Happy Chinese new year!
Whilst the majority of the world celebrates on 1st January, entire Asian countries celebrate new year around the Jan/Feb mark to bring in the new lunar year. This year it is 28th January!
Whatever you like to call it: Chinese turnip, Daikon radish, Mooli etc…. it is a delicious veg and can be enjoyed in many different ways. I’ll be sharing another way to prepare this in an upcoming post.
For this Chinese new year i’m going to share my family’s recipe for Turnip cake. This recipe is for the steamed variety however you can pan fry these into the fried white square goodness you get at dim sum. Delicious with a little bit of chilli oil, soy, and black vinager.
Chinese Turnip Cake
Serves 4
Equipment:
- Wok or large fry pan
- Steamer with multiple layers to fit in all dishes used
- Shallow dish preferably metal that will fit into a steamer
- Chopsticks
- Spatula/wooden spoon
Ingredients:
- 1 x large Daikon Radish 1kg .est
- 200g Rice Flour
- Salt and Pepper to season
- Medium Shallot
- 1 Garlic Clove
- Cooking oil 1Tbsp
Optional extras:
These items you don’t have to have in but personally it adds an extra depth of flavour and texture as well as an added visual appeal.
- Chinese Sausage
- Dried Shrimp
- Dried Scallop
- Dried Ham/Bacon
- 2 Spring Onion
Method
Prep
- Soak all dried ingredients together (Scallops and shrimp) in water for 25-20 minutes. Drain and keep liquid to one side and roughly chop the scallop and shrimp into a bite size pieces.
- Peel and coarsely grate 80% of the daikon radish and roughly chop the remainder into chunky matchsticks
- If using dried ham, finely dice the ham roughly the same size as the shrimp. If using bacon, cut into thin strips and pan fry the bacon until crispy. Use the same pan as you would to cook the radish cake so additional flavour is added to the final product
Cook
- Fry shallots and garlic clove in a large pan with vegetable oil until golden and fragrant. Add in all the optional ingredients and stir fry for an additional minute before adding in the chopped radish.
- Stir fry for a few minutes until radish starts to becomes soft then add in the grated radish and stir fry until the grated radish becomes soft before seasoning with salt and pepper to taste (It’s better to under season on salt as soy sauce can be added when consuming. Too much salt can render the radish tasting bitter).
- Once the radish stir fry has softened, add in 5 Tbsp of the soaked liquid mixed with 1 Tbsp of rice flour together and mix together as a slurry before pouring into the wok and toss to coat.
- Turn off hob and add in the remainder of rice flour and continue to mix until coated and all liquid is absorbed.
- Continue to add in additional liquid water or shrimp liquor a bit at a time until the mixture is combined and resembles a thick batter similar to a bahji mix.
- Transfer onto one large shallow dish or multiple smaller shallow dish.
- Smooth down the surface with a wet spatula into an even thickness.
- Steam for a minimum of 15 minutes and check every 5 minutes afterwards until fully cooked. To check if it is fully cooked, insert a skewer into the cake and once the skewer comes out clean it is cooked.
- Garnish with Spring onion and serve
- Alternatively (Best with leftovers) Pan fry squares of cake on all sides until crispy