Turnip Cake (Azuki Cooking Series #5)

Turnip cake, 蘿蔔糕 lo pak go, is one of my favorite dishes for Chinese New Year. True, you can eat it year round, and many restaurants offer them as dim sum, but for me it’s the childhood memories of new year. Of my mom making them a few days before the new year, of eating the steamy cake straight off the stove, of visiting relatives and being served it, of adults comparing notes of who makes it best (so-and-so’s is too hard, so-and-so’s falls apart…)

I enjoy making turnip cake. I got this recipe from my mom, and is probably the closest thing to a heirloom recipe I own. My husband loves it so much, he doesn’t even order turnip cake at restaurants anymore (my recipe uses a lot more turnip, while the restaurant version is usually mostly flour.) This year I gave some to my boss, whose parents are from Taiwan, and he reported that they said it was the best ever turnip cake they ever had.

So, I decide I should post my recipe here, for posterity.

Like most of my recipes, I do not use exact measurement.

First, the ingredients. Traditionally, dried mushrooms, dried shrimps, dried scallops and dried sausages are used. Some also used dried pork belly. Vegetarian version calls for veg ham, mushrooms and carrot, but it’s not common. Here’s a recipe. As my hubby refuses to eat the veg version I make mine with the traditional ingredients.

You can easily get these at most Chinese grocery stores. If you can’t get the real thing use ham. For the more health conscious there are sausages with chicken meat or less fatty cuts. Soak dried shiitake mushrooms, scallops and shrimps. The mushrooms and shrimps usually require just an hour to a few hours of soaking, depending on size, but the scallops need overnight. When soft, chop them up into small cubes. Shred the dried scallops.

Stir fry the ingredients in a wok. Season with soy sauce, cooking wine, salt and sugar.

Next, the daikon turnips. I use about 5 lbs for a 2.5 quart Corning casserole dish. Wash, chop off ends, peel, and cut into big chunks.

While my grandma used to shred her turnips by hand, my mom and I benefit from modern technology. A food processor helps make this a breeze…

Gently squeeze the juice out of the turnip, set aside a bowl-ful of juice. Add the turnip shreds to a wok and stir fry. Add a little white pepper. I also add two chicken or vegetable bullions for flavor.

When turnip is cooked and turns a yellowish shade, add in the mushrooms, suasages, etc. Mix in well.

Now the flour. I use half cornstarch, half rice flour, with liquid from the turnip or the water soaking the mushroom. Please note that the rice flour I use is 粘米粉, milled from long grain rice. It’s different from 糯米粉, made from the short grain sweet/sticky/glutinous rice. 糯米粉, or mochiko in Japanese, is used to make the chewy, sticky, stretchy stuff in mochi, dango, niango, rice dumplings, and all that delicious stuff. Anyway, for the flour, more rice flour will make the cake firmer and more cornstarch will make a softer cake that falls apart easier. Half and half is about right. I usually use one cup of each, mixed into a thick yet pour-able paste.

I put the stir fried mix of turnip shreds and mixings into a corning ware, or any deep baking pan you may use. I pour the flour paste in and stir. Depending on how moist your stir fried mix is, you may end up needing more or less flour paste. Generally, I will stir in enough so that the turnip shreds are like orange peels in a marmalade. If you prefer a cake with less turnip and more flour, you can make more paste and stir it in. But don’t just add water as the cake will become too soft.

Now your cake is ready to be steamed. You will need a big wok, or a very deep pot (like a dutch oven or a soup pot) with a steamer rack like this:

Fill the pot with water just below the rack, and when water boils, put your baking pan in, cover the pot with lid, and steam on high heat for 45 min to an hour.

To test, insert a chopstick into the cake.  If it comes out clean the cake is cooked.

Sprinkle sesame seeds and cilantro on top.  Put the lid back on for 10 sec so the cilantro “cooks” into the cake.

I love eating fresh lo pak go. It will be on the soft side, very delicious with a little sirracha and oyster sauce.

