Daikon Nian Gao 蘿蔔糕 is also better known as turnip cake or radish cake. They aren't made out of turnips, but daikons, so the name isn't as accurate. You can find these "cakes", fried, at dim sums. They have a solid texture. When pan fried, they have a nice, crispy outer layer and a warm, semi-soft inner layer.
Daikon Nian Gao 蘿蔔糕
Recipe from my mom
Please note that the amount of the ingredients used is just a reference. I didn't have a chance to measure them out or weigh them because my mom was quickly making it. I might be making some corrections tomorrow after I ask my mom if this is correct. I'll also be adding a video, right now my windows video maker is being weird.
Ingredients
2 large daikons, they were as long as and as thick as my forearm
1 tbsp salt, you'll see a picture of it later
1 tbsp white pepper
dash of msg, optional
1 16 ounce bag of rice flour
3 tbsp dried shrimp, soaked in water until soft
water, reserved from the daikons
Grate two large daikons.
Cook it on high heat in a wok until it is not raw. Water will start seeping out from the daikons. Reserve it, because it will be used later on.
Add salt and pepper to taste. Around 1 tbsp or more each. Add a little msg, optional.
Stir and add in the mini dried shrimp, also known as 蝦米.
Mix together the rice flour and the reserved daikon water together. Make sure that the water has cooled down or is lukewarm before doing so.
Then add the batter to the cooked daikons and stir. Mix until thoroughly combined and pour into separate containers. Steam for around 30 minutes on high fire.
Before
After I ate it
ooo my mum makes this too, but she adds oyster sauce, soy sauce, pepper, salt and some other seasonings when she's frying it. try frying it with beaten eggs, it tastes better :) i love it with oyster sauce haha
ReplyDeletewah i love the pan fried version looks really good!
ReplyDeleteI love it fried, this looks delicious! My mom sometimes adds spam into it too and omg I love it - heavenly! I like this fried quite brown till it's slightly crispy-ish on the outside then dip it in a good dollop of homemade chilli oil haha. You're making me hungry girl, I love it!
ReplyDeletei love both the steam and the pan fried version and your red baen nian gao looks really nice!
ReplyDeleteI like this with lap cheong!
ReplyDeletegrub, that sounds sooo good! All the seasonings will definitely make this radish cake better. Thanks for the ideas. :) Oyster sauce tastes good with jie lan veggie! I never tried it with radish cake before.
ReplyDeletej3ss kitch3n, Thanks! I like the homemade version more than the ones at dim sum places because you can control the amount of oil you fry it with.
Sharon, Thanks Sharon! I haven't eaten spam in the longest time, but it sounds like a good idea. You add it in before you steam it right? I love eating spam musubi and I plan on making it one day again, when I can afford the frightening number of calories it offers. I can't believe I would eat 3 or 4 at one time, hahaa. Ok, I'm going off topic.
lena, Thank you. :) I can't believe I was missing out on this for pretty much my whole life just because I didn't like daikons, or most veggies for that matter until this past year.
pigpigscorner, I just found out a new name for Chinese sausages. I never knew they were called lap cheong. It must taste amazing with radish cake.
I made Radish Cakes this year for my mum (& friends...) Mum says it was ok. Too firm! I added lots of goodies: Chinese dried sausage (Lap Cheong), chinese dried belly pork (lap yook), dried shrimp, chinese mushroom, some diced gammon, and some dried scallops! If I get round to it, I might blog it!
ReplyDeletePlumLeaf, Yum! With so many different flavors in the radish cake, I'll bet that it was really good. I hope you do share it. :)
ReplyDelete