January 23, 2022
Lunar New Year is around the corner again. This year, we are approaching the year of the tiger. Kev and I are especially excited for this upcoming year. In our family, Lunar New Year is the one holiday each year my entire family looks forward to with joy even more than any other holiday throughout the year. Each person in my family prepares for Lunar New Year in his or her own way. My dad would plan out the feast we would all gather to enjoy throughout the holidays. My mom would come up with a solid game plan for deep cleaning and decorating the house. My brothers would plan all the ways they would spend their red envelopes throughout our childhood. I would eagerly await all the amazing food we would enjoy in the days to come. Some of my favorite foods to enjoy during Lunar New Year definitely include my mom’s sweet and savory tang yuan. It’s a super easy dish my mom would whip up on a whim as a way to celebrate all major occasions and milestones. Whether it was graduation, landing a new job, or accomplishing personal or professional goals, mom’s celebratory tang yuan would find its way to the table. Dad, on the other hand, often opted for whole cooked foods. We’ve been lucky to enjoy whole cooked chickens, whole steamed fishes, whole prepared lobsters, and whole roasted pigs throughout our childhood. Of all the foods my dad prepares, his whole steamed fish reigns supreme. He always seems to pick out the perfect fish in which he steams to absolute perfection with a simple ginger-scallion soy sauce. (I’m working on learning how to perfect his steamed fish recipe to share in a future post.) For Kev and I, we usually look forward to enjoying some good dumplings. Kev would always vote for soup dumplings. I usually prefer a simple pork and cabbage or mushroom and chicken variety. While we will definitely feature these family favorite dishes throughout our Lunar New Year celebrations, we also needed to share another family favorite dish, my mom’s turnip cakes (with a slight spin). I say my mom’s turnip cakes loosely since I did make some slight alterations when refining her recipe. Turnip cakes (also known as radish cakes or Lo Bak Go) is usually served as a staple during dim sum. Whenever my family and I go for dim sum, we almost always order turnip cakes off of the dim sum menu. My favorite turnip cakes are often crispy all around the edges, and packed with a variety of fillings. Turnip cakes are traditionally served around the new year as a way to welcome the new year with luck. I had initially planned to make turnip cakes with mom during the Christmas holidays, but since she was not able to visit in person, I made turnip cakes with her over FaceTime. Cooking with my mom is usually a challenge because she doesn’t use exact measurements – everything is made by eyeballing. She would just suggest for me to adjust measurements as I go, or check the viscosity/texture of whatever I’m making. Making turnip cakes with my mom was no different. I had to take care to jot down notes as I was cooking to make sure I noted the right ratio of ingredients. Once you get the technique down for making the turnip cakes, they are actually pretty easy to make. Traditional turnip cakes are usually filled with just lap cheung and dried baby shrimp and topped with scallions. I decided to take it up a notch by packing in even more flavors. I generously added minced garlic and chopped reconstituted dried shiitake mushrooms as a way to further enhance the flavors in the turnip cakes. When all the ingredients are added together into the turnip cakes, you have a medley of complementary flavors in each and every bite. The fillings for the turnip cakes are cooked first to release all the flavors. A blend of rice flour and water creates the binder for the turnip cakes. I used a medium-sized daikon radish, grated most of it, and diced about a third of it. The grated and diced radish makes for a good balance of textures within the turnip cakes. Everything is combined together, poured into a springform cake pan and steamed until cooked through. The turnip cake is then cooled, cut into rectangular slices, and fried to golden perfection. Usually, the turnip cake is chilled for several hours to overnight before frying and serving, but I couldn’t resist and ended up frying up some turnip cakes after only allowing the steamed turnip cake to chill in the refrigerator for about 2 hours. When frying up the turnip cakes, I fried them just a bit longer to allow for the turnip cakes to be on the crispier side (just the way Kev prefers them). These turnip cakes made for the perfect start to the Lunar New Year celebrations.