The popular way to serve turnip cake is to pan fry it.  Just cut into half inch slices and pan fry, then add hot sauce, soy sauce or oyster sauce to taste.  I’ve known people who dip them in sugar too… If the cake turns out softer than you’d like, a trick is to let the cake sit slightly uncovered in the refrigerator, so it dries out somewhat. For my Corning pan, I just use two chopsticks to lift the lid a bit higher.

Enjoy!

 

Achoo!!

I am trying to pick up a few Korean phrases to use, and find this page quite useful:

http://www.linguanaut.com/english_korean.htm

When I scroll down the list, I chuckle when I read this line:

Bless you (when sneezing)

(No reaction, as if nothing happened)

This has happened many times when my husband sneezes. Not only does he sneeze a lot, he is a chain sneezer.  When he sneezes in public places, my Asian friends and I will totally ignore him and carry on our conversations or whatever we are doing, but people around us (like people sitting at the next tables in a restaurant) will come forth with a generous outpour of “Bless You”, as if to compensate for our lack of sympathy.  Sometimes it makes me feel cold hearted, as if I won’t care less if he sneezes his brain out.  Nonetheless it has yet to become a reflex for me to say Bless You whenever I hear a sneeze, so my belated and weak response feels more like coming out of guilt than a genuine concern.   

 

BookCrossing Gathering in Hong Kong

Sorry this post is a few months late, but back on March 20, 2010 I was in Hong Kong to meet with some BookCrossers. We met at a restaurant called Brunch Club & Supper, which serves an American menu, with salad, egg benedicts, crepes, sandwiches, appertizers, coffee and the like. It was a nice meetup, with several oldtimers (azuki, ktp28 and wandering-B) since the first Hong Kong meetup (about three years ago?), and a few new faces (criminologeek, penejoe and yukihosnow). Watakeet, who was the first HK BCer I met, was unfortunately not available but was 100% there in spirit. : ) Nice chat, lots of good books piled on the table, Wandering-B brought some book thongs and Azuki some labels, so everybody went home happy.

What’s more, we found that Brunch Club has two big mahogany bookshelves. (Is that mahogany? I have no clue, just some very awesome looking wooden bookshelves.) They are full of books, mostly English titles, as this is likely a place favorited by exprats longing for the taste of home. We spoke with the manager, explained what BookCrossing is, and with her blessing the shelves are now an Official BookCrossing Zone!!!

There’s well over a hundred titles on the shelves. We put some of our books on the shelf, and needless to say, my resolution of not taking books home totally crumbled. I haven’t visited many OBCZs, but I’d proudly say that this is probably among the biggest and best OBCZs. Oh how I wish I have an OBCZ closer to home! If I were to live in Hong Kong, I’d totally haunt that place.

So now Hong Kong has its first OBCZ, and a very nice one at that. Please come by for a visit when you have the opportunity!

Brunch Club is located at:
1st Floor, 13 Leighton Road
Causeway Bay, Hong Kong
Tel: 2890-2125
www.brunch-club.org

The restaurant is an easy walking distance from the Causeway Bay MTR (subway) station.

 

Tomato Asian Rice Noodles (Azuki’s Cooking Series #4)

When I showed this picture on the camera to my husband, he thought it was tuna. So maybe I can name this vegetarian tuna noodle?

Anyway, it was just something I cooked up one afternoon with what I can rummage in my fridge. I have a bit of Thai basil left so I made a Vietnamese-inspired pho-style noodle dish. You can use the rice vermicelli instead and make it a “bun” style dish instead, which is great for summer. Slices of tofu can be added too. Whatever you have in the fridge!!

