Hubby grows root vegetables in the fall because the cooling days help to sweeten them up. So, this is the time of year when our daikons are harvested and he makes one of my favorite Chinese dishes,
蘿蔔糕 .
Many people call them "turnip cakes" but they're not made from turnips (nor are they cakes in the Western sense of the word). They're actually made with daikon. While turnips and daikons belong to the same family (Brassicaceae), they differ in genus and species. Turnips are
Brassica rapa while daikons are
Raphanus sativus.
We got our recipe from my aunt who made excellent daikon cakes. Ours tastes even better because our daikons are homegrown.
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| daikon, washed and ready to be peeled |
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| hubby chopping up shiitake mushrooms and Chinese sausage |
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| dishes of "cake" - the one in the back is raw, while the one in the front is cooked |
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| the cakes are cooked by steaming in the wok |
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| hubby likes to slice the cooked "cakes" and pan fry them so they look like ones you can get at dim sum...see picture below |
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| from a little book I have on dim sum dishes |
We usually put hoisin and XO sauce on it before eating. That's probably the most authentic Hong Kong style to have daikon cake. Now if we can perfect rice rolls and find out how to make black sesame gelatin rolls, I can happily re-live my childhood without having to go out to eat.
Have you ever tried dim sum before? If so, what is your favorite dish?
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