Radish Cake (Trip to Chinatown 1, the sequel)

Not wanting to waste the ingredients left over from cooking the dish from my last entry, I decided to whip up some radish cake, also known as low bok gow and turnip cake (or oddly, some people call it CARROT?!? cake), one of the dimsum cart's staples. This is one of few dishes I could think of that share similar taste and textural elements with Kiam Peng and yet, is quite distinct in form.

Radish Cake was something I never liked. I remember it as having the vaguely pasty and greasy quality of candles. My mother used to get it from a specialty store when I was little and no one could quite explain where the radish is in the cake. After a little research, I unraveled the mystery (there is radish in the cake!) and produced a 6x8x2 inch pan of very tasty radish cake (,indeed).

Because I am too cheap to pay $20 or so for a slab of preserved pork belly, I used streaky bacon instead. No harm done, really. It was heartily stamped with the voracious approval of my casual-Chinese-cuisine critic, JCarlos, whose mother built a small fortune selling Chinese delicacies in Ecuador.


Radish Cake

Main elements:
100 g. Streaky bacon, chopped finely
3 pcs. Chinese sausage, chopped finely
½ c. Dried shrimp
½ c. Dried mushrooms
3 c. Daikon (White Icicle), coarsely grated
2 c. Rice flour (not glutinous, but the kind used for making shortbread)
1 T. Sesame seeds, toasted
4 c. Water

Flavoring:
1/3 cup Fried shallots
1 T. Garlic, minced
1 t. Ginger, finely grated
1 T. Sugar
1 t. White pepper
1 t. Five spice powder
1 T. Cooking wine
2 t. Sesame oil

Soak the shrimps and mushrooms in 2 cups of water until they have been hydrated. Set aside. In a pot, render the fat from the bacon and sausage pieces over low heat. Add the grated daikon and stir-fry until the daikon is wilted. Add the shrimp, mushrooms, and water into the pot. Stir the rice flour into the remaining 2 cups of water until smooth. Add the rice flour mix into the pot. Cook over low heat until the mixture thickens into the consistency of condensed cream soup (from a can). Stir the flavoring in. Pour the mixture into a greased heatproof pan and sprinkle the sesame seeds on top of it. Steam over high heat for about one hour. Remove from the heat. Cool until room temperature has been achieved, then chill overnight.




I think some people eat it steamed through (see picture on right), but I served it the only way I know how --- sliced into approximately 1x2x0.5 (WxLxH/Thickness)inch rectangles and pan-fried until crisp (see picture on the very top of this post).