It’s Chinese New Year time! Just when everyone is looking up recipes for their new year diet, I’m busy making myself more treats for Chinese New Year!
There are a few staple food for CNY that I just got to have. Nin go is definitely the most important one, so is gok jai. But one of my favourites of all is definitely turnip cake. Again, although it’s called ‘cake’, it’s not like a Victoria sponge. Just like meatloaf is not really a loaf of bread.
White turnip, also known as Mooli, lo bak, Daikon… Is a very mild kind of radish popular in East Asia. And you will find turnip cake on pretty much all dim sum menu. It’s savoury and it’s absolutely delicious. So here’s how to make it:
Turnip Cake (Lo Bak Go)
Turnip cake is a Chinese New Year staple food, you will also find it in any dim sum menu.
Ingredients
- 2 mooli about 800g - 1kg
- 2 lap cheong chinese sausage
- 150 g rice flour
- 3 tbsp wheat starch optional, can be replaced by cornflour
- 2 dried shiitake mushrooms
- 3 spring onions
- 1 Pinch of ground white pepper
- 1/2 cup of chicken stock
Instructions
- Soak the dried mushrooms in hot water for at least 20 minutes, stalk side down.
- Peel and coarsely grate the moolis.
- Finely chop the chinese sausages, mushrooms and spring onions.
- Put a bit of chopped spring onions aside for sprinkling on top after it's cooked.
- Put the rice flour and wheat starch in a bowl, mixed.
- Heat a bit of oil in a wok, once hot, fry the chopped ingredients for about 5 minutes, put them in a bowl and set aside.
- Put the grated moolis in the heated wok, add ground white pepper and chicken stock, cook till it's softened. (don't be alarmed if you find it becomes really watery, mooli does give out a lot of moisture)
- Stir in the fried ingredients, put in a pinch of salt if you like.
- Off the heat, mix in the flour.
- Transfer the mixture to a greased tin, I used a sandwich cake tin.
- Steam over boiling water (high heat) for 45 - 60 minutes. A skewer should come out clean when cooked.
- Leave to cool before taking out of the tin, slice into small piece, then fry in a pan.
- Serve hot with dipping sauces. (Sweet chilli, soy, etc)
