Here’s an easy homemade Turnip cake recipe (aka Lo Bak Go or Chinese Radish Cake). I will share a traditional recipe from Cantonese cuisine, which is prepared precisely for the Chinese New Year, but which is also served throughout the year along with dim sum in Asian restaurants.
This is a dish that won’t make you slimmer, but turns out pretty delicious!
If you don’t know what it is, Lo Bak Go is a mixture of grated Chinese turnip and steamed rice flour, then cut into slices. The latter is then browned in the frying pan and served very hot, all fluffy on the inside and crispy on the outside.
I had eaten homemade Lo Bak Go a few years ago and asked for the recipe, which I had been given “in the lurch”: surely not complicated when you are Chinese but much harder to achieve at home when you do not have the proper culture 😉 I had therefore dropped, not being sure of me on this type of recipe.
I thought I found my happiness a little while ago in the Asian shops, but alas, the industrial preparations are pasty and floury and you do not really feel the taste of Chinese turnips. It’s a pity because that’s all that makes the flavor of this dish.
At that time, I really wanted to get to do Lo Bak Go, and I did a lot of web surfing, but in English, on blogs from Hong Kong, to find out how to do it.
My stubbornness paid off, and I found exactly the Taste Of The Lo Bak Go I had eaten years ago!
I do not give you links: I made a mix of several recipes and took into account the comments of different authors who often told their family memories related to this dish.
The filling varies according to the families, I chose what was in all the recipes.
For the proportions, I weighed my turnip and adapted it according to the only recipe that gave proportions of rice flour and water in grams and ml per 2kg of turnips.
Indeed, as it is a festive dish, we prepare large quantities of it. First, I voluntarily reduced the doses so as not to make a mess in case of a miss.
Before you start the recipe check that you have enough to cook your dish with Steam: you need a mold that fits into a steam basket, and the cooking lasts 40 min to 1 hour depending on the thickness of the preparation. I have a very large couscous so it did not cause me a problem, but maybe it is not your case.
Easy Homemade Turnip cake recipe (Lo Bak Go 蘿蔔糕 )
Specific material: a steamer or couscous, a mold that fits into it. A wok or a big jumper.
Ingredients for a 20cm diameter mold
- 1 Chinese radish of 750g
- 150g rice flour (especially not sticky rice)
- 300ml water (See note)
- 2 Chinese sausages
- 3 or 4 fresh shiitake or dried black mushrooms
- 1 tablespoon of dried shrimp
- 3 or 4 green onions (Chinese onions)
- 1 tablespoon grated sugar
- pinch of Salt
Method
To do a few hours in advance: rehydrate the shrimp in a bowl of cold water and black mushrooms in another.
Peel the turnip, wash it, and grate it. Place the grated turnip in a colander over a salad bowl and allow to drain for ½ hour. Keep the liquid flowing into the salad bowl if you want to mix it with rice flour, instead of the water indicated in the list of ingredients.
Cut the sausage into cubes. Wash and peel shiitakes, cut into cubes if you use fresh mushrooms, otherwise cut black mushrooms into cubes once rehydrated. Mince the green onion.
Mix rice flour and water. Place the sausage dice in a wok and heat over low heat. When the fat begins to exude from sausages, add the drained dried shrimp, increase the fire and cook for about 2 min, stirring constantly. Then add the mushrooms and green onions and cook for another 2 min, always mixing. Then add the drained grated turnips, and cook another 3 to 4 min, stirring constantly! The turnip will return some water. Then lower the heat, add the sugar, and salt and stir in the rice flour mixture, always stirring, to prevent it from sticking to the bottom. Cook on low heat for another 3-4 min, always stirring, paying attention that it does not tie: it is ready when the mixture thickens and forms a kind of dough. Pour into a greased pan and Steam for 40 min. Check from time to time that there is enough water left for cooking under the steam basket.
Allow cooling before demoulding. Cut into slices and Brown in the pan in a little oil (sunflower or rapeseed) over medium heat. Serve hot.
You can season it with soy sauce or oyster sauce at the time of serving, but I like it alone, without anything, to appreciate the flavor of turnip
- 1 Chinese radish of 750g
- 150g rice flour (especially not sticky rice)
- 300ml water (See note)
- 2 Chinese sausages
- 3 or 4 fresh shiitake or dried black mushrooms
- 1 tablespoon of dried shrimp
- 3 or 4 green onions (Chinese onions)
- 1 tablespoon grated sugar
- pinch of Salt
- To do a few hours in advance : rehydrate the shrimp in a bowl of cold water and black mushrooms in another.
- Peel the turnip, wash it, grate it. Place the grated turnip in a colander over a salad bowl and allow to drain ½ hour. Keep the liquid flowing into the salad bowl if you want to mix it with rice flour, instead of the water indicated in the list of ingredients.
- Cut the sausage into cubes. Wash and peel shiitakes, cut into cubes if you use fresh mushrooms, otherwise cut black mushrooms into cubes once rehydrated. Mince the green onion.
- Mix rice flour and water. Place the sausage dice in a wok and heat over low heat. When the fat begins to exude sausages, add the drained dried shrimp, increase the fire and cook about 2 min, stirring constantly. Then add the mushrooms and green onions and cook for another 2 min, always mixing. Then add the drained grated turnips, and cook another 3 to 4 min, stirring constantly ! The turnip will return some water. Then lower the heat, add the sugar, salt and stir in the rice flour mixture, always stirring, to prevent it from sticking to the bottom. Cook on low heat another 3-4 min, always stirring, paying attention that it does not tie : it is ready when the mixture thickens and forms a kind of dough. Pour into a greased pan and Steam for 40 min. Check from time to time that there is enough water left for cooking under the steam basket.
- Allow to cool before demoulding. Cut into slices and Brown in the pan in a little oil (sunflower or rapeseed) over medium heat. Serve hot.
In this case, we used Chinese turnips (long and white) and especially not our Western turnips as Letitia did a bad experience !
Regarding cooking, I overcooked my pate that is to say it baked 1h instead of 40min. We don’t quite realize when the pie is cooked and I’ve forced the dose a little. It does not matter, since it is steam cooking, it does not dry out.
For the mixture of water and rice flour, one of the recipes I read advocated keeping the water rendered by grated turnips instead of using water. That’s what I did, but I measured the amount of liquid in a metering glass and supplemented it with water to get 300ml.
Next time I will double the proportions so much it’s good: once the pate is steamed and cooled, we can cut slices and freeze them for later use.
We can pass them to the frying pan still frozen and brown them over medium heat for a fast meal and that’s even what I will do tonight 🙂
For the ingredients, everything you can find in Asian grocery stores. The dish does not come back very expensive and you can still freeze the remaining Chinese sausages for later use. If you do not know what to make of your package of rice flour purchased especially for the occasion, here I offer you a Lebanese recipe.
Note: My mold was round: I used the falls once the slices were cut to accompany steamed broccoli.
Also, check my butter cake streusel recipe and this Indian Summer Gratin Recipe
Have you tried making this Turnip cake recipe at home? Let me know in the comments below.
