The Chinese Turnip Cake My Dad's Made 100,000 Times
Why this recipe
Most chinese turnip cake recipes online are tested only a handful of times. My dad used to make this dish multiple times a day, every day, for 60+ years and can make this in his sleep.
I know you'll love it as much as our community does! This recipe has over 1.3M views, 20.7K likes on YouTube.
I don't think the Lau family has ever eaten dim sum without calling over a few orders of turnip cake.
We're not alone - turnip cake is one of the most popular dim sum dishes around the world.
Turnip cake is also commonly made around Chinese holidays, as a symbol of prosperity in Chinese tradition.
Turnip Cake: A Good Omen
Many Chinese superstitions, good and bad, are based on word play.
For the same reason that the number "4" is bad luck because it sounds similar to the word for "death", taro cake and other cake recipes are popular around the holidays because they symbolize higher growth and prosperity.
Particularly for "cake 糕", the word shares the same exact tone and pronunciation as the Chinese word for "high 高" - "gōu".
"cake" and "high" have different characters, but Chinese tradition has come to attribute cakes with higher success, rising happiness, better health, and prosperity.
There are several sayings that tie into the cake/high connection, such as:
- bouh bouh gōu sīng 步步高升 - climb step by step, rise steadily
- faai gōu jéung daaih 快高長大 - wishes for children to grow taller and bigger quickly
My family makes Lo Bak Go year-round, but it’s a must during Lunar New Year!
Steamed spare ribs is a classic dim sum dish, and actually one of the easier dim sum recipes to recreate for your loved ones at home.
Before we get into the recipe, you might enjoy these interesting tidbits about our beloved past time, dim sum, and our favorite dish.
Dim Sum: A Touch of Heart
The way most of us pronounce "dim sum" in English is very similar to its Cantonese pronunciation, "dím sām", which roughly translates to "a touch of heart".
It's a reference to the delectable snacks that 10th century teahouses would serve to traveling merchants in Guangzhou, one of the largest international ports along the Silk Road.
Even though dim sum is widely considered to belong to Cantonese cuisine, it evolved from a wide range of influences, largely because Guangzhou was and still is a critical hub for Chinese trade and a melting pot of different cultures.
Ingredients
Instructions
Prepare ingredients
We'll be prepping several ingredients here:
- dried shrimp (1 oz) - wash, soak, and mince
- Chinese sausage (1 piece) - wash, and mince. Save some for garnishing at the end!
- garlic (2 clove) - mince
- green onion (2 piece) - mince
- turnip (2 lb) - cut off and weigh out the exact amount of turnip you need. Then we'll peel, wash, and shred it with a knife or grater.
For our regular rice flour (8 oz) - weigh out the amount you need, then mix with water (1.5 cup).
Cook ingredients
We'll need to cook everything for a bit and add some flavors before it becomes a turnip cake mix that we can steam.
Set the stove to high heat, and heat the pan for a few minutes with vegetable oil (1 tbsp).
You should let your wok and oil heat up sufficiently until it starts shimmering, or forming ripples across the surface due to the heat, but not so hot that it starts smoking.
Then, we'll cook in the following stages:
- Cook the garlic and dried shrimp for about 30 seconds.
- Cook the Chinese sausage (save some for garnish) for about 30 seconds.
- Add the turnip, stir the wok, cover the wok, and cook it for 6-7 minutes.
- Add salt (1.5 tsp), chicken bouillon (2 tsp), white pepper (0.50 tsp), and sesame oil (1 tsp).
- Mix the flavors around the wok, cover, and cook for another 2-3 minutes.
The timing may vary on your stove (and my dad doesn't really use timers anyway).
The main cue he looks for is for the water to be released from the turnip, and then for the water to start boiling.
Prepare cake pan
While the ingredients cook, we'll prepare our cake pan by:
- cutting out a circle of parchment paper to line the bottom with
- spreading oil around the inner rim of the cake pan (with your finger or a brush)
Really, any type of cake pan (square, non-removable base, etc) works as long as it fits in your steamer.
Steam turnip cake
Next we will slowly add the rice flour mixture. Make you do not pour it all in at once and that you continuously stir the mixture to ensure you don’t produce lumps.
Stir and cook the mixture for about 2 minutes until it has thickened.
Once the turnip mix is done cooking in the wok, we'll prepare for steaming.
Fill steamer to the water limit and bring it to a boil on high heat.
Transfer our mix to the cake pan, flatten out the surface, and spread corn oil (1 tbsp) around the surface with a spoon. This is mostly so the cake comes out more looking more shiny and appetizing.
Once the steamer has come to a boil, we’ll transfer the cake pan to the steamer and cover it.
How long do we steam for?
The cook time can vary by 5 to 10 minutes depending on the stove, container, and the amount of ingredients you’re using. Here, we’re cooking it for 20 minutes on high heat, and another 20 minutes on medium heat.
If the turnip cake mix is in a more shallow container, you can cook it for 30-35 minutes. Here, it was about 40 minutes. You can also use a standard 9x9 cake pan in the same exact way.
How to tell if the cake is done?
To tell if the cake is done, you can stick a chopstick straight into the pan.
It's done if when you pull the chopstick out, it's clean of any debris and no turnip cake has stuck to it.
Garnish, let turnip cake cool
While the cake pan is still in the steamer, we'll sprinkle some of our leftover Chinese sausage onto the pan and cover it for 30 seconds.
Afterwards, we'll carefully remove the cake pan from the steamer. If you'd like, you can garnish with green onion.
Let the cake cool to room temperature, and then let it cool in the refrigerator for 4-8 hours.
If you skip this step, it will be difficult to cut the cake into slices and it'll also be more likely to break into pieces if/when you pan fry it.
If you don't want to wait, you can also just go crazy with a spoon and eat the cake as is without cutting into it.
Remove from cake pan, pan fry
Once it's cooled, you can take the turnip cake out from the pan however you'd like, but my dad has a pretty elegant sequence:
- Put a plate over the pan,
- Turn the cake pan upside down onto the plate
- Place another plate on the other side of the cake
- Turn the cake upside down (so it becomes right-side-up)
Then, slice the cake however you'd like. If you're pan frying, then little rectangles are perfect.
Pan frying is optional but highly recommended. It takes a little longer but it brings out a nice, crispy and crunchy contrast.
We’ll heat up a pan with oil on high heat for a few minutes, and then pan fry them for about 4-7 minutes per side until they’re golden brown.
Some people also like to use chopsticks and pan fry literally every side, including the really thin edges.
Pairs well with
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We started Made With Lau to celebrate Cantonese culture and honor the legacy of our wonderful parents, Jenny and Chung Sun Lau.
Our hope is that these recipes and stories help you spread the joy, love, and nostalgia that I felt growing up.
