Saturday, December 17, 2005

How to make Lo Bok Goh or Chinese Turnip Cake

I wouldn't call it a recipe but the word recipe probably helps me land some ads. Here is my experience with making Lo Bok Goh. All ingredients are estimates which will ultimately renders a nice Lo Bok Goh in a 8x8x2" Pyrex glass baking pan. Ingredients
  • 1 Lo Bok, or what I believe is also called white Chinese turnip or what the Japanese call Daikon. You want to get one that is about the size of my forearm or slightly smaller, I am about 6 foot tall;
  • 1 or 2 Chinese sausage;
  • 2 or 4 dried Shit...ake mushroom;
  • some dried shrimps;
  • 8 ounces of white rice flour, give or take, I got 1 pound plastic bag, made in Thailand one, use about half; (EDIT 1/30/2022: 1lb of rice flour to 3lb of Lo Bok, 1:3 ratio)
  • salt, sugar, and soy sauce;
  • optional toasted sesame seeds and some cilantro
Prepare the rice flour
  • Put only the rice flour into a big enough pot( big enough for all the ingredients);
  • Add water and mix until flour turns into a nice batter, not too thick and not too thin, thick enough to coat the back of a spoon I guess. Add 2 teaspoons of salt;
Prepare the dried shrimps, mushrooms, and sausages
  • soak the dried shrimps and dried mushrooms, then dice them when they are soft, safe left-over liquid;
  • dice the Chinese sausage;
  • pan fried the diced ingredients in high heat in a cast iron pan until you feel right, say 2 minutes, finish by stirring in table spoon of soy sauce and a touch of sugar; turn off heat.
Prepare the Lo Bok and put everything together
  • Peel and then shred your Lo Bok into a some big enough cooking pan, no need to be fine;
  • Turn on the fire and cook it in medium heat say 10 minutes, add a teapoon of sugar, don't add salt, the Lo Bok may turn bitter;
  • Pour the cooked, still hot Lo Bok together with any liquid and the left over liquid used for soaking the dried shrimps and mushrooms, into the rice flour batter, fold them well, add the pan fried diced ingredients, mixed well. Adjust batter consistency by adding either more flour or water;
  • Pour them into a 8x8x2 Pyrex glass baking pan or whatever you have in the kitchen that's right for the job.
  • Now transfer the baking pan into a "steamer," you can make your own steamer by using a big wok or pan, fill it with some water, cover the wok or pan. Just make sure don't let the water dry out. Put two nickels or pennies into the steamer so it makes some noise when there is boiling water and quiet when it's bone dry. Let the Lo Bok Goh steam until firm, at least an hour or so.
Dust it with toasted sesame seeds and garnish with cilantro, let it cool completely and refrigerate. Slice and pan fry to golden brown. You may enjoy them with oyster sauce or chilly sauce or both or even more soy sauce if you are into soy sauce like I do... Original recipe from my Mom.

2 comments:

  1. My answer is simple, buy the carrot cake at chinese supermarket at USD3 each

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes, that's one way of getting your Lo Bok Goh. I happen to like to bake mine.

    ReplyDelete

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