Ingredients:
~750g radish after peeling and cutting
500g rice flour
20g tapioca flour (or you can use cornstarch if you don't have tapioca flour)
10g salt
15g sugar
2.05L water (1350ml for radish, 700ml for flour)
Chye Poh (菜脯) - 1 packet
Garlic - 2 cloves
Important Notes:
- Radish: Best is to get Japanese Daikon. It is more expensive than the local ones which you can buy from the local markets. If you are buying the ones at the market, go for the ones from Cameron highlands instead of the ones from China.
- Rice flour: Make sure it is the wet milled type and not the dry milled type, which is used to make batter for deep frying.
Steps:
1) Cut the radish into strips which are about twice the size of matchsticks. Cutting the radish is better than shredding it because when you shred it, the juices tend to leech out of the radish. Cutting it also means it is a little thicker and so it gives it a better bite. (I used a food combo processor to cut the radish, saves time!)
2) Mix the rice flour and tapioca flour (or cornstarch) with 700ml water into a thick slurry.
3) Heat up the water in a separate pot and add salt, sugar and alternative to MSG such as dried cuttlefish, konbu, ikan bilis, dried scallops etc to give the stock a bit of umami flavour. You can of course use a bit of chicken stock powder but just take note that it is as good as adding msg. So if you are doing it as a shortcut to making your own chicken stock then it is ok, but if you are trying to avoid msg, then it is not ok.
4) Once your stock is ready, add the radishes into the boiling water and cook until the radish turns translucent. (5-10mins)
5) Next add the flour mixture to the radish and stir until it has thickened evenly. (I removed whatever that's added to give the umami flavour from Step 4 above before adding the flour mixture into it.)
6) Oil the pan and then add the thicken mixture.
7) Steam for 2 hours and leave overnight in the fridge to set.
Steps to prepare the Chye Poh condiments:
Finely chop two cloves of garlic and add them to the Chye Poh. Add some vegetable oil and cook until the chye poh turns brown. You may add some sugar if you prefer your chye poh to be sweeter.
Instructions on frying:
*Advise to use a non stick pan. It actually works pretty well and is more practical for most people.
1. Cut the carrot cake into 2 cm cubes.
2. Add oil to the pan and when it is hot, add the cubes of carrot cake. Press the carrot cake down gently onto the pan so that it breaks. This creates an irregular surface which enables the chye poh and fish sauce to stick to. This is much better then chopping the carrot cake with a knife into smaller cubes as you get only smooth surface on your carrot cake that way. That is why its better to start with larger cubes and break it into irregular shaped smaller chunks. The aim is to have some large pieces where you can taste the rice and radish and some smaller pieces that get charred and coated with chye poh and fish sauce.
3. Add fish sauce and continue to fry (I did not add fish oil though as I don't want to buy it just for frying carrot cake.)
4. Add Chye Poh mixture and continue to fry till it develops and nice crust.
5. Add an egg (I added some prawns as well before adding the egg) and fry till brown. Serve with chopped spring onions and a dash of white pepper.
Black Version
With the black version, add the dark sauce towards the end of the frying process. Fry till you develop some crust on the carrot cake and then reduce the heat and add the sweet black sauce. Toss until evenly coasted. Then turn off the fire and add some more sweet sauce, stir fry till even and then serve. Note: Sweet black sauce turns bitter if subjected to too much heat. (I did not add sweet black sauce as I don't like my carrot cake to be sweet, instead I added chilli to make it a bit spicy.)
Final note: I fry the carrot cake 1 portion by 1 portion to tailor the taste to different family members.
Final note: I fry the carrot cake 1 portion by 1 portion to tailor the taste to different family members.
