Hé (Chinese pastry)

It is believed that people in Gaozhou County, Maoming City, Guangdong Province, first made hé and continued to refine it. Gaozhou County was once a wasteland overgrown with weeds. After a war broke out, a group of refugees made their way to the county. The first-generation settlers planted tubers and other coarse cereals (e.g. maize, sorghum, and millet). In order to make good use of the crops, the settlers used mallets to pound the grain into flour. The flour was mixed with water and cooked to increase overall size. This is the fundamental method of making hé as a smooth paste.[2]

Later, people successfully cultivated rice. To celebrate the harvest, or, to a certain degree, to improve their life, they followed the basic method to pound the rice into flour, add vegetable filling, and knead them into a specific shape. This was the original hé.[2] They used the polished round-grained rice flour to make hé , but found glutinous rice flour was more suitable to make hé because it strengthened viscosity and taste.

Peach-shaped wormwood hé

Hé stuffing can vary according to taste. In general, the stuffing is either sweet or salty.[3]

Dressing and sauces (调料和酱料)

Dressing and sauces are also significant for hé . Roughly, in Western Guangdong, people tend to use ginger, peanut oil, soy sauce, and other traditional seasonings.

Raw hé

Specific mould for making hé

Salty peach-shaped hé is made thusly:[4]

• Glutinous rice flour, clean jackfruit leaves, skinless green bean,[3] peach-shaped mould are prepared.
• Stuffing is made from shrimps and green beans fried in oil; blend the ingredients together and stir evenly.
• Boil water, adding moderate glutinous rice flour, stirring until evenly cooked. Mix the cooked flour with the raw flour while kneading well until it is sticky.
• Shape the kneaded dough into balls and add stuffing.
  

  Doughing into ball
• Put stuffed ball into a mould to form peach-shaped hé
• Use jackfruit leaves to separate shaped hé and then stew for half an hour
• A red dot is added onto the surface of hé to symbolize jubilance and celebration

• Chinese Dictionary