My family never made Cantonese Turnip Cake at home, we always go out to buy it from store; every Chinese New Year. An auntie with a small plastic, transparent box at the back of her bike would show up near the market, bus station. Whenever her customer shows up, order for turnip cake, red bean cake, taro cake, water chestnut cake, she will open up the magical, Pandora box, cut cakes inside, and bring out to the customer. Even we only met once a year, she always remember us or her customers. Going to get cakes from her becomes a routine of Chinese New Year and I missed the neighborhood vibe we had back home, missed the conversation with her, missed the variety of cakes available, missed the taste of home.
Store-bought turnip cake is usually too “starchy”, “floury” or does not have enough flavor/umami, so I decided to make it myself. Surprisingly it tastes really good and process is not too complicated either, just a lot of chopping.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- cutting radish into two types can increase texture variety
- using the water softening dried scallop, shrimp, mushroom to mix with flour will increase flavors and umami
- if the flour mixture is too watery, the radish cake might be on the softer end, and more fragile; if the mixture is stickier/heavier, the radish cake would be tighter, more solid. Either texture works, depends on personal preference.
- when pan-frying the radish cake, do not flip too often. Pan fry one side till golden crispy then flip to the other side.
RECIPE
(around 4-6 portion, or cake enough to fill 2 rectangular take-out container)
- 500g radish
- 5-8 dried shrimp 蝦米
- 4-5 dried scallop 瑤柱
- 4-5 dried mushroom 香菇
- 2 Cantonese sausage 臘腸
- few pieces of Cantonese bacon 臘肉
dry ingredients:
- pre-mixed radish powder
OR
- rice flour 粘米粉
- wheat starch 澄粉
- (optional) water chestnut flour 馬蹄粉
STEP 0: put dried shrimp, dried scallop, dried mushroom into a bowl of water to soften them for cutting later
STEP 1: peel radish and cut it into two halves, cut one half into thicker chunks, the other half cut / shred into thin slices; having two different cut can increase variety of texture, similar to having smooth vs coarse red bean paste texture.
STEP 2: chop dried shrimp, dried scallop, dried mushroom, Cantonese sausage and bacon into small pieces, can use a blender if needed.
STEP 3: mix radish cake flour or 1:1 rice flour to wheat flour with water and oil, mix well till can draw pattern in mixture, leaving trace for 1-2 sec, but still running.
- can use the water left from softening dried scallop, shrimp, mushrooms to add flavors
STEP 4: low to medium temperature, in a pan stir fried Cantonese sausage, bacon cubes till oil comes out, then add in mushroom, lastly dried shrimp and scallop (the order how I added them in below is not correct, Cantonese sausage / bacon should be added first because they are most fatty). Transfer all to plate.
STEP 5: over medium heat, add in think chunks then thin slices of radish in pan, cover with lid and cook for ~10mins till radish water comes out, or turning transparent
STEP 6: leave some cooked scallop, shrimps, sausage mixture out for plating later, and pour the rest in the pan of radish, stir and mix well.
STEP 7: stir the rice flour mixture as the flour might sink back down of the bowl and make its texture inconsistent. Then pour in pan to make sure all radish are covered in mixture. If not enough rice flour mixture, can make more right away. Don’t need the mixture to be very thick, as the flour mixture might expand when steamed.
watery
STEP 8: brush steaming containing or deeper dish with oil, then transfer turnip cake mixture in container, press down; drizzle the top of turnip cake mixture with leftover dried scallop/shrimp/mushroom/sausage/bacon mixture. Steam for 10-15mins or till no turnip cake left on a chopstick/toothpick poked in.
STEP 9: Can serve directly, or let it cool down, cut into slices and pan fry on oil till both sides are crispy and golden! Do not flip too frequently as the cake might break.
READY TO SERVE!
RESOURCES
