daikon cake 蘿蔔糕 - part 2

Patience, patience, and good thing would come. I put the steamed daikon cake 蘿蔔糕 into a tub of water to cool it. I then place it into a refrigerator to further cool it so it would be firm to be cut into slices.

The moment of truth arrived. I retrieved the daikon cake 蘿蔔糕 from the refrigerator after a few hours so it would be firm enough to be cut and remove a piece from the deep dish. The challenge of making daikon cake 蘿蔔糕 is judging how much flour to use. I now know that it could use a bit more flour. I would increase the ratio of glutinous rice flour next time so the finished cake would be easier to handle. How would it taste? I was very eager to find out.

I cut a slice from one side and carefully lifted it out without breaking

I fried it in this cast iron skillet; I place a lid so the frying would also bring the inside up to piping hot serving temperature

While it is irregular shape I was able to brown all four side as it is quite flexible. I chose to eat it with knife and fork instead of a pair of chopsticks.

I was expecting it would be a bit blend and may need some soy sauce to bring out the flavors. Not at all. The first bite exploded in a symphony of flavors. There is so much umami as well as savory and sweet. The sweetness from the daikon is unmistakeable. There is even heat in there as I added some Thai chili pepper flakes when I made the mixture.

a small piece is jam packed with complex flavors; I am most pleased with how this turned out

it goes really well with a Belgium lager

This is the best tasting daikon cake 蘿蔔糕 that I had ever have, as when you make it yourself you would not skim on the ingredients unlike the street vendors or restaurants. The dried shrimps I used are very high quality and the cured pork belly was decent. The only thing that could be better is if it were firmer. I did noticed that it turned quite dark when fried. It is due to the sugar released from the daikon when cooked. Unlike added refined sugar it is a healthy kind of sugar.

When I gather the ingredients to make this, I was troubled that I didn't have any Chinese sausage as it is one of the anchor ingredients for making daikon cake 蘿蔔糕. Fortunately I have this fairly good cured pork belly which substitutes very well for the sausage so nothing is lost. Also for some including myself, I like to eat the daikon cake 蘿蔔糕 with some hot chili condiment and soy sauce. But I added the Thai hot chili flakes and seasoned it generously so there is no need for these condiments when served. I do like to dust it with white pepper powder though which is very traditional.

for breakfast; something so humble but yet so delicious cannot be legal

A similar root vegetable cake to daikon cake 蘿蔔糕 is taro cake 芋頭糕. The process and ingredients are nearly identical except you substitute daikon with taro. Unlike daikon taro water content is much lower so you have to add more liquid. Taro cake taste drier and heavier than daikon cake. I suspect using both in the same cake may yield very interesting result.