Steamed white radish cakes are served in most Chinese dim sum restaurants in Hong Kong. These soft and delicious appetizers are made from white radish or Japanese daikon. The ingredients are steamed and cooked in a steamer pot and then pan-fried to give them a crispy coating on the outside while keeping them soft and juicy on the inside.
White radishChinese sausagesDried shrimpsSteamed white radish cakeRadish cake slices being pan-friedEnjoy!
Recipe for White Radish Cake, Dim-Sum Style
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 1 hour 30 min
Ready in: 2 hours
Yields: Serves 6 people
Ingredients
1.5 kilograms white radish or daikon, also known as long white icicles (available from fresh produce markets)
500 grams rice flour
3 chinese sausages, available from Coles supermarket or Asian stores
50 grams dried shrimps, washed and soaked
1 teaspoon garlic granules, use fresh garlic if preferred
1 teaspoon chopped shallots, can be substituted with onions if preferred
4 medium mushrooms
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon ground peppper
2.5 cups water
Instructions
Wash, peel and grate all the white radishes. Put the grated radish into a wide frying pan and cook for about 15 to 20 minutes or until the juice from the radish has evaporated. Add in salt and pepper just before turning off the heat. Set aside to cool and prepare the rest of the ingredients.
Cut up the Chinese sausages, shallots and dried shrimps into small pieces.
Heat up one tablespoon of oil in a frying pan. Add in sausages, shallots, garlic and dried shrimps and fry until fragrant. Set aside.
Pour rice flour into a big mixing bowl and add in water. Mix well until there are no lumps of flour in the mixture. An easy trick is to pass the mixture through a sieve.
Add in cooled radish and the rest of the fried ingredients. Mix well.
Divide the mixture into two portions and pour it into two greased stainless steel containers.
Add plenty of water into a steamer pot and bring the water to a boil before putting the radish in the steamer pot. Steam each container for 40 to 45 minutes on medium to high heat. Remove and set aside to cool before removing the radish cake from the container.
Cut one of the radish cakes into 2-centimetre-thick slices. Fry the slices on each side for a couple of minutes or until slightly brown. If you want them more crispy, fry them until golden brown. Serve pan-fried radish cakes with tomato sauce, sweet sauce or chilly sauce.
The radish cake in the other container can be stored in the fridge and consumed the following morning. Slice and pan-fry as per previous instructions, and serve hot for breakfast!
Adapting the Above Recipe for a Singapore-Style Fried Radish Cake
This recipe is one of the popular dishes most tourists will find at hawker food stalls in Singapore. I call it Singapore Hawker Style Fried Radish Cake, but in Singapore, the locals named this recipe “Fried Carrot Cake” even though carrots are never used as ingredients in this dish.
Ingredients:
All ingredients listed above
Oil for cooking
Bean sprouts
Dark soy sauce
An egg
Spring onions
Instructions:
To make this Singapore fried radish cake, just follow the instructions above from steps 1 to 7 for preparing the steamed radish cake. Then take about six slices of the radish cake and cut them into cubes.
Heat up a tablespoon of oil in a frying pan.
Add in a teaspoon of garlic and fry until fragrant.
Mix in a generous handful of bean sprouts and cook for about half a minute.
Add in the radish cake cubes and fry until slightly brown.
Add in one tablespoon of dark soy sauce and a lightly beaten egg.
Mix and fry until the egg is just cooked.
Plate it up and garnish with chopped spring onions. Serve hot.
