Savory daikon/radish cake (healthy recipes)

I remember the middle-age man who rode on his motorcycle with a large rectangle shape crate securely position on the passenger seat passed by our neighborhood calling out “kue kue” (means cake, but not the sweet cakes as you imagine)before dinner time almost everyday selling lots of savory snacks. We would wave and called “kue kue” too and he would stop in front of our house. He would open up his crate and in there you would see all these delicious food siu mai, chee cheong fun (steamed rice rolls), jien dui (sesame balls), savory daikon/radish cake, and many other typically seen dim sum items. The savory daikon/radish cake is one of my favorite. His version is actually deep-fried.




If you make this at home, you will soon learn that homemade savory daikon/radish cake is truly the best. I love savory daikon cake with distinguish daikon taste and aroma and you can usually achieve this at home or when you dine at restaurants which have great dim sum. Most of the store-bought ones usually have more flour and less daikon taste, which is suitable for stir-frying, but I like this steamed version and then pan-fried. The pan-frying creates this thin golden crust on the outside.

Savory daikon/radish cake (1 of 8"x6" square pans)

What you will need:

• 150 gr (5 oz) rice flour
• 50 gr (1.7 oz) tapioca flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 cups water
• 2 Tbsp cooking oil
• 8 dried shiitake mushrooms (soaked in water and save the water and finely chopped)
• 2 oz of dried shrimps (soaked in water and finely chopped)
• 6 oz Chinese sausage (remove the casing and finely chopped)
• 453 gr (1 lb) daikon (peeled and shredded)
• 1 Tbsp cooking oil
• 2 Tbsp Shao Hsing wine
• 2 Tbsp oyster sauce
• Dash of white pepper powder

Chili sauce:

• 10 red chili
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 Tbsp white vinegar

Instructions:

1. Combine both the flours and salt. Stir in the water and set aside
2. Preheat wok/skillet. Add in cooking oil. Saute dried shrimp and mushroom until fragrant. Add in wine and oyster sauce. Then, add in Chinese sausage and cook for another 2 minutes until fragrant. Add in the shredded daikon and stir fry for another minute
3. Meanwhile, get your steamer ready on high heat. Give the flour mixture a stir and then pour into the wok/skillet and continue to stir until mixture started to thicken. Remove from the heat. Pour the mixture into a 8"x 6" greased heat-proof dish and let the cake steam for 1 hour.
4. At the end of cooking time, It may still appear to be very soft and wet. Don't panic, let it cool down completely (about 1 hour or so) before attempt to cut into slices. It will firm up nicely for you.
5. You can serve as is or put a bit of oil in a non-stick pan and then pan-fry the cake before serving. Serve with chili sauce on the side

Preparing chili sauce:

1. Place all the ingredients for chili sauce in food processor and process into a paste. It supposed to be spicy and a little bit tangy