Turnip cake with cured meat, lo bak go

As tradition built it

Makes one large tray, serves 8 to 10 as dim sum. 2 hours, mostly hands-off steaming.

Ingredients

• 1 kg daikon radish, peeled and coarsely grated
• 300 g rice flour
• 2, diced Cantonese cured sausage (lap cheong)
• about 100g, diced cured pork belly (laap yuk)
• 2 tbsp, soaked and diced dried shrimp
• 3 to 4, soaked and diced dried scallop
• 4, soaked and diced dried shiitake
• 2 tsp salt
• a good pinch white pepper
• 1 tsp sugar
• half a tsp chicken bouillon powder

Method

1. Sauté the diced cured sausage and pork with the soaked, diced dried shrimp, scallop and shiitake, deglazed with a dash of Shaoxing wine.
2. Separately, cook the grated daikon with salt, white pepper, a little sugar and chicken bouillon over gentle heat until soft and translucent, its own liquid released.
3. Off the heat, fold the sautéed cured-meat mixture through the softened daikon.
4. Gradually stir in the rice flour, working to a thick, evenly combined batter with no dry pockets.
5. Pour into an oiled tray and steam for around 45 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean.
6. Cool fully, then slice and pan-fry both sides until golden before serving.

What a modern chef changes

Texture control at the daikon stage.

Method

1. Cook the daikon down further than tradition, reducing more of its liquid before the rice flour goes in, for a firmer, more sliceable cake that holds together better under the pan-frying step.
2. Render the cured meats to a genuinely crisp finish before folding them through, rather than a light sauté, so their texture survives the steaming step rather than turning uniformly soft.
3. Chill the finished cake fully overnight before slicing, giving cleaner cuts and a better contrast between the crisp fried surface and the tender interior.