약밥 (Yahk Bap)

약밥 is a sweet rice "cake" with some sweetener, spice, dried fruit (usually jujube), chestnuts & pine nuts. It's one of my favorite snacks & it's usually saved for special occasions which makes it an even better treat. Some kids lived for ice cream, I would do anything for good 약밥. I used to bug my mom all the time to show me how to make it when I was growing up but she never did get around to it... Why? It's labor intensive... Fast forward some years to present day & I noticed a friend posted on facebook a picture of his mom's HOMEMADE 약밥 from the New Year's festivities. The craving sunk in & had to be quenched.


 Off to the Korean market to get the few ingredients I didn't have - mainly chestnuts. I was hoping to find the already roasted & peeled packaged chestnuts b/c I was really not in the mood to sit there in the kitchen to steam & peel them myself... I rinsed the sweet rice, put together the "sauce" & portioned out the raisins. I thought we had pine nuts so I didn't bother to buy them but when I looked for them they were nowhere to be found (then I found out my mom gave them to a friend so they could make porridge - but that's another story for another time). I mixed everything together & popped it into the rice cooker. So convenient - you set it & forget it!


While it was cooking, i prepped a baking dish w. some oil to give the 약밥 a home while it cooled...

So of course as it's cooling my dad walked into the kitchen. The man is on a see food diet - he sees food, he eats it. He attacked a corner & gave me a thumbs up. As my new food experiment was cooling, I quickly cleaned all evidence... (I wasn't too sure how my mom would react to my use of her precious rice cooker) She sampled some & then asked me how I made it. I went over the ingredients & steps then finally confessed that I used the rice cooker. I braced for a second but my mom didn't even bat an eye... (Either what I said didn't sink in or she was too distracted with thinking about the 약밥)

Overall, it was a success but it did come out a tad sweet. With the next batch, I'd definitely cut back on the sweetener. My friend suggested that I cook the rice first and then mix everything together & put it into the oven. (There was more liquid in the final product than I liked) So with those notes made, I wait for another day that the craving hits...