This is a modified traditional steamed white radish (Daikon) cake. It is not a sweet cake but a savoury version. In the traditional recipe, we use lots of rice flour to make the rice cake. In this version, I wish to lighten my carbs intake and thus only the minimum amount of flour is used to “bind” the radish together.

Ingredient: you can adjust the ingredients proportionately. I am making a small serving for 2 people here.

• White radish 250 gm peeled and grated
• Salt 1 tsp
• Sugar 2 tsp

Mix the above together in a large bowl and set aside. The salt and sugar will cause “juice” in the radish to be extracted. Do not remove the “juice” extracted water. While waiting for the water to be extracted, let’s cook the savoury ingredients.

The savoury ingredients in the radish rice cake.

• Garlic – 5 cloves (chopped)
• Shitake Mushroom – 5 pieces (diced). If using dried mushrooms, soak them in warm water and dice when soft
• Frozen vegetable 2 table spoon (optional)
• Half tbsp of soy sauce
• Dash of pepper
• Dash of 5 spiced powder
• 2 tbsp oil for frying the ingredients.

Sautéed garlic till light brown, add mushroom and frozen vegetables to sautéed. Season with soy sauce, pepper, and 5 spice powder. Turn off the heat and Set aside when the garlic turns a darker brown but not burnt. The garlic become crunchy.

The following ingredients are optional and you need not add them if you are vegetarian.

• Dried shrimps 2 tbsp (rinsed)
• 1/3 Chinese sausage thinly sliced

After removing the sautéed vegetable from the pan, reheat pan with a table spoon of oil and sautéed the dried shrimp and Chinese sausages. Once done, remove from heat and set aside.

Now let us return to the radish. Water should have been extracted from the radish by now. Mix well, we do not remove the radish water. Add an additional 2 tbsp of water to the radish. Add 3 tbsp of rice flour and 1 tbsp of sweet potato starch to the radish and mix well. Then add the sautéed vegetable and mix well. This is the cake mixture!

lightly oil a baking tin. (I am using a 6-inch spring-release baking tin). Here you see me placing the “meat” on one side and leaving the other side empty. In this way, I can make a radish cake that is half vegetarian on one side and a non-vegetarian on the other half.

Add the radish cake mixture to the spring-release baking tin. Smooth the top but do not press. Otherwise, the water will flow out from underneath the tin.

Steam the cake mixture for 20 minutes. The flour and the radish water will solidify to form a steamed cake.

After the cake cooled, use a knife to gently separate the side of the cake from the tin. Then release the spring and free the cake from the baking tin, invert it on a serving plate. Tada! that’s your steam radish rice cake. You can eat this steamed cake as it is with a dash of soy sauce or chilli sauce if you wish.

Personally, I prefer to pan-fry the steamed rice cake to make them crispy. They will be crispy on the outside and soft inside. To do that, cut the cake into triangular slices. heat up a frying pan with oil on medium heat. Then add the radish cake to pan-fry on both sides.

Alternatively, you can also dip the cake in 1 beaten egg before pan frying them. panfry one side till crispy, flip them over, and pour any remaining egg mixture into the frying pan. You will have fried eggs together with the radish cake when cooked.

Serve with ketchup or chilli sauce

Hope you will enjoy this traditional Chinese recipe on your off day. Feel free to experiment. This dish goes well with unsweetened Chinese tea or black tea. Bon appetite!

May all be well and happy.