Turnip cake

Turnip cake after steaming

I love dim sum, but I never think to make it myself at home--why bother to make my own dumplings when I can go out and have them served to me, and better yet, since it's dim sum, it's pretty much immediate gratification. My favorite thing (well, maybe my second favorite thing) to get at dim sum is turnip cake, especially when it's properly pan fried so that the surface is crispy and the inside is tender.

I recently found myself with some extra daikon radish on my hands--which, I learned after surfing the web for some new ideas for using up the daikon, is the "turnip" in the turnip cake. Yes--you read that right! Turnip cake is traditionally made with radishes, not turnips. Confused? Me too, but no matter--I found a recipe that taught me it is really quite easy to make one's own turnip cake at home, which will probably be better and fresher--tastier--than something you get in a restaurant.

A mixture of grated daikon, water, rice flour, small dried shrimps, chopped chinese sausage, and chopped green onion is all you need to make this at home. That and some way to steam the cake (it fits into an 8x8 square pan or an 8 inch cake pan, which is a bit big for fitting the pan into another pot for steaming). Another thing I learned is that turnip cake is steamed first so it's cooked completely before it even gets pan fried. You do want to pan fry it, just to give it that crispy edged texture. I was amazed at how easy this was, and perhaps more importantly, one recipe's worth made so much more than you get with one order of turnip cake at a restaurant. I could have ALL the turnip cake I wanted, without suffering the judgmental stares of the dim sum cart pushers!!!!!

Turnip cake after pan frying- crispy and tender!