutty, honey-sweetened sesame filling, and the pine fragrance are a gentle combination designed for appreciation rather than intensity. They are seasonal, ceremonial food — their meaning is as much cultural as culinary.