Chinese Turnip Cake

Hi friends! Happy Lunar New Year! I'm so excited to share my recipe for Chinese Turnip Cake otherwise known as Lo Bak Go!  It's one of my all time favorite dishes to eat during Chinese New Year and at Dim Sum! My Grandpa taught me this recipe and it's taken me a few years to perfect it but I am so beyond happy with how it turned out this year! It's creamy with great texture filled with lots of toppings in every bite! I hope this recipe will give you lots of comfort this season, please let me know if you end up recreating it! Wishing you all good health, wealth, and happiness!

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Recipe

ingredients

4 lbs of Daikon

4 Chinese Sausage Links

1 Packet of Chinese Bacon (regular flavor) - 2 strips

1 Bag of Rice Flour

3 Tablespoons of Dried Shrimp

1 Teaspoon of Salt

1 Teaspoon of Sugar

1 Teaspoon of Soy Sauce

3 Tablespoons of White Pepper Powder

4 Garlic Cloves

2 Tablespoons of Vegetable Oil

1 1/2 cups of water

1 cup of shrimp soaked water

prep work + cooking instructions

• Daikon

  • Peel and grate the Daikon into shredded pieces then cut the rest into strips when you get down to the end :) This will help add texture

• Chinese Sausage

  • Cut into strips and then mince into small pieces, removing the sausage casing

• Chinese Bacon

  • Steam cook for about 30 mins before cutting into strips and dicing into small pieces. Do not use the skin because the texture is too hard.

• Dried shrimp

  • Soak shrimp in cold water for 30 mins. Mince into small pieces (personal preference on whether you like to have a bigger bite of shrimp or not) NOTE: Save one cup of the water the shrimp is soaking in for later use when we make the batter - this will give the turnip cake extra flavor.

• Garlic

  • Mince garlic

1. cooking the daikon

• Boil the daikon with enough water that covers the top of all the daikon strips around 4-5 cups

• Let it cook for about 15 -20 mins until the daikon is soft in texture and semi-translucent in color and only half of the water used is leftover

2. cooking the meat

• While the Daikon is cooking, pan fry the Chinese sausage, Chinese bacon, dried shrimp, and garlic in vegetable oil and soy sauce until everything is golden brown then put in a bowl and set aside while the daikon finishes up cooking.

  • TIP: Use the leftover oil from the pan to oil the containers you’re going to be putting the finished turnip cake batter in to ensure that it doesn’t stick.

3. making the rice flour batter

• Mix 1 bag of rice flour with 2 1/2 cups of water ( 1 of those cups should be from the water that you soaked the shrimp in for extra flavor!)

• Add dry ingredients to a bowl

  • 1 bag of rice flour

  • Salt

  • Pepper

  • Sugar

• Then add the water to the bowl of dry ingredients and mix until you have a very smooth consistency

combining it all together

1. Once the daikon is ready, turn the burner to low heat and mix in the cooked meat, and slowly start to add the rice flour batter and mix until everything is evenly blended. You'll need to work fast and keep mixing so the turnip cake batter doesn't burn.

2. Transfer the mixture into trays (glass or aluminum) and get ready to steam cook it for 50 mins on high heat.

3. Once it’s done you can use the toothpick trick to test if it's cooked through. Let it stand for a few hours to cool and settle. You can fry it up after it’s cooled or put it in the refrigerator to fry up the next day.

4. When you’re ready to eat, heat up the pan by setting it to the lowest heat, add some oil, and pan-fry each side until desired crispiness. It’ll take around 3-5 minutes to cook up