Lo Bak Go (Chinese Radish/Turnip/Daikon Cake)

(This tastes way better than it sounds, I promise). 

If you've tried this dish before, it was likely at a dim sum restaurant. Dim sum places offer a quick lo bak go fix, but usually leaves me unsatisfied as restaurant lo bak go contains too much gloppy rice flour filler and isn't as firm and flavorful as my grandma's recipe. My grandma is one incredible lady though, so it might be unfair to compare anything to hers. When I lived in Vancouver, each Chinese New Year, I'd be the lucky and grateful recipient of a pan or two of my grandma's homemade lo bak go, ready to be steamed or pan-fried, heavily dipped into oyster sauce, and delivered to my belly. Man, I miss those days. 

My grandma speaks Cantonese only, and my Cantonese abilities are limited and sometimes laughable. Luckily, she's passed the recipe on to her daughters, and my mom learned the recipe from her sisters-in-law and wrote it all down in English, yay! During my last visit home, my mom bought all of the ingredients so I could learn the recipe myself. What a great way to spend a day - chopping, measuring, stirring and chatting with my mom in the kitchen, all the while preparing what we hoped to be as delicious a lo bak go as my grandma puts out! This recipe does not disappoint.

This recipe is for three 7" foil pans. This may seem like a lot, but if you're a lo-bak-go-fiend, like any self-respecting Chinese person, these 3 pans won't last long at all. Plus, there's quite a bit of prep work involved, so it makes sense to make a larger batch while you're at it. 

Yields three 7" round foil pans 

• 12 large dried Chinese black mushrooms
• 4lbs "lo bak" (daikon or Chinese radish: please see photo to the right as these are not the usual radishes used in Western cuisine)
• 1 tsp sugar
• 3 Chinese sausages
• 1 tbsp dried shrimp
• 1 tbsp dried garlic
• 3 cups rice flour
• 1 cup corn starch
• 3 tbsp wheat starch
• 2 tsp salt
• chicken broth (14.5oz can, 1/4-1/2 cup as needed, and 1/2 cup as needed)
• optional garnish: sesame seeds
• oyster sauce (for serving)

Prepare the dried Chinese black mushrooms in advance, as they take some time to rehydrate and soften. Place dried mushrooms in a large bowl and cover with hot water. Let soak until softened (about 20min), then cut off stems (can be discarded or saved for other use such as soup). Do not discard the water used to soak mushrooms as it now contains a deep mushroom flavor, and will be used later in this recipe. Transfer the mushrooms to a medium pot with 2 cups of water and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low-med, cover, and let simmer for 45min until soft, checking often to ensure there is water left in the pot (add more water, 1/2 cup at a time, as needed). Remove from heat, uncover, and let cool.

Peel diakon as you would a carrot, then slice into small strips about 2 inches long. In a large pot, bring 1 1/2 cups water and 1 tsp of sugar to a boil. Add sliced daikon to pot, reduce heat to medium, cover, and let cook until daikon appears transparent (pictured left). Stir occasionally, and top up with water, 1/2 a cup at a time, if none left in the pot. Once transparent and very little liquid remaining, leave daikon in pot, remove from heat and set aside.

Fine dice the Chinese sausage, cooled black mushroom and dried shrimp. Diced pieces should be small, about the size of your pinkie finger nail. 

Heat 1 tsp of olive oil in a medium non-stick pan over med-high. Add diced sausage, mushroom, dried shrimp, and dried garlic. Add a pinch of ground pepper, and stir fry til fragrant, about 8min. Remove from heat and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the rice flour, corn starch, wheat starch and salt. Stir. Add one can of chicken broth and stir til dry ingredients moistened. Add 1/2 cup of the reserved water used to soak mushrooms, and stir. Stir in an additional 1/4 to 1/2 cup chicken broth, as needed to mix well. Set aside. 

Reheat the pot of daikon, then remove from heat. Add stir-fried mixture of sausage, mushroom, dried shrimp and dried garlic to daikon. Stir. Add the flour mixture to the pot of daikon, stirring well to mix. Add up to another 1/2 cup of chicken broth, if consistency is too stiff to mix thoroughly. Stir well. 

