This recipe comes from the Golden Palace Seafood Restaurant on O’ahu, Hawai’i.  Oh, how I love eating dim sum for breakfast, and especially my all-time favorite, Bok Tong Go, those slightly translucent, milky-white sweet rice cakes with the interesting texture.  My brother, Jeff, and I grew up eating lots of these cakes while growing up in Hawai’i, Washington State and California.  My parents were foodies, especially when it came to Chinese cuisine, and we learned our way around a Chinatown at an early age.  In fact, the very first place we stopped in as we drove into San Francisco for the first time was the Golden Gate Bakery, where Mom and Dad bought a huge pink box full of beautifully steamed and baked treats.  If you folks have never experienced a Chinese bakery or dim sum food, you’ve missed out big time and its definitely an experience for that bucket list.

Here’s the Bok Tong Go recipe from the Golden Palace … ah, I can still smell and taste these goodies as I write … wow.  Enjoy!

Bok Tong Go

>> Step 1:
1/2 pound rice flour
1 cup water

Combine flour and water; cover with plastic wrap. Set aside at room temperature 3 days, until it smells slightly sour.

>> Step 2:
1 pound rice flour
1 cup cold water
1 cup sugar
2 cups hot water

Combine flour and cold water to form a claylike paste.

Dissolve sugar in hot water. Add paste to sugar water.

Stir fermented flour/water mixture from Step 1; add to Step 2 mixture. Mix well.

Remove 1/2 cup of this mixture and refrigerate (this becomes the starter for your next batch). Cover remaining mixture and set aside at room temperature 12 hours.

>> Step 3:
Vegetable oil to grease pan
1/2 teaspoon potassium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate solution

Prepare steamer: Bring water to a boil in a wok or large skillet. Place 12-inch steamer basket over wok. Grease 2 9-inch round cake pans (pie pans may be used, but this will give your rice cake a sloped side).

Add sodium bicarbonate to the fermented mixture. Pour mixture into pans. Place 1 pan into steamer for 30 minutes, then remove and steam second pan. Cool, remove from pans and slice.

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2018 Update:  Due to several folks who complained that the above recipe didn’t work out so well for them, we have researched more and found the following alternative recipes for you to try.

Bok Tong Go

Alternative Recipe #1:  This recipe uses Pandan leaves, which is a grass (like lemon grass) native to Asia. You can buy Pandan flavoring (which is green in color) at any Asian food store.  It imparts a wonderful fragrant body to rice, especially when added to a pot of steamed rice during the cooking process.

https://theburningkitchen.com/bai-tang-gao-pak-tong-go-recipe/

Alternative Recipe #2:  Here is another version of the recipe, without using Pandan.

http://mealsteps.com/recipe/sweet_rice_pudding_cake_(bok_tong_go)

Alternative Recipe #3:  And a YouTube video to walk you through this recipe.

The article listing the full recipe shown in this video appears here.
http://yummyeasycooking.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/how-to-make-steamed-rice-cake-bak-tong.html