This is pan fried turnip cake, or 香煎蘿蔔糕, a delicious turnip cake that is first steamed with daikon radish, Chinese sausage, shiitake mushrooms, dried shrimp and scallions that is pan fried until crispy and golden brown.

Chinese turnip cake always makes me think of busy dim sum Sundays with family and friends and is such a nostalgic dish. Like my shrimp cheung fun recipe, this was born out of a craving during the COVID19A quarantine and wanting some luo bak go and not being able to go out for dim sum!

This is such an easy recipe—it's one of those one pot recipes where you throw everything togeher and let it cook. There's only a little prep work involved where you have to shred the daikon radish and stir fry the ingredients before mixing all of it in a bowl. To steam the turnip cake, I used a 12x3 metal circle pan that fit my wok, but you can honestly use whatever you have on hand and you can separate the batches depending on the size of your pan and steamer. Steam for an hour, let cool completely and it's ready to eat! Or, my favorite way is to cut it up and pan fry with some oil for a great crispy outside and soft turnip cake inside. I typically like to cover it and leave in the fridge overnight for it to settle and then crisp it up for breakfast or dim sum brunch the next day!

​I'm so happy that we can now enjoy this dish at home and I hope you enjoy it too!

Recipe Serves 8

INGREDIENTS

• 2 daikon radish, about 10-12 inch long each, shredded
• 200 grams of rice flour
• 50 grams corn starch
• 2 cups water
• 4 Chinese sweet lap cheong (cured Chinese sausage), diced
• 4 scallions, diced
• 1/8 cup dried shrimp, finely minced
• 4 large shiitake mushrooms or 8 small shiitake mushrooms (use dried shrooms and rehydrate them before dicing)
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 3 tsp oyster sauce
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp chicken powder (or salt)
• 1 tsp white pepper

DIRECTIONS:

1. Skin the daikon radish and shred it with a large toothed grater. If you don't have, you can use a fruit peeler to shave the radish down into strips, then roughly chop into shredded pieces.
2. Place all the shredded radish into a large pan and cook until no more excess liquid is produced and the radish is cooked through/translucent. You can taste it to make sure it is softened.
3. Heat a separate pan on medium heat and cook the diced Chinese sausage, releasing its oils. As it cooks, add the minced shrimp, shiitake mushrooms and scallions and mix thoroughly.
4. Once the meat mixture is cooked through, add it to the daikon radish. Add the oyster sauce, chicken powder, sesame oil and sugar and mix well.
5. In a large mixing bowl, add the rice flour, cornstarch and 2 cups of water. Mix well until lumps are gone. Then, add the daikon mixture into the mixing bowl and stir until well incorporated.
6. Use a large steam pan (I used a 12x3 circular pan) and pour the entire mixture into the pan. Steam on medium heat for 1 hour. After 1 hour, remove the turnip cake from the steamer and allow to cool completely.
7. Enjoy as is or slixe into desired thickness and pan fry with oil until both sides are crispy and golden.

​Enjoy!

Until next time,
Jenny

Autumn is here and it is seriously getting colder with each passing day! When it comes to food in autumn, it seems like everyyybody, and I mean EVERYBODY gets gaga for pumpkins. Pumpkin spice lattes, pumpkin donuts, pumpkin pies, pumpkin every freaking thing! I have to admit though, never had a pumpkin spiced latte, is it really as good as it is hyped up to be? I'm afraid of getting wildly disappointed lol. One thing I realized over the years was that pumpkins are very popularly eaten as a dessert—when I first started working, our office has an annual Thanksgiving potluck. Of course, me being extra when it comes to food, I decided to put a spin on cooking pumpkin by making things like Thai pumpkin laksa curry with noodles, or this past year, braised pumpkin with chicken and shiitake mushrooms. While my coworkers enjoyed my pumpkin dishes, many had never had pumpkin cooked in a savory way before, which was a surprise to me because I grew up eating pumpkin in savory dishes way more than sweets! I've had pumpkin with rice, in soups, braised with assorted meats and vegetables, and it is just so comforting and warming.

Today, I'm sharing my recipe for a braised Japanese kabocha pumpkin, chicken and shiitake mushroom stew. It's SOO good ladled over a bowl of rice and Wilson loves this dish whenever I make it! Japanese kabocha pumpkin is more dense and sweet than the pumpkins in the US and are available at most Asian supermarkets. If you don't have access to kabocha, you can substitute the recipe with a regular pumpkin, but it's definitely yummier with the Japanese kabocha. 