Divide evenly between the three 7" foil pans, smoothing over the top to finish. Sprinkle sesame seeds over top. Steam using a large pot with steamer baskets, by filling the pot with just enough water not touch the steamer basket at the bottom. When placing the steamer baskets/pans inside the pot, make sure edges of pan do not touch the sides of the pot. Bring to a boil, then steam for one hour, or until the daikon cake sets and is firm to the touch. Replenish pot with boiling water if necessary during steaming. Once the daikon cake is set, carefully remove from steamer, and cool on rack for at least 1 hour. Cover and refrigerated for at least 3 hours, preferably overnight before preparing to eat. Stored properly in airtight containers, the steamed daikon cake keeps about a week and a half in the fridge. 

When ready to make for serving, loosen the sides of one pan by running a knife along the edge. Flip over into palm of one hand to unmold, then place right-side up onto cutting board. Slice into rough squares/rectangles about 1/2-inch in thickness. Heat a small amount of oil on a non-stick an over medium heat. Add sliced daikon cake to pan and cook 3-4 minutes each side, til golden brown. You may need to cook in batches depending on how many slices you can fit onto the pan (sliced daikon should only be placed single layer onto pan). Serve hot, with oyster sauce. 

Vegetarian Delight: Tofu & Mushrooms, Spicy Satay Sauce

Last night, B had a business dinner. I normally don't love solo dining, but I took the opportunity to create something using ingredients B cringes and shudders at the thought of. Tofu and mushrooms are definitely high on his list of things not to put in his mouth, but I happen to find both delightful, so why not throw the two together! Mmm! 

This vegetarian dish is nutritious and packed with protein (the one brick of tofu alone contains 35gr of protein!). Feeling somewhat weighed down and guilty from the late night meat lovers pizza the dinner before, I had this tofu stir fry on its own. It would make a fantastic topper for a brown rice bowl though. Quinoa would work just as well. 

Serves 2

• 14oz extra firm, reduced fat tofu
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 dried red chili pepper
• 1/2 onion
• 1 small zucchini
• 8 medium mushrooms
• 1/3 cup frozen shelled edamame peas
• 1 tsp olive oil
• Spicy satay sauce: 
• 1/3 cup skim milk
• 1 1/2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp peanut butter (not chunky)
• 1/2 tsp green thai curry paste
• 1/2 tsp corn starch
• 1/4 tsp ground pepper 
• 1/4 tsp ground coriander 
• Optional: brown rice or quinoa (cooked per package instructions)
• Sesame seeds, garnish

Carefully remove tofu from packaging, and set aside in a colander to drain excess liquid while you prepare the veggies.

Mince the garlic and chili pepper together. 

Dice the onion. Slice zucchini lengthwise into 4-5 strips, then dice. Chop washed mushrooms into bite-size chunks (I cut each mushroom up into 6 pieces). 

Measure out 1/3 cup of frozen shelled edamame peas and set aside.  

Carefully slice the tofu into rectangular cubes. I sliced a 14oz brick into 20 mini bricks of approximately the same size. 

Heat no more than 1 tsp olive oil in a medium frying pan over high, swiveling the pan around so the tsp of olive oil evenly coats the pan.  Once the pan is hot, add the sliced tofu, taking care to ensure the pieces don't break (extra firm tofu is easiest to work with). Reduce to medium heat and cook for about 3 minutes. Carefully flip each tofu slice over (I find using chopsticks allows the most precision and control, but a spatula should work fine too), letting each side cook for approx 3min until the tofu is golden all around. Meanwhile, measure out all spicy satay sauce ingredients and mix together in a cup or small bowl, stirring well to incorporate. Once the tofu is finished cooking, remove from pan and set aside on a plate, covering with a pot lid to keep warm. 

Without adding any more oil to the same frying pan, add the minced garlic, red chili and diced onions over medium heat. Cook for 2min, adding a tablespoon of water to help steam fry. Add the frozen edamame peas to the pan and stir for another minute. 

Add mushrooms and zucchini to pan. Give the satay sauce another big stir, then pour into pan with veggies.Cook for 5-10min until sauce has thickened to desired consistency. 

(If serving as a brown rice/quinoa bowl, portion out brown rice/quinoa, arrange tofu slices over top, then drizzle sauce and veggies on tofu. Garnish with sesame seeds.)

Serve saucy vegetables over bed of tofu. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and enjoy!