Chinese Radish Cake aka Turnip or Daikon Cake

I have been missing from blogging for a couple of weeks now due to my cold/flu that is still lingering now, I can't wait until I am back to my normal health.  Every time I get really sick, I always appreciate it when I am healthy.  We always hear this saying - we take things, in this case - health for granted when we are well, and then realize what we are missing when we are sick.  Well, life goes on ...

In any case, here's a recipe for the radish/turnip/daikon cake.  For simplicity sake, I'll call it radish cake here.  It's typically served in Chinese dim sum in China, Hong Kong and overseas Chinatown restaurants.  This radish cake is also common in Chinese New Year celebration.  Like many Chinese food, there are symbols/meaning of certain food eaten at certain festivals, the same is true here but I forgot what why some Chinese eat the radish cake for New Year.  I will update this blog once I confirm it.  I try to make it once a year during Chinese New Year if I can.

It is usually cut into square-shaped slices and sometimes they are pan-fried before serving - to make the outside layer crunchy and soft on the inside.  This is a savory cake, nothing sweet about it.  It's delicious to dip it with a little hot sauce when it's ready to eat.

Ingredients:

• 4 lbs of radish/daikon
• 5 medium shitake mushrooms, thinly sliced
• 2 tbsp dry shrimp, soak until soft and pound first
• 2 Chinese sausages, brunoise cut
• 1 tbsp white pepper powder
• 1 tsp chicken bouillon powder
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 240 gr rice flour
• 4 tbsp corn starch
• 1 tbsp tapioca starch
• 2 cups of water, mushroom water or dry shrimp water or combination of all of them

Direction:

1. Peel radish skin
2. Cut or shred into julienne slices, I use Japanese mandolin to do this, it's faster
3. Cook radish in a wok
4. Add 2 cups of water 
5. Add white pepper, chicken bouillon powder, sugar, and salt
6. Cook radish until soft and tender - constantly stirring the wok
7. Rub oil on two 9" round pans - to be used for steaming the cakes later
8. In a separate bowl, mix the rice flour, corn starch, and tapioca starch
9. While cooking the radish, scoop out enough warm radish water and pour it into the flour bowl to make a paste, like porridge texture
10. Add diced Chinese sausages, sliced mushrooms, dry shrimp into the flour paste and mix
11. Scoop out extra water from the radish if and when the radish is already soft and tender but there are still lots of water in it
12. Once the radish is soft and tender, then pour the mix flour paste to the radish in the wok and combine well
13. Pour the mix radish cake into the steaming round pans and split them evenly between the two pans
14. Cover one pan with plastic food wrap on top, press it down all over the pan couple times so that the cake is full and solid.  When it's done, take the plastic out and do the same with the other pan.
15. Steam them for 45 minutes.  I have a two-tier steamer so I put one pan on each tier and steam them for about 25 minutes, then switch them between the two tiers and continue steaming for another 20 minutes.  Wipe extra water from the top of the cake (if any from the steaming) with paper towel before continuing with the steaming.  Do the same when you are done steaming the second part.
16. Let the cakes cool down for at least two hours
17. You can then slice it and eat it as is or you have the option to lightly pan fry each square slice on a pan until slightly browned to get the crunchy texture on the outside and soft on the inside.