IMG_6337after a day of beautiful weather, the pollution is back (again)…  it’s really quite depressing to wake up to a gloomy day.. like everyday  .·´¯(>▂<)´¯·.  some people think we live like kings and queens in china because everything is cheap.. if you haven’t read, Beijing was rated the top 2nd most expensive city to live in asia (after tokyo ~ of course) … why? because we spend a lot of money just to get the things that are supposed to be free or cheap…. like air, and water…..  anyways….

Recipe adapted from Sweetheart Kitchen

Ingredients (makes three 8-inch or four 7-inch cake pan turnip cakes)

IMG_6332480g glutinous rice flour
120g corn starch
3.6kg daikon
12 dried mushrooms
12 dried scallops (big size)
dried shrimps (as appropriate)
2 1/2 cup of  water (derived from soaking the above dried ingredients)
8 chinese sausages
3 shallots
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp salt
pepper (as appropriate)

Directions

IMG_6336– soak mushroom, dried scallop and dried shrimps overnight (or at least a few hours till they softened). Keep the soaking water
– boil the chinese sausage slightly for 3 mins to get rid of excess fats, and for hygiene purposes. this also makes slicing easier
– peel the daikon ~ thinly shred half of it, and shred the other half into slightly wider pieces (about the thickness of the last segment of our pinky finger a.k.a. last finger). the thicker shreds of the daikon adds on to the texture of the daikon cake since the thinly shredded ones just “dissolves” into the flour mixture. keep the water from the daikon
– dice the mushroom, dried shrimps and chinese sausages. tear the scallops into thin shreds
– sift flour and corn starch into a bowl and pour 2 1/2 cups of soaking water into the flour. mix till there are no more clumps. set aside
– fry sausage on high heat (on a grease-less pan) till oil from the sausage oozes out. add in mushroom, HALF portion of dried scallop, and HALF portion of dried shrimp. set these aside
– dice shallots into small cube and in another pan that has been heated (on high heat), add in the oil from the chinese sausages. If you do not get enough oil from frying the sausages (maybe your sausages are lean), you can use 2 soup spoon of oil instead
– fry shallots in heated oil till fragrant, and add in all of the daikon, 2 tsp of sugar and fry slightly. allow it to continue cooking till the thicker daikon shreds turn translucent (c. 10-15mins)
– after the daikon is cooked, add in salt and pepper and continue frying till it is nearly dry. turn off fire and add in the previously fried mushroom, dried shrimps and chinese sausages. incorporate well and add in flour mixture water (please ensure you stir it before using). mix everything well
– pour daikon batter into a slightly greased pan and even out. spread the remaining dried shrimps and scallops on top of the daikon batter
– steam on high heat for 45 mins or until a skewer comes out clean after inserting into cake
– spread chopped parsley, fried shallots or sesame seeds on daikon cake to serve

Personal notes:

IMG_6338– i quartered the recipe and made a 7 inch square pan daikon cake
– i overdosed on all my ingredients (except flour and cornstarch) by using 4 big mushrooms, one handful of dried scallops and another handful of dried shrimps. after all, this is homemade ya? hahaha… we want all the good ingredients in it φ( ●⌒へ ⌒〃)o . my ingredients were soaked overnight
– i will suggest shredding the thicker strips to longer, and maybe half the width of our pinky finger. as you can see, they were quite chunky in my daikon cake (either that, or my pinky is too fat! ヾ (✿>﹏ ⊙〃)ノ)
– i used only half a strip of chinese sausage for health purposes ~ i do wonder how it will taste if i used bak kwa
– the recipe did not instruct what to do with the water from the daikon. i added them into the batter as well. the cake turned out well

IMG_6335我开动了哈! ᕙ (❁^д ^*)っ

Pollution index: 177 (unhealthy)

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