Shanghai Fried Rice Cake (Chao Nian Gao) 🇨🇳

 

 

This is a Chinese New Year dish that always get cooked in my childhood home in Hong Kong, one that I always hanker for leading up to the big day of festivities.  You can purchase packages of these Korean made oval-shaped little rice cakes from the refrigerated section of Asian grocery stores, already sliced and ready for use. The cakes are made from ground rice flour and have no taste.  Fried with a little oil, shredded vegetables and sauces, they become deliciously soft and chewy morsels that absorb all the good flavours and cling on to everything you cook them with.  I use thinly sliced pork, which can be substituted with chicken, or you can make it vegetarian without the meat.  Any leftovers can be kept in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a few days.  Reheat in the microwave.  

Serves 2                                                                   

INGREDIENTS

• 250g / 9oz sliced rice cakes
• 140g / 5oz pork fillet
• 300g / 10½oz Chinese cabbage leaves
• 1 medium carrots, shredded
• 1-2 spring onions, cut into 2.5cm / 1" lengths, keep white and green parts separate
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon ginger, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
• ¼ teaspoon sesame seed oil

For marinating the pork:

• ¼ teaspoon sugar
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• pinch of white pepper
• 1 teaspoon Chinese Shaoxin wine
• ½ teaspoon cornflour

METHOD

1. Cut pork fillet crosswise to 1 cm / ¼" thick slices, slanting your knife.  Marinade them with sugar, salt, pepper, wine and cornflour for 20 minutes.
2. Slice cabbage leaves into thin strips.  Keep the white parts separate from the green parts.
3. In a wok or large non-stick frying pan, heat 1 tablespoon of oil under medium high heat.  Add chopped garlic and ginger and let them sizzle for 30 seconds until fragrant.  Add the pork.  Spread them out in a thin layer and let them fry, undisturbed, for about a minute until caramelised on one side, then flip them over and move them around to cook through.
4. Add white parts of spring onions, followed by white parts of the cabbage, carrots, then green parts of the cabbage.  Toss the vegetables around to mix.
5. With your spatula, push the ingredients outward creating a small space in the middle the pan.  Drizzle 1 tablespoon of oil into the space and add the rice cakes.  Coat the rice cakes quickly with oil, then stir fry together with the vegetables for about 5 minutes until the rice cakes begin to soften.
6. Add soy sauce, oyster sauce and 3 tablespoons of water.  Continue to stir fry until most of the liquid has been evaporated and the rice cakes are tender.  Add green parts of spring onions.  Mix again.  Remove from heat.
7. Sprinkle in sesame seed oil just before serving.