DIRECTIONS:

1. Add salt, white pepper, sugar and sesame oil to the chicken and marinate for at least 30 minutes. Place the dried shiitake mushrooms in a bowl and fill with water and allow to rehydrate, about 30 minutes to 2 hours depending on the brand you buy. The mushrooms will be completely soft when they are fully hydrated. (sometimes I allow to soak overnight if I know I am making this dish the next day)
2. Remove the seeds from the Japanese pumpkin and cut the pumpkin into slices. Then place the slices in a microwave safe bowl and cover with 2 wet paper towels. Microwave the pumpkin for 10 minutes until soft. You can poke it with a fork every 5-6 minutes to check for softness. Do not overcook at this stage, as it will finish braising with the chicken later.
3. Clean the skin off a 1-2 inch knob of ginger and cut about 6-7 slices of ginger. Chop up the onion and garlic and set aside.
4. Once the pumpkin is done in the microwave, remove the skins (you can wait for it to cool if you want) or use gloves to handle. Cut the pumpkin into chunks.
5. Reserve 1/3 cup of mushroom water from the rehydrated mushrooms and drain the rest. (You can also reserve to cook in other dishes).
6. Heat the pan with some olive oil and cook the onion, garlic and ginger. When semi-translucent and fragrant, remove from the pan and set aside.
7. Cook the chicken and add the reserved mushroom water. Cover and steam for 3 minutes and then flip the chicken. Add the mushrooms, onions, garlic, ginger, pumpkin and 1 cup of water. Mix and cover. Cook for 5 minutes on medium heat.
8.  Mix in the oyster sauce, light soy sauce and sugar, then cover and cook on low for 10-15 minutes. Keep an eye on the braising liquid and don't let it get to dry. Mix gently without breaking up too much of the pumpkin and serve. This is great with rice! Enjoy!

We hope you like this homey and comforting dish during the chilly autumn and winter seasons!

Until next time,
​Jenny

Growing up, my grandmother spent a lot of time making all sorts of steamed cakes and dumplings for us to enjoy. It was all made from scratch with fresh ingredients and plenty of love. Coming home from school we'd find turnip cakes or radish cakes, steamed dumplings or potstickers filled with chives, shrimp and pork, and just all kinds of handmade creations.

One of my absolute favorite things she made was a savory, chewy, sticky steamed mochi cake that I am going to share with you today. Honestly I loved all the things she made but this one is special to me because she developed this specifically to my tastes 😊

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/3 cup dried baby scallops, rehydrated
• 1/2 cup sweet pickled radish
• 1/3 cup chopped green scallions
• 1/4 cup chopped Chinese sausage
• 1/4 cup chopped Chinese cured pork belly
• 1/4 cup chopped mini dried shrimp
• 1/4 cup cubed ham
• 1/2 cup chopped dried shiitake mushrooms, rehydrated
• 16 oz. Glutinous Rice Flour
• 16 oz. Rice Flour
• approx. 1-2 cups of Water - add to flour until it reaches a thick muffin/cookie batter consistency
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp sugar

DIRECTIONS:
1. ​Prepare all your meat and veggies by chopping them all up in to small pieces. I find the smaller the pieces, the less noticeable they are in texture and flavor, whereas slightly larger pieces give you a more discernable flavor of each. 

2. Stir fry the baby scallops, all the meat and mushrooms. Once the oil starts rendering out and it smells fragrant, remove and set to the side. 

3. Pour both 16 oz bags into a mixing bowl. Add water a little by little and mix until the batter resembles a thick muffin or cookie batter. If it is flowing like pancake batter, you've added too much water, so be careful how much to add. Once well mixed, oil a round cake steam pan, about 12-14 inches. Doing so will help the cake come out of the pan more cleanly. You can also put down cling wrap or parchment paper along the sides and bottom if you wish.

4. Pour a layer of the batter onto the bottom and add the meat filling. Keep layering and alternating until you've run out of batter and filling. Make sure to leave enough filling to cover the top of the cake. 

