Chinese New Year cakes - turnip cake and red date cake

Chinese New Year cakes - turnip cake and red date cake ingredients

I have decided to make these traditional Cantonese steamed cakes myself this year, so that I can have them the way I like, full of ingredients and flavor.  

turnip cake seared

I used dried turnip 菜脯 to add texture and savory taste, also included the western way of slowly seared onions to give richness and sweetness to the cake.

Turnip cake - for one normal size tin:

turnip cake ingredients

1kg shredded turnip

1/2 tsp salt

2 tbsp brown sugar

white pepper

5 dried winter mushrooms cut into small cubes

2 Chinese sausages cut into thin slices

5 dried scallop tear into threads

1/2 bowl of dried shrimp

2 onions cut into very small pieces

1/2 bowl of salted and dried turnip

220gm rice flour

250gm soaking water (mushroom, scallop, dried turnip, dried shrimp etc)

sesame oil

turnip cake cooked ingredients

1. Sweat onion slowly at medium heat to soften without too much browning, add Chinese sausage, followed by mushroom, shrimp, scallop, and dried turnip.

2. Cook shredded turnip with 30gm soaking water, salt, brown sugar and pepper until translucent and liquid comes out. Add cooked ingredients, mix well and simmer for a couple of minutes to infuse flavor.

turnip cake before steaming

3. Pour the hot mixture into flour water mixture, stir slowly to let the heat of the mixture to thicken the flour mixture.

turnip cake after steaming

4. Pour into oiled tin and steam for 50 minutes.