daikon cake 蘿蔔糕 - part 1

Daikon cake 蘿蔔糕 is something that I really crave here in North America. When I travel to Hong Kong last time I had it a couple of times at Lin Heung Kui 蓮香居 during morning dimsum hours. It was good but not great. Without much notion of what are needed to make it, I tried once and failed miserably. It turned into a gluey mess as I didn't know what kind of flour to use.

daikon cake 蘿蔔糕 that I had in  Lin Heung Kui 蓮香居 in Hong Kong; it is good but not great

the one in the foreground is a slice of taro cake and the other two pieces are daikon cakes 蘿蔔糕; there were not much goodies in them which is typical unless you make your own; nonetheless they were delicious

Speaking of Lin Heung Kui 蓮香居, I just found out a few days ago that its sister establishment Lin Heung Lau 蓮香樓 would be closed yesterday (end of March 2019) after 100 years of operation. This means I missed one more visit before it is gone forever.

this 100 years tea house is now gone forever; another closed chapter of the bygone old Hong Kong

Daikon cake 蘿蔔糕 is one very popular snack in Asia. Most families know how to make their version. You can often find them as street food as well so it is a humble comfort food, but everyone loves it.

what I didn't know is plain rice flour is the main flour you use making this; most recipe calls for an additional bit of tapioca starch and may be a bit of glutinous rice flour as well

here are one most common brand of the three flours for use to make this; tapioca flour is a close substitute of common corn starch in the West

I bought these Chinese daikons not planning for making daikon cake 蘿蔔糕

there is 34 oz of grated daikon;  the ratio of daikon to flour (all) is roughly 7 to 1

dicing up some Chinese cured pork belly 腊肉

this is the only half-decent brand that I can find here in town; it is from Vancouver, BC

normally you also want some Chinese pork sausage but I don't have any and the one in the stores near me are crap so I use none

dried shrimps are also a mandatory ingredient

plain rice flour 粘米粉 is the main rice flour to use; I also added small amounts of corn starch as well as glutinous rice flour

I pan fried the cured pork belly, soaked and diced dried shrimps, and shiitake mushroom to bring out the flavors

the grated daikon is cooked in a wok for about 25 minutes to extract the liquid; the liquid is used to mix the flours with

the daikon liquid with some seasoning ready to mix in the flours

then the flour mixture is mixed with the daikon as well as all the other ingredients

the well mixed is poured into a deep dish that is oiled and to be steamed (for about 50 minutes)

I didn't want to take any chances so I steam it for 55 minutes

so far all looks great; it is being cooled before it can be cut and pan fried

The ratio of rice flour and the kind of flours dictate the firmness of the daikon cake 蘿蔔糕. I like mine relatively firm. Some people like very soft daikon cake 蘿蔔糕. Some people like them not pan fried. I like mine pan fried with a crusty outside. At this point, I have not idea of the firmness, as the water content of the daikons varies. I also have no experience with the amount of glutinous rice flour I should use, which tend to make it firmer.

Ingredients:

• grated Chinese daikon radishs
• rice flour
• glutinous rice flour
• corn starch
• salt
• white pepper
• dried American shrimps
• Chinese cured pork belly
• braised shiitake mushrooms
• cilantro
• scallion
• Thai chili pepper flakes
• cooking oil

While patiently waiting for the daikon cake 蘿蔔糕 to cool I made this fusion ramen to stem the hunger - more like famine. Beef with sea scallops. I stir fried the beef, scallops, and the Napa cabbage. There is no rule as what you can use for a bowl of ramen if you master the basics of what make a bowl of soup noodles tick.