Radish cake is eaten during Chinese New Year as a symbol for togetherness.   My friend, Ophelia, made the dish this year again….I wish she lived closer coz I would love to get together and have a slice delicious law bak goh!  She shares the secret from her mom — the oil keeps the batter together.  In addition, she recipe-tested my recipe and this is what she says:  “I added one cup less water than your [original] recipe – I judged it by the consistency … when it looked too watery, I added a little more rice flour.  It was 11pm by the time I was done steaming.  I decided to put the whole pan outside the door, and by the Monday it was nice and firm, ready to be fried for New Year breakfast! “  Looks like the 2010 Washington DC snowmageddon did come in useful afterall!

Anyways, I promised her if she shared the picture, the recipe will be on the blog forever so she needn’t search high and low for her copy each new year!  Here we go!  This is the revised recipe (do note to add more water/ rice flour as needed).

2 lbs Chinese white radish, grated
1 cup water + 1 cup water

4 Chinese sausages, finely diced
1/4 cup dried shrimps*, soaked in warm water with 1 tablespoon sherry, drain and chop
2 + 2 tablespoons oil
4 dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked, or use fresh, finely diced
2 cups rice flour
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1/4 teaspoon five spice powder

1 tablespoon cilantro, finely chopped
1 tablespoon scallion, finely chopped

1. Peel and grate radish. Place shredded radish in a small pot or saucepan with 1 cup of water. Bring mixture to a boil, than reduce the heat to a low and simmer for 15 minutes or until tender, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat.  Transfer to a large bowl.  Let cool.
2. Start a steamer over a wok of boiling water.
3. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in wok. Stir-fry sausage, 1 minute.  Add the shrimp; fry 30 seconds and mushrooms, 1 minute.  Remove from heat. Set aside.
4. Add 1 cup water to radish mixture.  Add in rice flour, sugar, salt, pepper and 5 spice powder and mix until consistency of thick oatmeal.  You may need to add more water or rice flour.  Add 2 tablespoons of oil.
5. Add in sausage & mushroom mixture, scallion and cilantro.  Mix well.
6. Line a 6 inch by 9 inch (or a 9 inch diameter) cake pan with parchment paper and grease with oil liberally. Pour mixture into it. Place on rack in steamer. Steam over briskly boiling water 1 hour.
7. When cold, refrigerate overnight.
8. To serve, slice 1/4 inch thick, 2 inches wide, and 3 inches long. Fry slices in 1 tablespoon oil until golden brown. Serve hot.

Serves: 6-8

Tags: Cantonese, Chinese, dim sum.

Rice porridge “jook” is an all day food, although typically eaten at breakfast.  Some people like their jook simple with only one choice of meat, others may add a whole enchilada of meats, pickles and vegetables. There is a popular “whole hog” version that essentially includes all parts of the pig such as large intestines croutons, red tofu – quite literally from head to tail except for the meat – before whole hog dining became trendy!

The recipe below is a base recipe for jook.

Chef’s tip:  Soaking the rice overnight helps create a smooth porridge.    Some folks believe that if you add a handful of cooked rice to the raw rice, it makes for an even starchier consistency.  If you prefer a heavier consistency, reduce the amounts of liquid.

1/2 cup jasmine or arborio rice
1 Tablespoon kosher salt
2 Tablespoons canola oil
4 cups chicken broth
4 cups water

Serves: 4

1. Rinse rice. Soak rice with salt and oil overnight in 2 cups water.
2. In a large pot, add rice with soaking water, broth and remaining water.
3. Bring to boil and turn down heat. Simmer for 1-1 1/2 hour, stirring occasionally until the rice breaks down and forms a smooth gruel.  Stir occasionally to help breakdown the rice morsels.

Variations:
For chicken jook, add sliced chicken that is marinated with sesame oil, soy sauce and a little corn starch.    Bring to a boil until chicken is cooked, about 3 minutes.  Serve with juliened fresh ginger, green onions, generous sprinkling of white pepper, a dash of sesame oil and fried garlic crisps.

