Yes, it is cake again following the last recipe on Water Chestnut Cake, from which you may check out why cakes are so welcomed during the Chinese New Year. Actually this turnip cake or radish cake (Law Bak Gou 蘿蔔糕) is not only popular for the Festival but it is also one of the famous dim sum here in Hong Kong, served either steamed or pan fried throughout the year.
I particularly love to make this cake during winter when the turnips are most juicy and sweet. Like the Water Chestnut Cake, this can also be prepared in advanced and be stored in fridge for 1 to 2 weeks, allowing me to serve my family and friends any time they are ready to be my guests during the holidays. Happy!
- Ingredients
- 2kg turnip (white radish)
- 300g rice flour
- 50g corn starch
- 2 pcs Chinese sausages (~100g)
- 6 pcs dried black mushroom
- 4 pcs dried scallop
- 30g dried shrimps
- 2 each shallots, finely sliced
- Marinades
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp wine
- Seasonings
- 2 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp soy sauce
- 1/2 tsp ground white pepper
- 1 tbsp oil
Preparation
Turnips: Peel, rinse, shred (I use a food processor for cutting, which helps complete the task in just a few minutes). Rest all the turnip strips in a colander above a basin to drain and collect its juice. Draining the turnips is to prepare it for stir-frying as well as to reserve its juice for combining with the rice flour and corn starch.
Four Delicacies: We called the ingredients for cooking with the turnip the four delicacies, namely the Chinese sausages, dried mushrooms, dried scallops, dried shrimps.
Chinese sausages – rinse, coarsely chopped
dried mushrooms – rinse, soak in 1 cup of water for at least an hour or until soft, squeeze water in them and coarsely chopped, reserve water
dried scallops – rinse, soak in 1/2 cup of water for at least an hour, tear them into strips, reserve water
dried shrimps – rinse, soak in 1/2 cup of water for 10 minutes, discard water
Marinade the reconstituted, chopped mushrooms, scallops and shrimps for about 10 minutes.
Combine the corn starch and rice flour with 2 1/2 cups of water (inclusive of those collected from draining the turnip, soaking the mushrooms and scallops). Stir and mix well until smooth. Set aside.
Heat 3 table spoons of oil in wok over medium heat, sauté shallots till fragrant followed by chopped sausages, stir fry till they are also fragrant, then add in shrimps, mushrooms and scallops, keep stir frying. As all of them turn golden, about 3 minutes, toss in the turnip strips, add seasonings, and stir well. In about another 5 minutes, the strips will be softened and juice will exude from them.
Turn to low heat, slowly stir in flour mixture into the turnips (give the mixture a good stir before pouring in to avoid flour settling at the bottom). Turn and mix well until all incorporated well like a soft batter but is not runny, which almost like a sticky dough. Turn off heat.
Grease dish for steaming (mine is a 22cm diameter, 6cm depth round dish). Transfer the turnip batter into the pan, flatten it into same height. Steam the turnip cake over high heat for 40 minutes. Check doneness by inserting a toothpick to see if it comes out clean.
To serve
1) Cut out your preferred size and serve hot.
2) Let cool, chill it in fridge, invert from dish, then cut into about 1cm thick slices and pan fry (chilling makes the cake firmer and thus pan frying easier). Usually, I serve the pan-fried turnip cake slices with chili sauce.
3) Or, it can simply be reheated by steaming after retrieved from fridge.
Enjoy!
- Category: Featured . Rice and Grain . Vegetable .
- 90 comments
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@cpl,
Generally, the higher the water content, the more sticky the cake, and vice versa. You may want to check that if the turnip shreds are drained well, if not, they might leach excess liquid into the cake as it is being steamed (also make sure 2 1/2 cups water added to the dough include all those liquid collected from draining the turnip, soaking the mushrooms and scallops).
This cake is sticky but not gooey, if you want to reduce its stickiness, try to add a couple spoons more of corn starch. Honestly, I do not feel we need to add more, as my preference is a less starchy version.
thanks for this recipe…i had tried it and now my boss orders 4 pcs to give to his friends…
@Mylen,
Thumb up for you and thanks for your feedback!
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Thanks for the recipe. I have made it a few times during winter with white radish. The last 2 times it turns out bitter… I read above that you said the quality of the radish is probably not good. When I bought the radish they look white, round and plump. Is there anything that I should look out for to look for radish that would not taste bitter?
Made this without any problem. I used fried shallot slices instead of lap cheong as parents in law prefer it. The cake is lovely. Taste and texture just right. Thanks much for sharing the recipe. The detailed instructions were much appreciated.
Absolutely brilliant but I got my wife to cook it for me, can’t handle so many ingredients & tasks together.
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Hi, I would like to try this out, do I reduce all ingredients accordingly if my turnip is less than 2kg ? only about 800g, your advise greatly appreciated. thanks
@Esther,
Yes, enjoy!