1. Cook and drain Vietnamese flat rice noodle (I am still trying to find a good brand, so let me know if you have recommendation).
2. While noodle is cooking, cut tomato into chunks, slice onion, wash spinach.
3. Heat oil in a pan. I found some lemongrass and Thai basil in my fridge so I add them to the pan and stir fry a bit for the fragrance to come out.
4. Next saute onion. Then add tomato and spinach.
5. Use a saucepan to prepare broth. I use vegetable soup base. A mushroom based boullion works great. Another one I found recently and really like is Edward & Sons. (http://www.edwardandsons.com/es_shop_bouillon.itml) The vegetable stock I find in the U.S. are often flavored with celery, parsley and the like, and often doesn’t work well with Asian dishes. The ones in oriental grocery stores are usually made with mushroom and kombu, but while the flavor works, they often have MSG and other additives.
6. Put noodles in a bowl, arrange vegetables on top.
7. Slice some garlic and fried till crispy. Put on top.
8. Crush some peanuts with mortar and pestle, sprinkle on top.
9. Add hot broth to the noodle. Ready to serve.
(10. You can add a little fish sauce for seasoning if you’re not vegetarian.)

 

Korean Lettuce Salad (Azuki’s Cooking Series #3)

I got a nice pack of lettuce from Costco, and after a few days of salads, and then wraps, I crave for something different.   Something a little oriental.  I suddently remember the lettuce salad that I eat at Korean restaurants.  It comes with the grilled beef bulgogi, and it’s so delicious that I am quite contend to eat it wih my rice and leave the meat to the guys. 

A search on google yields mostly recipes for Korean lettuce wrap with beef, but I manage to find what I want.

For the dressing, mince some garlic and green onion.  Remember that you are using the garlic raw, which is a lot more pungent and spicy, so go easy on it.  A clove or two should be plenty.  Add to it a tablespoon each of soy sauce, sugar, vinegar, and sesame oil to taste.  Add red pepper powder as well, if preferred.  I modified the recipe by adding some minced ginger and miso. 

Then chop up some lettuce, toss with dressing and sprinkle with sesame.  It’s simple but addictively delicious.  The flavor is on the strong side as the salad is not to be eaten on its own as an appertizer, but served along with other dishes to go with rice.

 

Say No to Shark Fin Soup

The ecological disaster of shark killing for their fins is nothing new, but recently there is a reflamed discussion in Hong Kong, stirred up by a video and the subsequent news report.  (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELtgIhD-4yk and  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5hA00VZooc&NR=1)  A group of young divers from Hong Kong went to The Philippines for a vacation, and witnessed a young whale shark dying on the beach, its fins cut off and its body covered with knife wounds.   The young woman, still choked with tears as she recalled the scene, pleaded people not to eat shark fin soup.  While the fact that Chinese’s demand for shark fins is the reason for many shark species’ near-extinction and a very cruel practice (the equivalent of chopping all limbs off a person and leaving him to die), the highly emotional eye witness account generate much attention and discussions among the public.

A facebook group has started a pledge to Say No to Shark Fin Soup.  As a major consumption of the soup happens during banquets, there is a movement to ask people, especially newly weds, not to serve shark fin soup.  As a matter of fact, WWF has a list of organizations who have pledged not to serve shark fin at their company events, and the list includes The University of Hong Kong, Disney and  HSBC.

When I read the news, my reaction was, “Finally!”  Generally speaking, Hong Kong people do not have a strong sense of environmental protection, especially when it comes to what not to eat.  I can understand how, a long time ago, some fishermen caught a shark, and tried their very best to turn all body parts into edible food, a feat that Chinese is likely to have bragging rights to.  I don’t think there is any nation who consume a bigger variety of animal parts.  Anyway, for those who haven’t tried it, shark fin is basically a bland food that takes days and lots of work to make edible, and the flavor of the soup is derived from the chicken, ham, abalone and other ingredients stewed with the shark fin.  I can imagine how, with more primitive fishing boats and tools, it is a hard ingredient to come by and thus made it a  delicacy afordable only to the rich, giving the dish a prestiguous statue. 

