Taro Cake

[Ling]

-To me it is better to add the flour/water to the daikon while the daikon is still very hot. I bring the daikon to a rolling boil, remove it from the heat, then immediately stir in the flour/water. Doing it this way allows the flour to partially cook, and the process of stirring incorporates air into the rice pudding-like batter, resulting in a spongier, less dense end product.

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My mom does it the same way. She also uses 100% rice flour! She makes the best daikon cake...I am always disappointed when we order it at dim sum because it is never as good as hers.

[Seitch]

The one instruction that stands out most in my mind regarding making radish cake is that the amount of water to flour is key. Stay away from wheat flour and sticky rice flour. Use only the regular rice flour. What happens when you cook sticky rice flour? You get nian gao or simulated mochi. Radish cake should not be sticky but neither should it be hard and easily cubeable like that stuff they serve at the dim sum houses. Think about those little, sweetened, round, white rice cakes that are steamed in little shallow bowls. Sometimes they're harder and sometimes they're more resilant and the only reason for this is the water to flour ratio, as the only ingredients used are pulverized soaked long grain rice, water and sugar.

The consistency of the water/flour slurry once all ingredients have been added should definitely be on the runny side. Think about how unsweetened condensed milk looks like when you pour it from the can. The look should be like that, but the actual consistency a little thicker. Just thick enough to cover the back of a spoon and when you run your finger along the back of the spoon, the cleaned trail stays.

Mix one package of long grain rice flour with cold water until the flour disolves completely. You want it a little thicker at this point because you'll be adding the daikon and the daikon cooking liquid later. The daikon should be cut into thin sticks, maybe 3/16" by 3/16" by 2.5". Cook them with water until they're cooked through and no longer crunchy by boiling but not with too much water. You want maybe 2/3 daikon to 1/3 water left. Keep in mind that once the radish is cooked the dimensions will no longer hold. The idea is to keep enough texture to taste the radish in the finished cake. As for the meat, we would use ground pork stir fried with chopped Chinese sausage, a few chopped shallots, chopped re-hydrated dried shrimp all stir fried together till the pork is cooked. Allow the daikon mixture to cool down from boiling and add to the intial slurry of water and rice flour. Mix in the stir fried ingredients and add salt to taste. Also add a little sugar 1/2 teaspoon. Make sure the consistency is as described in the paragraph above. Adjust with more rice flour and water if needed.

Put the mixture in a greased 2" high pan and steam until cooked, approx. 45 min to an hour. The texture should be firm enough to slice while still warm but you'll get cleaner looking slices once it cools.

Experiment with the amount of water and flour until you achieve the consistency you're looking for. Also experiement with the amount of daikon used. I prefer my radish cake with more radish and on the softer side.

Sorry my instructions are so vague but given your extensive cooking experience I'm sure you'll be able to create a radish cake to your liking.

[hzrt8w]

Thanks for your tips, sheetz and Seitch.

So I should stick with the regular rice flour and not use sticky rice flour. When I made daikon cake the first time using only rice flour, it turned out stiff... which led me to think I should have used sticky rice flour. The more into these dim sum things, the more I am confused on which dim sum using what flour.

I am a bit unsure about using regular wheat flour for this. Just does not seem to taste right. When I made the daikon cake, I did cook it in a pot until soft before mixing in the rice flour slurry. That part, I learned. However, when cooking taro cake, I didn't want to wait until the taro turns mushy. I wanted to maintain a little be of texture. The taro flavor was there. My big issue was with the binding agent. Too hard... too soft... Agreed... need to experiment with the consistency.

Now I don't know what to do with the 2 bricks of not-so-good taro cakes. Maybe that's what in-laws are for!

[Seitch]

With taro cakes, you control the size of the taro cubes. Usually the cubes are about 1/4" cubes. Just like cooking the daikon only with less water. Taro is hard and even when fully cooked, added to the slurry and then recooked into cakes there should be discernable cubes of taro in the finished cake. I don't think you should work about losing taro in the finished cake. If this happens, then adjust the size of the taro cubes. If you substitute potatoes for taro you'll get potato cakes and those are also very good.

[Seitch]

Thanks for your tips, sheetz and Seitch.

Now I don't know what to do with the 2 bricks of not-so-good taro cakes.    Maybe that's what in-laws are for! 

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No problem Sir! Thanks for all your pictorials and recipes.

That's what in-laws are for.

[Tepee]

Cakes with harder textures? Make chai tau kueh. Cut them up into 1" cubes and fry with lots of minced garlic, minced choy bo, thick black soya sauce and chinese chives. Yum!

Sometimes when we make it, we subconsciously purposely veer towards the hard side, just so that we can end up with some chai tau kueh.

Edited June 22, 2006 by Tepee (log)

[Pan]

Hey, TP. What is choy bo?

[Tepee]

Michael, choy bo (cantonese) is preserved turnip (daikon).

[hzrt8w]

And what is "chai tau kueh"? I could not figure out the Chinese words. * * Cake?

[jo-mel]

Cakes with harder textures? Make chai tau kueh. Cut them up into 1" cubes and fry with lots of minced garlic, minced choy bo, thick black soya sauce and chinese chives. Yum!

Sometimes when we make it, we subconsciously purposely    veer towards the hard side, just so that we can end up with some chai tau kueh. 

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THAT sounds good! I've never seen/had that dish, but is sounds like something I would love.

[trillium]

And what is "chai tau kueh"?  I could not figure out the Chinese words. * * Cake?