5. Heat a large wok with water (or prepare your steamer). Steam the mochi cake for 1 hour or until firm. Once it's done, remove from the steamer. At this point it will be very soft, (but still delicious), so you can either eat right away or let is cool and firm up a bit before cutting into the mochi cake. Enjoy!

You can always substitute filling choices with whatever you prefer if you're not one for Chinese cured meats, but these are flavors that I grew up eating with my grandmother. Whenever I smell Chinese pork belly or sausage (lap cheong), or pickled radish, or dried shiitake mushrooms (pretty much everything in this dish) it just makes me think of Grandma and her homecooking. There's always something in food the floods your brain with memories of home and for me, this is it! Hope you enjoy!

To be honest, my experience with Indian cuisine goes only so far as dishes that are popular in America--Chicken Tikka Masala, Butter Chicken, Tandoori meats, Roti, Naan bread, Curry, etc. I definitely can't claim to be very knowledgeable when it comes to Indian cuisine, and I have to admit that because of my inexperience with it, I've been scared to try new dishes in authentic Indian restaurants because I like to stay in my comfort zone of what I do know and recognize on the menu. That being said, I am very blessed to work with people from different cultures and my coworker Urvi brought in this tasty Indian snack called Sev Puri, or Chaat to share with us at work. The second I put the Puri chip into my mouth, I knew I had to get my hands on the recipe! The moment I swallowed, I put my hand on Urvi's arm and said, 'Please teach me how to make this!!'
​
It was so delicious that I wanted to learn to make it at home too, like all the time. The flavors of this Sev Puri Chaat recipe are incredibly fresh and simply bursting with flavors and textures. Crispy, tangy, sweet and has a hint of spice (dependent on how much pepper powder you put in it). From the first bite, this snack will take you on an adventure through flavor town and *sings* a whole new world...a new fantastic point of view...

​If you've never had Chaat, the only way I know how to describe it is an Indian version of nachos topped with salsa. However, because there is no cheese, the dish is much more light, and therefore so very easy to eat lots of! (Not that you should eat too much of anything, but it's not as heavy and greasy as nachos with cheese and all the fixings). Urvi graciously welcomed me into her home and allowed me to film her showing me how to make the Sev Puri. I was happy to learn that the ingredients were all relatively inexpensive and are easy to find in any Indian supermarket. (I look forward to making a trip to an Indian supermarket soon!) Furthermore, the recipe was mostly assembly work so it was pretty quick to put together.
​
She also explained the different kinds of spices typically found in Indian kitchens and even showed me her expansive spice cabinet! It was very impressive, and definitely something I need to take notes on in organizing my own spice cabinets!

Isn't this spice box pretty? Apparently it's very common in Indian kitchens. Almost looks like an artists' paint palette!

After we were done filming, and I got a belly full of delicious Sev Puri Chaat (along with a take home baggy for Wilson to try...and for me to ultimately eat all of...shhhh!), Urvi showed me the rest of her beautiful home and even showed me the personal praying temple in her room. I didn't take a picture of it, but she had pictures of all the different Gods that she and her husband worship in the Hindu religion. It was very interesting to learn about, and both the imagery, stories, and ornate details in the little praying temple's architecture was amazing to see. The experience of learning another culture's food and hearing Urvi's stories were so fascinating, and beautiful to say the least. I felt so lucky and grateful to Urvi for welcoming me into her home, her kitchen, and teaching me so much about herself and her culture!

In any case, here is the awesome recipe that you really have to try! There aren't any measurements for the toppings since it really depends on how much you yourself want to eat and your own preferences. So top away!

INGREDIENTS:

• Puri
• Chiwda
• Thin Sev
• Coriander Chutney
• Mint Chutney (optional)
• Tamarind & Date Chutney
• Chaat Masala spice powder
• Red Onion (chopped)
• Tomatoes (chopped)
• Red pepper powder (optional)
  
  

DIRECTIONS:

1. Spread the Puris out on the plate.
2. Top with chopped red onion.
3. Top with chopped tomatoes.
4. Add Chiwda (however much you like).
5. Add the Tamarind & Date Chutney, then add the Coriander Chutney (optional: add Mint Chutney).
6. Top with Thin Sev.
7. Add Chaat Masalad spice powder.
8. Add red pepper powder (optional).
9. Top with more Thin Sev. Enjoy!

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do! I can't wait to make this again!