Today shark fin is no longer a by product of a caught fish. As a  merchandise fetching up to 500 times more than the meat itself, the fishermen started to cut the fins off the fish and, not bothering with processing the meat or wasting cargo space, throw the dying fish back into the ocean.  As humans becoming a much more capable killer of sharks than the other way around, the shark population is being depleted faster than the slow growing fish can reproduce.  Add to that the increased affluence of China, and sharks are in serious trouble.  As the proven scientific fact shows that shark fin has little nutritional value and lots of mercury and heavy metal,  there is really no argument to continue eating shark fin.  (Well, actually on surfing the web, I came across an argument: if we stop eating shark fin, we will put those fishermen out of work.  To which I would reply, yeah, just so Afghan poppy growers can bring food to their kids, go get some opium.) 

Hong Kong is the epicenter of shark fin trade, importing close t 10,000 metric tons of shark fins a year.  Some comments claim that whatever decreased consumption this recent publicity may generate is hardly a drop in the bucket compares to the consumption in China.  Nonetheless, I feel very positive.  All great movements start with a very small group, but that small, seemingly insignificant effort is a pebble that can generate lots of waves.  In fact, my research has led me to another news article.  The Sakanaga kaitenzushi chain in Hong Kong recently won a bid for a tail of blue fin tuna, a fish which is near extinction.  As the news made headline in newspapers, environmental groups voiced their protests, and a boycott was started.  Granted, the number of people signing the boycott are likely less than what the chain’s customers number in one day, but it is an encouraging move nonetheless.  While a lot of news have portrayed China as a country with little environmental concern or consumer awareness, when I read blogs and forum posts online, I often find educated, forward-thinking posters who are eager to make their country and the world a better place.  I sincerely wish that everybody in the world will take a clearer look at his/her food and makes a more conscientious food choice.  I believe that one day eating shark fin soup will looked upon in the same way as wearing fur.    Our best effort to promote awareness is needed, however, before it’s too late.

Here are some more links about the topic. 

http://www.tinykylie.com/forum/viewthread.php?tid=3841&extra=page%3D1
http://fijisharkdiving.blogspot.com/2010/02/certified-shark-fin-soup.html
http://apps.wwf.org.hk/seafood/eng/sharkfin/index.php

You can also sign a Care2 petition at:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/11/save-the-sharks
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/7/stop-shark-fin-and-fin-products-for-sale-in-san-francisco
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/Shark-Conservation-and-Protection

 

Mame Shiba

Just discovered a series of cute commercials from Japan called Mameshiba.  The name means trivia knowledge and each episode features a very adorable bean or pea with puppy face: green pea, peanut, natto, edamame, coffee bean, jelly beans…  As the person is about to eat the bean/pea, the cute face pops up and disclose a trivia knowledge, totally ruining the eater’s appetite.  Facts like, did you know that a squid has three hearts?  Or that a flamingo’s milk is pink?  Or when you kiss millions of bateria are transferred between mouths?  Or that a koala’s appendix is two meters long.   Some unappertizing fact best discussed at another time, and the fact that your food starts talking to you… is enough t turn any face blue. 

This version here has been subtitled, and you can find more related videos on the side bar. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpRBkhipQOs

So very charming.  I was even considering getting a little edamame shiba cellphone charm.

 

Taiwanese Oyster Noodle – Vegan Style (Azuki’s Cooking Series #2)

I would have titled the post Vegetarian Oyster, except that, following my previous post on vegetarian spider, I won’t want any confusion that scientists have discovered a new breed of oyster.

A few years back when I attended a Tzu Chi study group, the host sister often makes a vegetarian noodle dish.  The Taiwanese noodle is dark brown in color and very thin, like vermicilli.  The study group ended,  and recently I started having cravings for that noodle.  When I spotted the noodle at the supermarket I brought a pack.  The first time around wasn’t quite successful, so I went online in search of a proper recipe, and came across one for making vegan oyster.

I know Chinese eats most anything and has a vegan mock version of most anything, but it was the first time I heard of vegan oyster.   Naturally I couldn’t resist making it.