For the turnip cakes (also known as radish cakes or Lo Bak Go):
· 3 cloves garlic, minced
· 2 lap cheung, diced
· 10 dried baby shrimps, roughly chopped
· 3 dried shiitake mushrooms (reconstituted in water about 1 hour before), diced
· 3 stalks scallions, thinly sliced
· 1 medium daikon radish, about ⅓ diced and ⅔ grated
· ½ teaspoon granulated sugar
· vegetable oil, for brushing and frying
· 8 ounces rice flour
· 1½ cups lukewarm water
· 1 teaspoon kosher salt
For the dipping sauce:
· 1 teaspoon sugar
· 1 teaspoon hot water
· 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
· 1 tablespoon soy sauce
· red chili flakes (optional)
· chopped cilantro (optional)
· sliced scallions (optional)
· sesame seeds (optional)
Directions:
1) Prepare all of the ingredients prior to starting the turnip cakes. Heat a skillet on medium heat. Add the minced garlic, diced lap cheung, chopped dried baby shrimps, diced shiitake mushrooms, and half of the thinly sliced scallions. Cook the ingredients for about 2-3 minutes, until the ingredients are aromatic and cooked through. Scoop out half of the filling. Add the diced and grated radish and granulated sugar. Cook until softened about another 3-5 minutes. Transfer the filling and cooked radish to a separate bowl to allow them to cool for about 15 minutes.
2) While the filling is cooling, fill a large pot or wok with water. Place a metal rack within the pot or wok. Heat the large pot or wok on high heat until the water begins to boil. Brush a springform pan with vegetable oil. Set aside.
3) After 15 minutes, in a large bowl, whisk together the rice flour, lukewarm water, and kosher salt until incorporated. Fold in the cooled filling and grated and diced radish. Transfer the batter for the turnip cakes into the springform pan brushed with oil. Sprinkle in the rest of the filling and reserved sliced scallions.
4) Turn the heat down to medium high and carefully transfer the springform pan to the metal rack. Steam the turnip cake for about 45-50 minutes. Test the doneness of the turnip cake by inserting a knife down the center of the cake. If the knife comes out clean, the turnip cake is ready. Turn off the heat and gently remove the springform pan with the turnip cake from the large pot or wok.
5) Let the turnip cake rest in the springform pan until the surface is cool to the touch, about half an hour. Cover the springform pan with a sheet of plastic wrap, place the springform pan on top of a large plate, and transfer the springform pan with the plate to chill in the refrigerator for several hours or overnight.
6) After several hours (or overnight), remove the springform pan from the refrigerator. Gently glide the turnip cake out of the springform pan. Use a sharp knife to cut the turnip cake into smaller rectangular pieces. Pat the turnip cakes dry with a paper towel before frying them.
7) To make the fried turnip cakes, heat a skillet on medium-high heat, add about ¼ cup of vegetable oil into the skillet. Allow the oil to heat up. Transfer the turnip cakes into the skillet and fry for about 3-5 minutes on each side. If desired, fry the turnip cakes for a bit longer and around the edges to get even crispier turnip cakes.
8) Make a dipping sauce for the turnip cakes by combining the sugar, hot water, oyster sauce, and soy sauce in a small bowl. If desired, top the sauce with red chili flakes, chopped cilantro, sliced scallions, and sesame seeds. Serve the sauce alongside the crispy turnip cakes. Enjoy!
Takeaways: The turnip cake does take a bit of time to make because of the time needed to allow for resting and chilling the steamed turnip cake. The ingredients within the turnip cake can be mixed and matched to one’s desired tastes. As another alternative to turnip cakes, the radish can be omitted and rice cakes can be made instead, another one of my mom’s signature dishes. My mom made variations of these cakes including turnip, rice, and taro a lot during our childhood. She would pack the rice cakes with just about the same ingredients as the turnip cakes. Rice cakes are a great way to enjoy another variation of the savory cakes.