Kue Lobak
Kue lobak (Chinese radish cake) is a steamed daikon/radish cake, a very popular dimsum item, and also widely sold as street food in many Asian countries.
- Prep time
- 30 min
- Cook time
- 2 hr
- Yield
- 8 servings
- Difficulty
- MEDIUM
Ingredients
Quantities are shown as originally provided.
- 50 gram dried shrimp (Indonesian: ebi), soaked in 1/2 cup of water for 15 minutes
- 500 gram daikon (Indonesian: lobak), cut into wedges
- 360 gram rice flour (Indonesian: tepung beras)
- 90 gram wheat starch (Indonesian: tepung tangmien)
- 2 tablespoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground pepper
- 1/2 tablespoon anchovy/dashi/chicken stock granules
- 2 cup water
- 1/4 cup oil
- 75 gram shallot, thinly sliced
- 1 whole bulb garlic (~ 40 gram), minced
Instructions
- 1
Grease and line a round 7"x3" pan, or a square 8"x2" pan with parchment paper and set aside. (*)
- 2
Separate ebi from the soaking water. Ground the soaked ebi.
- 3
In a blender, puree daikon with just the soaking water.
- 4
In a big mixing bowl, whisk together rice flour, wheat starch, sugar, ground pepper, and anchovy/dashi/chicken stock granules. Add water, stir until smooth. Add in the pureed daikon, stir again until smooth.
- 5
Heat oil in a wok/deep skillet over medium heat. Sauté shallot and garlic until fragrant, then add in ground ebi and cook again until fragrant.
- 6
Remove wok/skillet from heat, add in the rice flour and daikon batter, stir until smooth. With medium heat, cook this mixture until thickened, stirring frequently. The batter is thick enough when you can stand a spoon and it stays upright in the middle of the batter.
- 7
Pour the thick batter into prepared pan, press and smooth the batter with a spatula, making sure there are no trapped air bubbles or the finished steamed cake will have holes like swiss cheese, which is not good.
- 8
Steam for about 1 hour over medium heat, or until a skewer comes out clean from the cake.
- 9
Remove the steamed cake from the steamer and set aside to cool completely before unmoulding. Once the cake is completely cool, cut into thin slices, about 16-20 equal servings. (**)
- 10
Prepare a pot of oil for deep frying. Once the oil reaches 160 Celsius (320 Fahrenheit), fry the steamed cake slices until golden brown. Set aside over a strainer to remove excess oil, and serve immediately with some chili sauce (sriracha, or sambal oelek).