Post Chinese New Year ~ Lor Bak Go ~

Oh this stinkin' delicious piece of savory cake!.  In Cantonese, we call it "Lor Bak Go," to the non - Cantonese peeps, it is known as "Radish Cake" or "Turnip Cake" This little dim sum dish can be found at any dim sum restaurant or can be purchased at any Chinese grocery store. For those who live in Toronto, T&T, Bestco, Oriental Mart, Ocean's would sell them in the hot food section. :D :D ** currently drooling :D

Hands down, this is my favorite dim sum dish.  Only problem, it smells like someone farted.  No joke.  Radish when cooked has a stinkin' smell that is quite overwhelming, similarly to chinese chives.  So if it stinks so, why eat it? Cos when made well, pan-fried, its sooo flippin' good :D especially with siracha hot sauce on the side :D :D 

Now the thing about eating Lor Bak Go made in mass for the everyday consumer, the cake tends to be more dense with rice flour than the radish itself, less filling than the norm and not quite as fragrant in flavour.  Which is why I wanted to master this dish for the enjoyment of eating a homemade Lor Bak Go.  

For the remainder of this post, I will refer to the main ingredient as: Turnip.  The turnips needed for this recipe are round & white, arm's length long and has a good weight. 

Turnip is a root vegetable, used by many cultures.  In the Chinese culture, turnips are considered as a "cool" vegetable therefore should be balance with "hot" ingredients.   I was told by wiser Cantonese mom's, you must not eat too much "cool" food or too much "hot" food as the imbalance of "hot" & "cool" will have an negative affect to the body and its organs.  Fried chicken, chips, fries, ginger are just a few examples of "hot" food.  So remember to balance it with tea or vegetables!  Ok, let's get back to topic :D

By making your own Lor Bak Go, you get to control the rice flour to radish ratio.  Personally, I look a smooth, light, more radish texture verses a more dense (usually contains more rice flour) cake. Some like their turnips to be puree, others like a mix of puree and chopped turnip.  So however you like your turnip cake, prepare the turnip vegetable the way you like.  While this recipe is pretty simple, it does require major prep time and steam time, just know the reward is great, but short lived since I guarantee you, it will fly out the window.  Homemade Lor Bak Go trumps any store brought, restaurant made ones.  You control the texture, the quality of ingredients and the time to make such dish.

A typical Lor Bak Go contains dried shrimp, shitake mushrooms, chinese sausage but if you wish to replace the meat with something else, go crazy!

This recipe serves 8-10.

Ingredients:
2 turnips approx. 4-5pounds in weight
1/4 cup dried shrimp, reconstituted, diced, reserve the liquid
4 shitake mushroom, reconstituted, diced, reserve the liquid
1 chinese duck liver sausage (yun cheong), diced
1 1/2 chinese sausage (lap cheong), diced
4 stalks of green onion, finely sliced
1/2 finger size ginger
1/2 tsp garlic, diced
1 quarter size rock sugar
1/2 cup rice flour, from any chinese grocery store

Sauce to cook mushroom:
1/2 tsp dark soy sauce
1/2 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp mirin
1 tsp sugar
1/4 of the combination of reserve liquid from mushroom and shrimp

Directions:
1.  Once mushrooms and dried shrimps has been reconstituted, combine the liquid into one bowl

2.  Heat up a pan at medium high, coat with olive oil.  Dice the four mushrooms.  Add a pinch of the diced garlic to hot pan.  Let it sizzle.  Throw in diced mushrooms, cook for a couple of minutes then add in the sauce prepared.  Cover pan and allow to cook for 5-7 mins.  Set cooked mushrooms in a bowl.

3.  Dice dried shrimp.  Continue to keep the pan on medium heat.  Add more olive oil.  Throw in a pinch of dice ginger & garlic (this will remove the fishy flavour from the shrimps)  Throw in the dried shrimp with a couple pieces of cooked mushrooms and 2 tbsp of the mushroom & shrimp liquid.  Cover and cook for 4 - 5mins.  Take out of pan and side aside in a bowl.

4.  Dice both chinese sausage and throw in the heated pan.  Add 1/2 tsp of brown sugar.  Toss and cook for 3 - 4 mins.  The fat from the sausage will render down. Turn off heat once done and set aside in a bowl.

5.  While sausage is cooking, thinly dice green onions and set aside.

6.  Once all the filling has been cooked, it's time to puree them turnips! If you have a food processor to have pulse the turnips into tiny bits, it will save you loads of time.  Peel off the skin, top and end of each turnip, cut into chunk size and throw into food processor and pulse until you achieve your desired consistency. If you desire some texture to your Lor Bak Go, roughly slice 1/2 a turnip into match stick size.  Add processed/roughly chopped turnips into a large bowl.

7.  Gather your ingredients together!! It's time to make some Lor Bak Go!

8.  Heat up the pan to medium.  Coat with olive oil, add the 1/2 finger size ginger and cook for a 1min.  Add to the pan all the turnips, the quarter size rock sugar, a dash of white pepper & salt, and 1/2 tsp of soy sauce.  Mix well.  Coat covered for 5mins.  Add in the remainder of the mushroom & dried shrimp liquid (approx. 3/4 cup)  Mix well and cook for another 10 -15 mins.

Add soy sauce, white pepper and ginger

Add the mushroom & shrimp liquid after cooking turnip for 5 mins. Mix well.

Cover and cook for another 10 - 15 mins

9.  Once cooked, be sure to take out the ginger!!!!

10.  It's time to add the rice flour!.  As you know, the more rice flour you add the more dense your Lor Bak Go will be so to avoid this, slowly add the rice flour.  Bit by bit until you achieve the consistency you want.  Dust a bit on top of the turnip.  Fold.  Repeat.

11.  For a Lor Bak Go that is not dense but can still retain a contained shape without falling apart after the steaming process, the consistency you are looking for is similar to a smooth creamy mash potato.

12.  Once the consistency is achieved, add in 3/4 of all the fillings, reserving the rest for decoration.

13.  Mix well.  Now it's ready to be steamed!!  In a shallow dipped plate, add the Lor Bak Go batter, spread evenly and decorate the top with the leftover fillings.

Like so!

14.  Fill pot with 1 1/2 inch of water, add a wire rack in the bottom of pan.  Turn heat to medium.  Place the Lor Bak Go onto wire rack and cover.  Steam for 40mins.

15.  Allow to cool down for at least 2 - 3 hrs (or overnight if you can :D :D ) before slicing and pan frying.

16.  Pan fried for 1 - 2 mins each side until golden brown.  Enjoy!!! ;D :D

Most people enjoy this with a bit of soy sauce and hot sauce but quite honestly, this recipe is already flavorful without any additional sauce to enjoy. :)   Buying quality dried shitake mushrooms, dried shrimp and chinese sausages makes a world of difference for this dish.  :D