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Anyway, what I want to talk about today is Mooli Cake or Radish Cake or even Carrot Cake due to some problems with translation. This is an interesting way to use the great white radish of doom that turns it from a watery root vegetable or pungent pickle ingredient into a tasty snack food of delicious substance.
I first came across it in the excellent Thai Vegetarian Cooking book by Vatcharin Bhumichtr first published in 1991. I notice his recipes, including the one for White Radish Cake with Beansprouts have proliferated all over the web without regard for copyright which is a pity, but I still recommend you get the book if you can find it at a reasonable price as it is full of good stuff.
Doing a bit more research for the benefit of this blog (yes, I am that dedicated!) I've discovered that Chinese versions are usually flavoured before steaming, often with quite strong flavours but this mild white recipe is good because it can be dressed up or down as the menu requires.
The most difficult part of this is improvising a big enough steamer. I used a 2 gallon stock pot with a cake tin ring as a support for another 20cm cake tin. Line your cooking container with parchment for easy unmoulding.
750g fresh white mooli radish (about 1 medium)
125g white rice flour
25g wheat flour
a splash of water (about 15ml)
Trim and peel your radish, then grate with a very fine grater or save your strength and chop it up roughly before using a food processor to reduce it to a fine pulp.
Mix the radish with the flours and then add just a splash of water. How much depends on how fresh and wet your radish is, there will be a noticeable slackening of the mixture but it should not become runny.
Assemble your steamer contraption and bring to the boil. Fill your steamer tin or dish with the mix and level off. A square shape is ideal for presentation but a round one will work perfectly well. When the steamer is hot, put the radish cake into the steamer and close the lid.
Steam for 30-35 minutes. A skewer or thin knife blade inserted should come out clean although the cake will still seem a little soft.
Remove from the heat and allow to cool completely. Any surface wetness will disappear and the cake will firm up.
At this point the cake can be wrapped and put away in the fridge until needed, it will keep for a couple of days.
To use:
Cut into bitesized cubes or rectangles. Fry the cubes in hot oil on all sides until browned. Then use in stirfries or with dipping sauces. I decided to do mine salt and pepper style.
Move your radish cakes cubes to one side of the wok. Reduce the heat. Fry a thinly sliced red onion or shallot in the space cleared until it begins to soften and colour. Add a red chilli cut in rings and a thinly sliced clove of garlic. Turn up the heat and working quickly to avoid burning the garlic stir the radish cake back into the mix. Season well with salt (and freshly ground black pepper if you like) and serve immediately.
5 comments:
That is very interesting, quite surprising, and slightly weird. Fried radish cakes? Can't wait to try it!
By the way, I found out in Japan that they serve very finely grated (more or less mushed up) raw mooli as a condiment quite frequently. A big spoonful adds a lot to a miso soup.
ah, I was going to consult with you over this as I thought you might have come across it on your travels.
We're going to have grow mooli this year, the French haven't 'got' it yet!
That sounds so interesting! I'll have to give it a try.
It's worth the effort LiLu, although it always takes me some while to motivate myself for the work ;)
what a great idea! they sell these giant fellas in lidl and when my friend and i were standing holding one in a puzzle as to what to make with it a man came up and told us you can make sort of coleslaw with them.
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