The recipe is actually very simple.  You soak the shiitake mushrooms, chop them up, tear a nori seaweed sheet into tiny pieces, and mix the two together with some flour, then fry it.

I used shiitake, though white button or baby bella should work too. Shiitake has a firmer texture and more umami.  I was amazed at the result.  It tastes good, and it tastes quite like the real thing: the seaweed giving it the brine-like flavor reminiscent of sea, and the mushroom a meaty, juicy texture. 

As for the noodle, my mistake first time was cooking it like most noodles: it’s done when it’s soft.  Not for this noodle.  I let it stew for a few more minutes, together with shredded mushroom, wood ear and carrot.  Feel free to add bamboo shoots and bean sprouts if you have them.  

(dried wood ear)

(after soaking in water)

When ready, add soy sauce and sugar to the broth, generous amount of rice vinegar (black preferred).  Thicken broth with corn starch (add corn starch to a small bowl, add a little cold water, stir till dissolved, then add to the hot broth. Do not add corn starch powder directly to broth.) 

(I didn’t take picture the first time I made this, so in the picture, I use plain white noodle instead of the dark Taiwanese vermicelli)

Sprinkle on cilantro and white pepper.   Enjoy!!

 

Finally, Naoe

After so many people raved about this new Japanese restaurant in Sunny Isles, we were eager to visit Naoe.   However, as the place is really small, and certainly the recent review in the newspaper didn’t help, we were not able to reserve a table till now.   Or, more specifically, we weren’t able to reserve a table at the first seating of 7:30, which we preferred (and apparently everybody else).

The restaurant is bigger than I imaged, very spacious with dark wood tables and chairs.  There were only three tables, each seating two, four and six people with plenty of elbow room.  The room is dimly illuminatied, most of the light coming from the open kitchen where Chef Cory is at work.   There are additional seats at the counter, popular among those who enjoy watching their food being prepared.  It looks like since the first reviews, the chef has hired help as there is a guy working in the back.

Our waitress brought us the drink menu.   The sake are from Cory’s family, Nakamura Brewery in Japan, and the price starts at $17 for a 250ml bottle of Yukizake to over $100 for the 750ml Nichiei Junmai.   The Sapporo draft beer is a good value , a cold, tall glass for $5.   We ordered the Yukizake (Snow Sake) which came frozen and was scooped out like shorbet.  The freezing intensified the sweetness and aroma of the alcohol. Gotta try this at home.

Kaga no Yukizake

Now for the food menu?  Sorry, but there is no such thing at Naoe.  The only thing available is a bento box, omakase style (meaning, you are totally at the mercy of the chef). 

We have been well warned by various sources to expect a long wait for the food, so we were prepared.   (This is likely not a place for a first date unless you know that you two have endless things to talk about and she will not never get tired of you.)  Our boxes finally arrived.  The lid was removed to reveal four compartments.   Apparently the regular waitress was not available and our waitress was there to help out, and while she was flawlessly friendly and pleasant, she was not very familiar with the food and the description was therefore somewhat sketchy.  According to what we were told, and what I tasted, our dinner consisted of (from upper left clockwise): salmon in sake soy sauce with konbu topping; organic tofu with uni paste, aji with green bean, and a fish called sandpiper(?? – I wonder if she meant red snapper but it didn’t look like it); napa cabbage roll with sea beam topped with okra, aoyagi (short-necked clam) sashimi; rice with organic portabello topped with pickle.  We were also served with a bowl of miso with carrot and corn in it.

Naoe dinner

The flavor of the miso soup is really nice, though the carrot was a little too firm/crunchy.  The dishes are kaiseki style, and Naoe is the only place in Miami serving them.  I had expected the presentation to be more elegant from earlier reviews, and wonder if some impatient guests may had been told the chef to skip the decorations.  Comparing it to Frodnesor‘s review, our box certainly was missing a few petals and garnishes.  It would be lovely too if the dishes are more representative of the season.  Nonetheless, this is quite a feast for the eyes and for the mouth, and I enjoyed munching a pinch of food here and there.   The majority of our group agreed on the clam and cabbage roll being our favorite.  

