Sunday, March 7, 2010

My cooking - turnip cake, 蘿白糕

Haven't made it for almost 2 to 3 years. It used to be something I regularly made for the Chinese New Year, together with the "year" cake, taro cake...etc. So yesterday I passed by a grocery and saw some very nice dried scallop and therefore I bought more than that.

1. The right one is the half half dried sausage (half fat vs half lean). The left one is 70/30. Why 2 different sausage? It's because fat is the source of aroma and without it, this cake wouldn't taste good. So the 70/30 sausage is to bring the "meat" sweetness to the cake. 2. Dried scallop. Soak it with water just covering it. Remember to use room temperature water to soak it (same to all other dried stuff). This way it will not make it too chewy.

3. When soaking the dried mushroom, I would use something to press on it to sink the mushroom to soak in the water. 4. Rice Flour from Thailand. Don't know why it uses a Kangaroo as the brand. Should be Chang or Coconut... :)

5. Chinese yellow wine - I would use the 3 year old yellow wine as it is more aromatic. 6. I don't shred turnip. I prefer slice it as it would have some texture. Besides, slicing the turnip would train you on the cutting skill. So this time I bought 3 catties of turnip. BTW, choose turnip which is heavier and with less small "air" roots. Remember there wouldn't be any sprout growing on the head of the turnip.

7. Ok, dice the sausage as much as possible. So for health sake, I would take out some fat. Then you would ask why choose 50/50 sausage. It's because the fat aroma is already in the lean part of the sausage. Then put the scallop slices into it. Put some yellow wine and some soy sauce (1 table spoon) and 1 table spoon of sugar to marinate it. 8. Dice the soaked mushroom. Dicing all these ingredients to as tiny as possible. Then put 1 table spoon of sugar, some cornstarch to marinate. This way the mushroom wouldn't absorb the salty taste easily. It also makes the mushroom tender.

9. Pan fried the sausage/scallop first until it's slightly brown. Then put the mushroom to let all of them be medium brown. ... ooops.. I was too concentrating on the rice flour mixing part as it's a very important step. OK, to recap, I don't count how much flour and water I put. Just feel it to be a bit sticky on your hand but not too sticky. Anyway, I would put some cornstarch together with the rice flour. More cornstarch would bring a more "jello" texture to it but I don't use too much. Normally it would be 1/4 to 3/4(rice flour) or 1/3 to 2/3. Then stir fry the sliced turnip on a big wok. Don't use the non sticky wok. We need the stirring effect and the texture. Then pour water to cover the turnip and cover it to cook it until soft. Then put the sausage/scallop/mushroom and cover it for cooking for 3-5 minutes. OK, turn to low heat. Pour the rice flour water mix into it. Then stir stir and stir to make everything evenly spread. Then prepare a big round metallic container. Clean it well and dry it well too. Put some oil on it and spread it evenly on the inside. Then pour this soft cake mix onto it and spread it evenly. Put it on a wok to steam at high heat for over 1 hour. I steamed this one over 1 hour 20 minutes. 10. Done!

11. OK, let it cool off for a few hours. Don't cut it when it's hot and warm. I would recommend putting it to the fridge to cool it for overnight. Then cut it in slices for pan frying. Eat it with some Chinese chilli sauce (余均益 brand is the best). Alternatively Thai Siracha chilli sauce is also good. Yummy!

7 comments:

Thailand Club said...

homemade turnip cake, wow, can i get some :)

Stella said...

WOW, it is not easy to have homemade turnip cake nowsadays. And your turnip is full of ingredients(dor liu).
You look like Ah So now. Ah So showed how to do this on TVB. She also cut the turnip into slices like you did.

in the sea said...

Har... she used oyster sauce that gave me and the Angel a big big shock! Oyster sauce would simply cover up the sweetness of turnip and its natural fragrance! She recently used white sugar for braising dish. My goodness. Doesn't she know that white sugar will become sour when it's braised for an hour?

BTW, this one lacks 2 things - Chinese celery and preserved five belly pork (腊肉). I like it but not too many like it. The classic one should have these 2. :)

Stella said...

Yours here is good enough.
No need for Chinese celery and belly pork. Otherwise it is too "fung full" and no room for the main casting(the turnip) la.

in the sea said...

Correct. If I put those 2, I would certainly reduce the other ingredients amount. Was thinking of making a low sodium, low fat turnip cake for someone.

pixmation said...

I should learn this since Bill love it.

in the sea said...

It's not that difficult. You should try it.