Turnip Cake
萝卜糕
Traditional Cantonese steamed cake made with shredded radish, rice flour, and savory toppings. A dim sum favorite featuring tender, flavorful cake that can be enjoyed steamed or pan-fried.
Servings
3-4 people
Prep Time
30 minutes
Cook Time
45 minutes
Spice Level
Not Spicy
Ingredients
Instructions
Prepare main ingredients, peel the radish, soak dried scallops and dried shrimp to soften.
Shred the white radish; if you like stronger radish flavor, you can cut some into thick strips; add salt and mix well, marinate for 10 minutes, during this time do the next step.
Cut sausage and dried shrimp into small pieces, crush the dried scallops.
After salting, the radish will release some water, squeeze the water out of the radish shreds and set aside, save the radish juice for later use.
Squeeze gently, don't squeeze too dry to avoid affecting the texture.
Add rice flour to the radish juice, stir until no lumps.
Radish juice has a very fresh taste, not very astringent, adding sugar later can bring out its unique sweetness.
Heat the pan, pour in peanut oil, add sausage, dried shrimp, dried scallops, you can add a little Chinese liquor to remove fishy smell, stir-fry on low heat until fragrant, set aside a small portion for later garnish.
This step can also be omitted.
Add radish shreds, white sugar, pepper powder, stir-fry on medium-low heat until soft, about three minutes.
Immediately pour the stir-fried radish into the mixed batter while hot, quickly mix into paste.
The thickness of the paste is key to the radish cake formation, radish rice flour paste is not flowing, if it's still flowing it's too thin, then add rice flour to thicken. The paste at this time is warm, semi-cooked state.
Line an 8-inch cake pan with oil paper, brush oil around the edges to prevent sticking. Pour in the radish cake paste, smooth it out, sprinkle with the remaining preserved meat and seafood.
If you have sesame at home, you can grab a handful and sprinkle on top, according to personal preference.
Add enough water to the pot, bring to a boil on high heat then reduce to medium heat and steam for 30 minutes.
Adjust time according to container thickness. To check if it's done, insert chopsticks in the middle, if chopsticks don't stick to paste when lifted, it's done.
Let cool and remove from mold.
Cut into strips first then into blocks, won't stick to knife at all.
The cut pieces are very delicious even without frying.
If you want to fry, cut them thinner.
Heat the pan, pour a little oil in a flat pan and spread evenly, arrange the radish cakes, pan-fry on medium-low heat until both sides are golden brown.
The fried ones will have a charred aroma.
- For turnip cake ingredients, you can choose pork intestines, pork, dried shiitake, dried shrimp, sausage, red onion, etc. You can select based on what you have in the fridge.
- The ratio of glutinous rice flour to turnip is about 1:3.5. The size and weight of the turnip may vary, so adjust the flour accordingly! The ratio of rice flour to water is 1:1.2; this ratio can be adjusted flexibly. If you don't like too much flour texture, reduce the water and rice flour, or increase the turnip. In short, the mixture should be a thick batter. If you accidentally make it too thin, keep some dry flour on hand to thicken it, or you can stir-fry it a bit in the pan; the finished product should be moderately soft, and the flour and turnip should be well integrated.
- If you like a more prominent main ingredient and a lighter taste, use less salt, pork intestines, and dried shrimp. If you prefer a stronger flavor, you can increase them appropriately; chili powder is strong, just a little is enough, less than 1g is fine, or you can use five spice powder instead.