Radish Cake (萝卜糕)

Radish Cake (萝卜糕)

Recipe Source: Dim Sum Inspirations by Choong Su Yin

Preparation: about an hour

Fairly simple dish but it is time consuming.  The end results is simply yummy especially if you pan-fry it.  I love it just the way it is i.e. steam .. but of course knowing my hubby, he loves it the pan-fry way!  Nothing beats home-made food! 

Ingredients A

40g dried shrimps (chopped)

100g chinese sausage (diced)

600g radish (shredded, scald & drain)

1400g water

Ingredients B

260g rice flour

60g corn flour

40g wheat starch

440g water

Ingredients C (Garnishment)

20 pieces shallot (sliced & deep fried)

Seasonings

2 tsp salt

1 tbsp sugar

1 tsp pepper

1 tsp monosodium glutamate

1 tsp sesame oil

Method

1. Combine Ingredients B into mixture.
2. Heat up some oil, fry dried shrimps & chinese sausage till fragrant.  Add in radish, water & Seasonings, stir evenly.  Flameout.  Pour it into flour mixture while it is still hot and continue agitating.
3. With low hear, cook the batter till thickens.  Pour it into a greased pan, steam over high heat for 40 minutes.
4. Garnish with fried shallots.

Notes

Water - instead of measuring in gram, if you have bottle measurement, measure it in litre.  It's the same.

For method 1 & 2, please prepare it in big pot (non-stick preferable) as you see in Ingredients A, you will pour in 1400g of water.

For method 3, cook the batter until the texture like paste.  Make sure you stir constantly as it may stick underneath.  If you find lumps, I think that's normal as it contains starch.  But end results of steaming don't contain lumps.

Make sure the water is boiled before steaming.  Also, constantly pour hot water by the side of the steamer.  Interval: 20-25 minutes.

Before steaming, I mix the fried shallots.  My personal opinion is that it is more fragrant and especially if you gonna pan-fry it.  You can also garnish more after steaming if you are going to eat it without pan-fry.

After steaming, leave it to cool.  You will observe that after steaming, the texture is like jelly but after much cooling, it will be harden.

Here I use square mould and I pour the batter almost 98% full as it does not raise as much like cakes.  

For this recipe, I find it very pepper-ish.  You can reduce the amount of pepper if you prefer it less pepper-ish.  Maybe add ½ to ¾ tsp.