Turnip cake

Turnip cake

Alternative names	Radish cake
Course	Dim sum, yum cha
Place of origin	Southern China
Region or state	Chinese-speaking areas
Main ingredients	Shredded radish (typically Chinese radish), plain rice flour
Variations	Fried, steamed, chai tow kway
Media: Turnip cake

Turnip cake is a Chinese dim sum dish. The less common name radish cake is more accurate, as Western-style turnips are not used in the dish but rather shredded radish (typically Chinese radish) and plain rice flour. It is traditionally called "carrot cake" in Singapore.

Turnip cake is commonly served in Cantonese yum cha, usually cut into rectangular slices and sometimes pan-fried before serving. Each pan-fried cake has a thin crunchy layer on the outside from frying, and is soft on the inside. The non-fried version is soft all over. It is one of the standard dishes found in the dim sum cuisine of China as well as in overseas Chinatown restaurants. It is also commonly eaten during Chinese New Year, since the word for radish (菜頭; chhài-thâu) is a homophone for "good fortune" (好彩頭; hó-chhái-thâu) in the Hokkien language.^[1] In Taiwan, turnip cake is also commonly eaten as part of breakfast.

The dish is known as "fried carrot cake" or simply "carrot cake" in Southeast Asian countries, as the word for daikon, one of its main ingredients, can also refer to a carrot (紅菜頭; âng-chhài-thâu; 'red radish'). There is no connection between this dish and the sweet Western carrot cake. It is called "carrot cake" because of a loose English translation of chhài-thâu-kóe, which caught on among the non-native speaking diners. This misnomer gave the title to a popular guidebook on Singapore's street food, There's No Carrot in Carrot Cake by Ruth Wan, Roger Hiew, and Leslie Tay, published by Epigram Books in 2010.^[2]

In Cantonese, carrot is called 紅蘿蔔 (hung lo bak; red carrot), whereas daikon is called 白蘿蔔 (bak lo bak; white carrot). Because turnip cakes (蘿蔔糕; lo bak go) are made of "white carrot", they are called "carrot cake" in both Cantonese and Mandarin. The Chinese term 糕 (go) has two translations, 'pudding' or 'cake', depending on how it is used.^{[citation needed]}

People call daikon radish a turnip because of its similar appearance to a white turnip and confusion in translation and culinary history.^{[citation needed]}

To prepare a turnip cake, daikon roots are first shredded.^[3] Chinese radish, either the white-and-green variety or the all-white variety, is one of the key ingredients since it makes up a large portion of the cake. The other key ingredients are water and rice flour. Corn starch is sometimes added as it aids in binding the cake together, especially when a large number of additional ingredients (see list below) are added. The ingredients are stirred together until combined.

Additional ingredients that provide umami flavouring can be also added. They include diced or minced pieces of:

• Dried shrimp
• Dried shiitake
• Chinese sausage
• Jinhua ham

These flavoring ingredients may first be stir-fried before being added to the radish and flour/starch mixture. Somewhat more luxurious cakes will add larger amounts of these ingredients directly to the mixture. Cheaper variants, especially those sold in dim sum restaurants, will often have just a sprinkling on top to keep costs down.

This mixture is then poured into a steamer lined with greased aluminum foil or cellophane, and steamed at high heat for 40 to 60 minutes until it solidifies into a gelatinous mass.

For those with allergies to radishes, some recipes substitute turnip for radish.^{[citation needed]} Taro cakes or pumpkin cakes are other variants.

Although the steamed turnip cakes can be consumed straight with soy sauce, they are commonly cooked again to add additional flavors. For instance, turnip cake can be sliced into rectangular pieces when cooled and then pan-fried until both sides turn golden. It is served with chili sauce and/or hoisin sauce on the side as condiments.

Turnip cake can also be stir-fried and made into the dish chai tow kway.

• Bánh bột chiên
• List of steamed foods
• Nian gao
• Water chestnut cake

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Radish cakes.

• Sue-On's Kitchen Archived 2009-08-05 at the Wayback Machine