Celebrate the Lunar New Year with this savory turnip cake steeped in tradition.

When you see the word cake, you probably don’t think of ingredients like daikon radish, bacon, and sausage. But that’s exactly what goes into it Read the law bookChinese turnip cake. Lunar New Year Especially in Hong Kong and southern China. It is also a very common dim sum dish, where it is usually pan-fried and served with scallions.

*Despite being made from daikon, a type of radish, la bok gau is often translated into English as “turnip cake”, although it is sometimes called radish cake or daikon cake. Don’t let the name variations confuse you, they all refer to the same dish.

Every Lunar New Year, my mother would make batch after batch of turnip cakes. Piles of it, steamed in tin foil pans and topped with scallions, cilantro and sesame seeds, would be loaded onto our dining room table and handed out to friends and family. One thing I loved about her turnip cake was that she wasn’t shy about adding a good amount of daikon: for every pound of rice flour, she usually used six or seven pounds of daikon. used to put! Such a high proportion of radish makes for a much stronger flavored cake, and that’s how I prefer to make mine now.

Filled with Chinese sausage, Chinese bacon and shiitake mushrooms, this steamed (and then, optionally, pan-fried) daikon radish-based snack is a classic on Chinese New Year and year-round dim tables.

Apart from the ratio of rice flour and radish, one of the most important steps when making turnip cake is to mix the two well until a nice sticky mass is formed. Another important step is to make sure the daikon is fully cooked before adding the rice flour—even though the daikon is finely chopped, it still takes at least twenty minutes to fully cook. It should be slightly visible. transparent

With these two points in mind, here’s how to make it: I start by soaking dried shiitake mushrooms in hot water until completely rehydrated, then chop them up and add dried shrimp, Chinese sausage , and fried with sugar bacon.lap yoke). I finish by glazing the mushroom sausage mixture with soy sauce and brown sugar, then transfer to the same pot (a large pot or wok will work). When it’s ready, I stir the mushroom sausage mixture into the daikon base. Working in thirds, I add the rice flour until a sticky mass forms, thinning it out with a little water just in case it becomes difficult to stir.

I scrape the mixture into two glass baking dishes, although you can also use disposable aluminum ones, and then steam each until cooked, which takes about half an hour. Just be sure that you Steamer Large enough to hold baking dishes.

While you can eat the turnip cake straight out of the steamer, it’s best after it has rested for about 20 to 30 minutes. Before serving, I drizzle it with sesame oil and top it with chopped scallions and red pepper. A little hoisin for dipping and sriracha on the side, and it’s all set. To be honest, though, my favorite way to eat it is leftovers the next day: to reheat it after a night or two in the fridge, I cut it up and pan-fry it until it’s golden on both sides. And don’t be crispy. Serve the cake with a bowl. The keyand you have my ideal Lunar Year breakfast.

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