As Chinese New Year is coming up, we help our host prepare her favorite New Year dish, turnip cake (Lo Bak Go). (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turnip_cake) My host makes it every year for the new year. She brags that she cooks a really good version of it, when she gave it to her boss to share with his Chinese parents, they said it's the best they ever had. : ) You can find the cake in Chinese restaurant dim sum too, but they are not as good. ; ) She also says that unlike the German food I've tried, hers is very authentic Chinese.
First we have to prepare the ingredient. We used dried shrimp, dried scallop and mushroom, and we have to soak it in water first. You can make the dish vegetarian by using mushroom, carrot, celery and other veggies, but her husband doesn't like it (he doesn't like much of her vegetarian stuff).
Next we chop up some sausage.
Now we stir fried it with some cooking wine, soy sauce and sugar.
Next is the preparation of the turnip, or daikon. We use 5 lbs for one round of cake. We clean and peel them.
While my host's grandma had to shred them by hand, now it is a breeze with a food processor.
We cook the radish, then add the mixings in.
We prepare the flour mix. It's half rice flour and half corn starch in a small bowl of water.
We put the radish mixture into a deep pan and stir in the flour mix.
[
We have to steam the mixture for 45 minutes. While we are waiting, we prepare some cilantro.
Let's see if it's ready! We stick a chopstick into the cake. If it comes out clean it's good.
A little garnish with cilantro and sesame on top, and it's done!!