For fish jook, placed sliced white fish onto a serving bowl with some ginger and white pepper. Ladle on some boiling jook.  Bring back to boil and remove from heat.  Serve immediately with julienned fresh ginger, green onions, generous sprinkling of white pepper and soy sauce.

For meatballs jook, mix ground pork with some sesame oil, soy sauce and white pepper. Using 2 teaspoons, form meatballs and drop into some boiling jook. Bring back to boil until meatballs float to the top.  Serve with julienned fresh ginger, green onions, generous sprinkling of white pepper, a dash of sesame oil and soy sauce.

The options for toppings are endless – from thousand year old eggs to pickled mustard, fried baby anchovies and peanuts to smoked tofu, pork liver, etc.

Tags: Cantonese, Chinese, dim sum.

Gan Shui Hong Dao Sha Joong is a dessert dumpling.  It’s an acquired taste – a sort of “bland and flat” springy rice dumpling stuffed with sweet mashed red beans.  Traditionally the rice is treated with an alkaline water to give it a spongy and springy texture.  Since this “lye” water is not permitted this side of the Pacific, we will use baking soda instead to achieve the same effect.

The last in our series on Zongzi, please refer to the first post on the series for wrapping and boiling instructions.  Happy wrapping!

Chef’s tip: For the full detailed instructions on how to fold the dumpling and boiling the dumplings, please refer to the Cantonese Joong recipe for the leaf template and step by step instructions.

Sweet Joong

4 ½ cups glutinous sweet rice, soaked, drained
4 ½ teaspoons baking soda. sifted (or 2 tablespoon alkaline “lye” water)

Red bean paste
1 cup of Adzuki red beans, soaked, drained
3/4 cup sugar or more to taste
3 pandan leave (optional), each tied into a knot
¼ cup of canola oil
¼ teaspoon kosher salt

4 pandan leaves, cut into 1 inch length
72 pieces bamboo leaves
24 pieces yard-long kitchen twine

Preparing the ingredients the night before
1.    Wash rice.  Cover with 2 inches of water over the top of the rice, and soak overnight.
2.    Pick over red beans, rinse, cover with 2 inches of water over the top & soak overnight.
3.    Soak bamboo leaves in hot water overnight.  Next morning, scrub with brush and rinse several times to remove dirt.  Leave leaves in water till ready to use.
Preparing the red bean paste filling
4.    Place beans in a pot with 2 pieces of the pandan.  Cover with 2 inches of water over the beans and simmer 1-1 ½ hours till beans have softened.  Add more water if needed.  Drain.
5.    Puree beans in a food processor.
6.    In a non stick pan, heat oil, add sugar and the pureed beans and 1 pandan.
7.    Constantly stir the paste. Cook for 10 minutes until the bean paste is dry.
Preparing the rice
8.    Drain rice, sprinkle baking soda over the rice and mix well, let sit 5 minutes.  Rice should turn slightly yellow.
Wrapping the dumpling (see detailed instructions section)
9.    Prepare bamboo cone.
10.    Place 1 tablespoon rice into the cone.  Make a slight well, then place 2 tablespoons of red bean paste and top with 1½ tablespoons of rice.  Pack all ingredients lightly as you add them.  Smooth the top with a clean wet spoon.
11.    Cover the rice with 2 pieces of pandan squares
12.    Complete wrapping and secure leaves with kitchen twine.
NOTE: Sweet dumplings are packed and tied loosely so that the rice will have space to expand and it will be soft
Cooking
13.    Bring a pot of water to boil.  Gently place the dumplings in and boil for 60 minutes over medium slow fire. Add water constantly to ensure the dumplings are always submerged in water.
14.    When cooked, remove the dumplings and place in a colander to dry.
15.    Serve with brown sugar or palm sugar syrup on the side, if you’d like.

Makes 24 pieces

* Note: The leftover cooking liquid (plus a little of the beans) makes an excellent Chinese dessert – “hongdou shui”.  Add sugar to taste.  Serve hot with a tablespoon of coconut milk.

Tags: Cantonese, Chinese, Malaysian.