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Chai tow kway is what TP described, and super yummy it is. You can get it light and dark, I like light.

regards,

trillium

[hzrt8w]

Thanks for the link, trillium. It looks like Chai tow kway is similar to Cantonese (Guangzhou'ese?) daikon cake but not quite the same. Perhaps this is the Teochew style? I think I have seen them in some Teochew style restaurants here. They call it "Law Bak Gou" in Chinese, just the same as the Guanhzhou'ese name, but they cook the cake with eggs and bits of dried shrimp and "Choy Poh" (preserved turnip) in a mix (not binded to the cake). Or is this Hokkien style?

Edited June 24, 2006 by hzrt8w (log)

[aznsailorboi]

Tepee- what dialect is "Chai Tau Kueh" ? thats what we call it at home, but i havnt really heard anybody in the dimsum restaurants and oriental market call it that other than Low Bak Gou

[Tepee]

Sailorboi, it's......hokkien.

Ah Leung Gaw, in cantonese, it's choy tau go. I guess the choy tau refers to the choy bo in it.

Thanks, Trillium, for posting that link. I forgot about the lup cheong and eggs and other stuff in my post. And, taugeh (bean sprouts).

If you guys are trying it out, remember to fry some parts till it caramelises. Yum!

Edited June 29, 2006 by Tepee (log)

[phage]

I've enjoyed eating taro cake in slices (fried or nuked), but I began to think - what do people do with it other than eating it as it is? Is it used in combination with other foods, cooked into dishes? Is it traditionally seasoned in particular ways? Anyone have a particularly tasty dish to recommend, using taro (or turnip) cake?

Thanks,

- Phage

[Dejah]

I've enjoyed eating taro cake in slices (fried or nuked), but I began to think - what do people do with it other than eating it as it is?  Is it used in combination with other foods, cooked into dishes?  Is it traditionally seasoned in particular ways?  Anyone have a particularly tasty dish to recommend, using taro (or turnip) cake?

Thanks,

- Phage

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Taro and turnip cakes are just that - cakes/goh. They are not ingredients to be cooked into another dish. It accompanies other dishes - as part of dim sum or as a snack.

There are so many flavours in these cakes : doong goo, lap cheung, har mai, some even put in oyster sauce and cooking wine. If you try to "stir-fry it in with other ingredients, it would just crumble.

[sheetz]

I've had turnip cake cubed and stir fried with onions and bean sprouts in a restaurant before. It was the type of turnip cake that you typically get in a dim sum restaurant with not too much of the filling ingredients so there weren't too many competing flavors.

[nakedsushi]

I've had turnip cake cubed and stir fried with onions and bean sprouts in a restaurant before. It was the type of turnip cake that you typically get in a dim sum restaurant with not too much of the filling ingredients so there weren't too many competing flavors.

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I think I've had something similar. It was just plain white turnip cake cut into long pieces (like fat fries) and stir fried with scrambled egg and green onions.

[Dejah]

I've had turnip cake cubed and stir fried with onions and bean sprouts in a restaurant before. It was the type of turnip cake that you typically get in a dim sum restaurant with not too much of the filling ingredients so there weren't too many competing flavors.

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I think I've had something similar. It was just plain white turnip cake cut into long pieces (like fat fries) and stir fried with scrambled egg and green onions.

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Really? Must be quite a bit of rice flour in it to make it very firm. Am I missing out on something special?

[hzrt8w]

I think I've had something similar. It was just plain white turnip cake cut into long pieces (like fat fries) and stir fried with scrambled egg and green onions.

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I have eaten this before. I think it is a Teochew style dish, offered in some Teochew style noodle houses? (They call rice noodles "quay teow"???)

Edited March 7, 2007 by hzrt8w (log)

[jkonick]

I think I've had something similar. It was just plain white turnip cake cut into long pieces (like fat fries) and stir fried with scrambled egg and green onions.

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I have eaten this before. I think it is a Teochew style dish, offered in some Teochew style noodle houses? (They call rice noodles "quay teow"???)

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I've actually eaten this dish a few times, but at Vietnamese restaurants. Usually it's just called something vague like "fried rice cake." I think it has more rice flour in it - it's usually less creamy than turnip cakes.

[aprilmei]

No, the stir-fried turnip cake is a Malaysian/Singaporean dish (don't get into a discussion between Malaysian and Singaporeans about whose cuisine it belongs to; let them fight it out!). It's usually listed as fried carrot cake because the daikon radish is known as "white carrot". You can have it as "black" (cooked with dark soy) or white. I think it's more common as black - at least that's how I've usually eaten it. It's cooked with egg and bean sprouts with seafood (such as prawns and fish cake) and/or meat. This dish isn't made with rice cakes - that's something entirely different, and char kuay teow (made with rice noodles) is also something else, although cooked with similar flavours.

Oh, and when I say dark soy, it's this really thick, dark soy that isn't very salty. It's commonly used in Malaysian/Singaporean/Indonesian cooking but isn't easy to find.

Edited March 8, 2007 by aprilmei (log)

[Dejah]

Huh...you young'uns are teaching this old dog new tricks. Thank you!

But, to be honest, I don't think I'll ever learn to control my "lieu hand" - so my taro or turnip cake will always fall apart if I try to stir-fry the slices!

[aprilmei]

Oh, I forgot to mention, it's plain radish/carrot cake that's used in this dish - the radish/carrot cake itself doesn't contain any meat or seafood.

[phage]

mmmm, Dejah, that cake looks good!

In reading all the responses, it seems we have various kinds of taro cake among the several cuisines - this is the kind that I had gotten recently:

I did try stir-frying it with some vegies after cutting some into small cubes and they held together reasonably well...

-- phage