Toasted Rice Biscuit and Roast Rice Tea

炒米饼 Cao Mi Bing (Toasted Rice Biscuits) also known as "powdery crisp" in some parts of China should melt in the mouth instead of rock hard.
My regrets not getting the recipe of this Chinese New Year must-have from my late granny. I have a hazy idea of the recipe and searching the internet for clues have not helped much either.

According to traditional recipes, white glutinous rice grains are sieved and washed to remove impurities. Drain and air dry before dry frying (without oil) in a large wok or flat pan till golden colour. Similarly, mung bean flour should be fried till fragrant. Add fine castor sugar, vegetable oil or fragrant oil to the flours. Blend well. Some recipes recommend boiling the sugar into a carmalised syrup which I can imagine would be more difficult to combine with the flour. Adding a little beaten egg will help to bind the biscuit. Press the mixture into biscuit moulds and knock it out on the baking tray. In the old days, the cookies are baked in a charcoal fuel cooker.
Rice biscuits are now easily available in the grocery stores all around the world. Rice cookies from Macau contain ground Chinese almonds (apricot kernels) and groundnuts, making it more fragrant and crunchy.

Roast Rice Tea

A comforting beverage during winter and for women after delivery. Roast rice tea is quite similar to Japanese or Korean green tea with roast rice (minus the tea leaves). It has warming properties and leaves a pleasant after taste. Dry fry rice grains as in the above method of preparing toast rice biscuits. When cooled, store rice grains in an air tight bottle. A teaspoon of rice grains is sufficient to make a cup of tea

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Lei Cha - Pestle Tea 擂茶 also known as thunder tea?

This is a delicious drink made from ground vegetables, nuts and other nutritious ingredients. It is prepared using a pestle and mortar. The action of pounding and grinding is "lei" sounds like thunder, hence, the dish is sometimes known as "thunder tea".

Legend has it that during China's Three Kingdoms era, when General Zhang Fei (張飛) led his troops into the then capital Chengdu and was about to capture it, a plague broke out among his men. An old doctor prescribed a tea brewed from pounded sesame seeds, peanuts, tea leaves and fruit kernels. The ill soldiers recuperated soon after drinking the concoction. This recipe was handed down from generation to generation as a tonic for exhaustion and flu. Since then lei cha has been served in traditional tea ceremonies to welcome guests visiting Hakkas. This dish is is apparently the speciality of Hepo kejia (wandering guest people) from Chaozhou.

To make a savoury soup base, one could add fried anchovy, dried shrimp, pickled radish and long beans. Sometimes cooked rice is added to the soup to make a complete meal. The task of grinding all the ingredients may be daunting to the time scarce.

Nowadays, instant lei cha comes in a convenient sachet replicating the taste of the original traditional drink quite well.

I have found two flavours at the friendly grocery store nearby. There is sweet green tea or savoury (which contains salty dried vegetables) tastes captured in a packet all ready to drink by just adding hot water. If you do not have boiled water handy, simply dissolve the contents in lukewarm or room temperature water and microwave it for 20 to 40 seconds. Stir well. Alternatively, heat up the mixture on the stove gently for a few minutes.

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