Lo Pak Ko - Radish Cake

26 comments


I do realise that in the past weeks my blog has been bombarded by bento-related posts. I've got a bento fever, I am very aware of this, but I just can't help it. It is simply so addictive making cute characters out of food :). But I have always been rather artsy and I like to express myself and channel my feelings through creating something 'nice', since I have never been that good at words, especially orally. My dream when I was younger was to be an author, but growing up with two languages and now three has been a rather confusing journey and I sometimes think that I cannot speak any of the three languages perfectly. My husband thinks I am crazy because I often tell him that my English is getting worse by the day because now I live in Germany. Maybe it's the perfectionist in me, I just can't bear to make mistakes. Maybe I need to be more positive and think that at least I can speak all three languages fluently...;).

Anyway, today's post is about fried radish cake. Even though I love making bento meals so much, from time to time I still want to post some recipes which I like.

Radish Cake or Lo Pak Ko in Cantonese is very commonly served in yum cha restaurants. Compared to the other dim sum delicacies, such as har gao, shao mai or chee cheong fun, radish cake is quite easy to make at home. As long as you have a food processor, making this cake is really just a piece of cake ;). I used to grate the radish manually in the past and grating a whole radish with a grater does take quite some time and energy to do. Fortunately yesterday I tried the easier method and simply used a food processor to shred the radish. Tastewise I don't notice any difference, grating the radish manually IMHO doesn't make the radish cake taste in any way more superior.

Ingredients
  • 1 medium daikon radish
  • 1 tablespoon oil
  • 2 - 3 chopped Chinese sausages
  • 5 - 6 Shiitake mushrooms, chopped
  • 1/2 cup chopped green onions
  • 1 tablespoon fried onion
  • 2 tablespoons fish sauce
  • 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
  • 1/2 teaspoon 5-spice powder
  • 1 tablespoon sesame oil
  • Salt, pepper and sugar to taste
  • 250 grams rice flour
  • 50 grams tapioca flour
  • 500 milliliter water
Instructions
  • Peel the daikon radish and cut into cubes. Shred the radish cubes in a food processor with 100 milliliter of water. Set aside.
  • Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a wok. Stir fry sausages, mushrooms and green onions. Add fish sauce, oyster sauce, 5 spice powder, fried onion, salt, pepper and sugar and keep stirring until fragrant.
  • Add shredded radish and cook for 5 minutes.
  • Mix rice flour, tapioca flour and 400 millilitre water in a bowl.
  • Pour the rice/tapioca flour mixture into the wok, cook for 1 minute.
  • Grease a cake pan. Pour the radish cake mixture into it. Steam for app. 40 minutes.
  • When cold, refrigerate overnight. This will make the cake easier to cut.



Steamed radish cake





Slice the cake and you can directly eat it, but I prefer to pan-fry my radish cake. It tastes much better so.




Serve your fried radish cake with fried onion, chopped scallions and chili sauce.


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26 comments:

  1. Radish cake looks awesome.

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  2. yum yum yum...ive never steamed the cakes before, always pan fry them..soo good

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  3. Me gusta mucho la receta, me la copio.

    saludos

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  4. yummy! I love pan fried radish cake and it goes best with chinese sausages! :D

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  5. I've been loving your bento posts, but this is a great one as well. This radish cake looks really unique and I'd love to taste it :)

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  6. I really like this, it looks delicious and very pretty

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  7. Wow! that looks very inviting and totally yum!

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  8. This looks like a tasty treat! I definitely think I'd prefer the fried version too! =)

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  9. It looks so good. I don't get radishes that often but this makes me get them and try :)

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  10. wow three languages impressive and what a neat cake new to me

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  11. I love bentos as well- I think it makes lunch time more fun. Just that I only have 1 bento box! LOL Have to locate more in the future.

    Radish cake is a classic- I think it can be lunch, supper, breakfast and even dinner if we push it!! It has veges, meat and carbs! perfect meal by itself.

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  12. This sounds really interesting wth all those ingredients, btw i love seeing all your bentos - they are amazing :)

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  13. I love the color of the pan-fried version. Yum!

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  14. Mmm love this every time I get dim sum.

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  15. Guess what? I feel the same like you about language. We need to practice our second languages as often as we can because if not, it's so easy to forget ;) I speak German with my mom daily and I'm also a German teacher in an International school thus I have to teach German using English. But then, since I'm living here in Indonesia, I feel that my German and English
    are kinda in a "stuck" stage or getting worse too, hehehe.

    I would love to try this recipe! Sounds easy and yummy :) Btw, do you make your own fried onion? Is it onion or shallot?

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  16. Bah! I already speak 3 1/2 languages fluently, especially I'm in a bilingual city, rich in multiculturism. As long you stick with the blogging community which is mostly English, I'm pretty sure you won't lose it :)

    I love Radish Cake. My mom does it like every month. We also put a bit of dried shrimps too.

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  17. oh.. loh Pak Ko! yum yums..

    i love the fried one, it brings out the fragrance of the lap cheong!

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  18. @ Selba - I do have the chance to practise at least English and German on a daily basis, but I keep forgetting vocabs from these 3 languages, sometimes I only remember some words in English, or German, then sometimes only in Indo, what a nuisance ;)!

    Btw, it's fried onion.

    @ Victor - you're right! One reason why I keep blogging is because I think it's a good chance for me to practise my English writing skills - I still quite suck though...:(!

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  19. hi CG, are you chinese? i love radish cake and this is something that i wont miss at the dim sum restaurant. If you like the taste of dried shrimps, you can also add a little to that.

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  20. She speaks three languages AND turns food into adorable little animals!? You truly are amazing :) Great radish cake. Can't wait to give it a try myself!

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  21. yummy, i love Daikon radish cake so much, will make this very soon! ;) Thanks for the recipe!

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  22. I love lo pak ko, it looks so good. I always have to have this at yum cha. Love it pan fried best too. Thanks for sharing your recipe. I'm definitely going to try this soon :)

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