Part of Cory’s family in Japan also brews soy sauce.  I am not sure if that’s where our soy sauce is from, but our waitress told us that he brought it from Japan and cooked it with something (konbu?)

The bento likely will not fill you up, unless you subscribe to the healthful advice of Hana Hachi Bun.  This gives you the opportunity to sample some of the fresh sushi. 

We ordered the salmon, which is Scottish salmon that melts in your mouth and a different league from the standard salmon sushi available everywhere.   At $3 a piece, it’s a good value.  We liked the aoyagi clam so much in the box that we ordered it as sushi too. (The check noted it as aori ika but I am pretty sure what we had was clam and not squid.)  There was also Madai, Japanese Red Snapper, which we didn’t order.   All the sushi were excellent in quality and among the best in Miami. 

Aoyagi, Uni and Shiroebi Sushi

 The kohada is flown in fresh from Japan, and a rare find in South Florida, so we decided to try some.  Like saba mackerel, it’s pickled in vinegar, and while the kohada is much milder in taste and more delicate in texture, and artistically presented, it’s just not my type of fish.   But if you like saba, you’d love this.

Kohada Sushi

I looked up kohada on the Net and this is some interesting tidbit I found on Wikipedia: The fish is called Gizzard shad in English.  In Japan, when the baby fish is around two inches long, it’s called Shinko 新子 (literally, new baby), when it grows to 3-4 inches long, it’s called Kohada 小鰭 (or 小肌, meaning Baby Skin, referring to the soft and shiny skin like a baby!?).  Another inch longer and passes its first birthday, it graduates to a Nakazumi ナカズミ, and upon reaching adulthood, at a length of six inches or more, the fish is called a Konoshiro.  The adult fish has a lot of fine bones and the bigger the fish is, the less valuable it gets. 

The name Konoshiro comes with an interesting, if incredible, legend.  There was once a very beautiful maiden, who had a lover.  When a government official wanted to marry her, the girl’s mother told the official that the girl had died from illness.  To fool the official, the mother burned a coffin at the funeral.  Inside the coffin she put some fish which, when spoilt, smelled like corpse and when burnt, smelled like one too.  The official left with disappointment. From that time on the fish was called Konoshiro（子の代）(in place of the child).    Intriguingly, Konoshiro also means This Castle in Japanese.  As a result, this fish is mostly eaten pickled, as the shoguns and samurais understandably got nervous breakdowns when the peasants kept talking about castle burning.   Or so the legend had it.  Not to mention that the fish stinks when burnt… or so we were told.

 

Kasou Taishou

Stumbled upon one of the videos on Youtube and ended up totally hooked. These are short skits performed by amateurs (sometimes the reactions of the performers are better than the performance itself), from students to housewives to people of different professions, in the art of imitating something using props and their body. Many of them employ the use of stagehands, clothed in (invisible) black as used in kabuki performance.  (Though when I first saw them in a kabuki, I found myself watching those supposedly sleathy men in black  more than the performers themselves.)

This one is amazing…

Atsui (Hot)

Massage Chair

A lovely one
Reflection

The reason my girlfriend got mad at me
(midway through the performance, the guy asked, why was she so mad? and the scene rewinds itself to show the reason. Very original!)

This is a medley of 30 years worth of award winners. Kind of wish to see the full version.

This is another collection. A bit sorry for the kid in superman. The girl with the head is amazing, and the Laundry in the Wind is my favorite, with both skill and humor.

This is one that makes one thinks: Crazy Japanese: Skiing

If you’ve watched Shaolin Soccer you’d love this. If you haven’t, this is the trailer, and you pretty much and find the rest of the movie following the related links.

And if you’ve ever played Super Mario, you’d love this too.