Grandma home-made recipe - Holiday Season Turnip Daikon Cake 菜頭糕

Christmas holiday spirits is everywhere! From shopping street, supermarket, train stations, holiday recipes. The family gathering moment makes me homesick even more. Instead of christmas feast celebrate with endless meat, cheese and luxurious dessert, I think of "MUST-EAT" for lunar calendar year in Taiwan. It's still one month away, my spirit is somehow already there. Daikon radish is one of shining stars in the open market now, there is nothing better than taking good use of this winter treasure for this holiday event.

 

The idea is celebrating Christmas with Taiwanese flavor - Turnip Cake. It is based on grandma recipe but cooked with rice cooker. I am fond of this savory turnip cake since I was a little girl. I used to spend one month in mom's hometown- Nantou with grandma before the lunar new year. It is a place loaded with lots of happy memories especially for the period before new year. Clean up the house, prepare at least three different kinds of new year cakes and amazing new year dishes, greeting with relatives and neighbors. Cooking with this traditional wood-fired stove is my favorite activity back then. You need to pile up the woods in the small hole precisely under the stove where it located and fire up the woods according to the heat you need. It definitely requires sophisticated skill to excel this device. I personally love the smell from burning woods and this is exactly give me a perfect chance to expose under this fragrance while cooking. 

 

Every time when I go back to Nantou and see this stove, a vivid scene pop up in my head. The scene I was scold by grandma because I was so excited and curious to watch her making new year cake with this giant tool without stop asking questions. The reason being scold is you need to be sincere, paying full attention to this cake through out the process without any chi-chat or noise-generating in order to make perfect ones. Even I make turnip cake with a rice cooker this time, I keep this spirit in mind and it pays back with perfect texture and flavor. It is so easy to make with a rice cooker, I cannot say it will 100% work out perfectly but at least 95% chance you can have a lovely home-made turnip cake within 1 hour. For me, its the best thing to enjoy my home dish to welcome the red-green-jingle-bell holiday!

Ingredients:
1. 400g rice flour
2. 700cc (4 cup) water
3. 1kg daikon, shredded or stripped (for more texture)
4. 5 dried mushroom, stripped
5. 2 shallot, chopped

Seasonings:
1. Salt 2 tsp
2. Black pepper powder 2 tsp

Instructions:

1. Take a piece of baking paper and place into rice cooker container. Make it fits the container as a liner to prevent from stickiness. 

2. Use a wok, add 2 Tsp olive oil, fry shallot with medium heat until it become golden brown. Combine with dried mushroom and cook until aromatic.

 

3. Add daikon and give it a well stir. Saute with salt and black pepper, cook until daikon become transparent and tender.

 

4. Mix rice flour and water in a bowel thoroughly, pour into wok gently. Keep stirring with low heat until it is well-combined and thickened .

 

 

5. Load the batter into container, cook for 40 mins. (Two cups of water for outer pot if you use Tatung rice cooker) Insert a stick or fork into cake, it is cooked when the it comes out without any batter.

 

6. Remove from the container and set aside for cool down. Slice into pieces and serve directly or pan fry until both sides are golden brown. Serve with soy sauce or chili sauce according to personal preference.