Chinese New Year Daikon Cake 🇨🇳

 

  

Chinese New Year brings back fond memories of my childhood in Hong Kong, such as the housemaid laboriously shredding huge amount of daikon radishes using an ancient grater to make beautiful savoury cakes for us to enjoy and to give away to relatives.  It's one of those things you do and eat to bring good luck and prosperity during the festive season.  Fast forward to nowadays in my home kitchen, shredding of the daikon can be done in a flash by pushing the vegetable through the blades of a food processor.  The recipe has been tried and tested and simplified.  Other than the daikon, you'll need rice flour, one or two Chinese sausages, a few dried shrimps and dried Shiitake mushrooms.  For equipment, you'll need a large saucepan, a wok or frying pan, a 13x23cm / 5"x9" loaf tin and a pot large enough to fit the tin in for steaming.  The cake is delicious sliced up and eaten as soon as it is cooked and tipped out of the tin, but I like them best the way they serve in Dim Sum restaurants - pan-fried in a little oil until crispy and golden brown.  For a vegetarian version, my friend Winnie skips the sausages, dried shrimps and mushrooms and serves it plain with a sprinkling of red pepper flakes and shop-bought tempura dipping sauce. 

INGREDIENTS

• 1 kg / 2lb 3oz daikon radishes, peeled and shredded
• 1 cup water
• 2 cups rice flour
• vegetable oil
• 4 dried Shiitake mushrooms
• 1-2 Chinese sausages (100g / 4oz), finely chopped
• ¼ cup dried shrimps 
• 1 tablespoon Chinese Shaoxin wine
• 2 spring onions, finely chopped
• 2 teaspoons sea salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• ½ teaspoon white pepper
• 2 tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted, for garnishing
• 1 red cayenne chilli, deseeded and finely chopped, for garnishing
• soy sauce, for dipping (optional)

METHOD

1. Soak shiitake mushrooms in ½ cup of hot water in a small bowl for half an hour until they are soft.  Squeeze out excess water.  Remove the stems and cut into small pieces.
2. Finely chop dried shrimps, then soak them in another small bowl in 1 tablespoon of Chinese Shaoxin wine.
3. In a large saucepan, simmer shredded daikon with 1 cup of water, covered, for 20-30 minutes until tender, stirring once or twice.  Remove from heat and let cool.  
4. Add rice flour to the daikon in the saucepan including the liquid it has yielded through cooking.  Mix gently with a wooden spoon until you have consistency of thick oatmeal.  Add salt, sugar, white pepper and 2 tablespoons of oil.  Mix again.  At this stage, if it looks a little dry, stir in ¼ cup warm water.  It it looks too watery, add a little more rice flour.
5. In a wok or a medium frying pan, heat 2 tablespoons oil to medium high.  Add chopped sausages, dried shrimps and mushrooms.  Stir fry for a few minutes.  Add half the chopped spring onions, then transfer all ingredients to the daikon mixture in the saucepan.  Fold to combine.
6. Line a 13x23cm / 5"x9" loaf tin with baking paper.  Pack daikon cake mixture into the tin.  Smooth over the top.
7. Place the tin on a rack in a steamer pot.  Steam over briskly boiling water for 1 hour.  Check the water level half way through and add more hot water if required.
8. Remove tin from the steamer and let the cake rest in the tin for 5 minutes before inverting it onto a rack to cool completely.  Garnish with toasted sesame seeds, the remaining chopped spring onions and chopped chillies.
9. Slice cake into 1cm / ½" slices and serve hot with a small dish of soy sauce on the side.  Alternatively, pan fry slices with a little oil until golden brown.