Date Published: August 28th, 2020 | Last Updated: August 28th, 2020
Author: Abby |Category: Asian, sides, snacks
Serves: 1 large plate | Prep time: 1 hr | Cook time: 1 hr

Jump to recipe |

Om nom nom I love radish cake. I know it originally in Mandarin as ‘luo buo gao’ which actually directly translates to ‘carrot cake’ because the common Mandarin name for a daikon radish (or Chinese turnip) is a ‘white carrot’ which it kind of looks like – don’t you think? You may see it more commonly called ‘lo bak go’ in dim sum restaurants, which is the Cantonese name. Whatever name you call it, it’s still delicious. I grew up with it in Taiwan as a common breakfast item or side dish. The best is when it’s fried until it’s lightly crispy then served with some garlic soy sauce paste and a garlic chilli hot sauce. It’s also really good when stir-fried in XO sauce (I’m literally salivating writing this).

I always thought luo buo gao was this impossibly complicated dish and never even thought about attempting to make it until I came upon the Woks of Life recipe. After a quick read through, it was definitely doable, but it does take a little effort and time – but hey, in pandemic times all I’ve got is extra time. Now’s the time to experiment! The first time I made this the texture was perfect and I was surprised how well it turned out. The flavours were spot-on, but I wanted more of it so I’ve tweaked the recipe to give it more of a boost so you can enjoy it with or without sauce.

Anyways, without further ado, here’s the recipe! If you have any comments or suggestions, I’d love to hear from you in the comment section! You can follow me on instagram, youtube and facebook to see all the recipes I post!

Happy cooking!

Ingredients you’ll need:

• 1 tablespoon dried shrimp
• 5 dried shiitake mushrooms
• 1 daikon radish (~600g)
• 1 cup (250ml) water
• 1/2 teaspoon of chicken powder
• 1 lap cheong (Chinese sausage), diced
• 1 spring onion, chopped
• 1 Tbsp oyster sauce
• 1 1/4 cups (130g) rice flour
• 1 Tbsp (8g) cornstarch
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1/8 tsp ground white pepper

Directions:

Soak the dried shrimp and shiitake mushrooms in a few cups of warm water until softened (~10-15mins).

• 

• 

While the shrimp and mushrooms soak, rinse and grate the daikon radish on the largest grater hole.

Toby’s mom has the sumo grater (see photo above) which is an as-seen-on-tv product that actually surprisingly works REALLY well at grating things super quickly and easily. I don’t trust many TV products, but I’d definitely get one of these when we move out.

• 

• 

• 

Add the grated radish to a wok or large pan with 1 cup of water and 1/2 teaspoon chicken powder and simmer until the radish is cooked and soft (~10-15mins). Stir occasionally so it doesn’t burn. Once the radish is cooked, scoop it out into a large bowl and measure out the remaining leftover liquid. You should have about 1 cup left – if not, add more water until you get 1 cup. Add this liquid to the radish bowl and set aside.

While the radish cooks, chop up the soaked shrimp, mushrooms, sausage and spring onion (make sure you keep an eye on the radish and keep stirring every few minutes). Make sure you remove the tough stem of the mushrooms.

• 

• 

Clean your pan from the radish and over MEDIUM heat, add a few tablespoons of oil and sauté the shrimp, mushrooms, and sausage for 5 minutes and fragrant. Stir in the oyster sauce and spring onions then remove from the heat and set aside to cool.

• 

• 

• 

• 

Add rice flour, cornstarch, salt, sugar and white pepper to the cooked radish bowl. Mix until everything is incorporated, then mix in the sautéed shrimp/mushroom/spring onion mixture. Set this batter aside for 15 minutes.

• 

• 

After 15 minutes, prepare your steamer and grease a heat-proof pan (make sure it fits in your steamer and ideally square shaped). I didn’t have a square pan in the house so I used a round cake tin instead. Stir the batter one more time and pour it into the greased pan. Steam over MED-HIGH heat for about 1 hour until your batter resembles the radish cake texture. The radish cake is pretty forgiving when it comes to cooking times so you don’t need to worry too much about over-cooking – just don’t go overboard and cook it for three hours 😜!

Remove from the steamer and let it cool for about 30mins. If you’re making this ahead of time you can leave it in the fridge overnight and fry them when you’re ready.

Once the radish cake has cooled, slice it into squares and you’re ready to fry! Heat a non-stick skillet over MEDIUM heat and add a few tablespoons of oil. Fry the radish squares until golden brown and lightly crispy on both sides (~3-5 mins per side). Done!

Dust a little ground white pepper over the squares before serving with a side of soy sauce paste, garlic chilli paste/sriracha, or oyster sauce. Enjoy!

Summarized Recipe: