I sometimes feel sorry for those not born into the culture trying to learn all the nuances of Chinese food. It’s hard enough trying to wrap your head around the topic, let alone recognise all the different iterations of specific dishes by different Chinese dialect groups.

Radish cake is one such example; the Cantonese version found at yum cha here is often incorrectly translated on the menu as turnip cake (lo bak go), which doesn’t help. The Cantonese-Yum Cha version is a pale white colour and contains bits of Chinese sausage; it’s served cut into slices and lightly pan-fried, and the flavour is overall pretty subtle.

Then there’s the radish cake called Char Kway Kak in Penang, and Chai Tow Kway in other parts of Malaysia, or Carrot Cake in Singapore (another misnomer brought about, I suspect, by the direct translation into English of “white carrot” which is what radish is called in Chinese) – cubed steamed radish cake that’s fried up with a soy-based sauce along with egg, garlic, chives and beansprouts (it was one of my signature dishes back in the day, and Malaysians still ask for it at my infrequent market events).

Growing up as a Hakka, I’m familiar with a Hakka version which, like the Cantonese radish cake, is served cut into slices and pan-fried. That’s where the similarities stop, because a lot more go into Hakka radish cake – fatty pork that’s cooked until it falls apart (since yours truly doesn’t eat pork, I’m using chicken in this recipe), lots of onion and garlic, and five spice powder. 

The end result is a dark-coloured, aromatic and delicious snack that my parents used to toil for hours to make once in a blue moon. We used to eat it with homemade garlic chilli sauce, the recipe for which you can find here >> How to Make Garlic Chilli Sauce

This here is my hack of my parents’ Hakka Radish Cake – I tried calling my stepmom for the recipe right before I went On Air in my Live Asian Kitchen, but she didn’t pick up, so I kind of made it up based on my memory of the dish, and I think it turned out pretty good. (Caveat – I’m writing this down several weeks after my attempt at this dish, so allow for plenty of agak-agak ie. guesstimating in your quantities esp with regards to seasoning.)

Lo Pek Pan | Hakka Radish Cake

INGREDIENTS:

200g shredded radish

2 brown onions

8 cloves garlic

800g chicken, skin off, deboned

200g rice flour

1 ½ Tbsps tapioca flour

1 Tbsp chicken powder (or 2 tsps salt)

1 Tbsp sugar

1 tsp white pepper

1 tsp five spice powder

1000ml water

METHOD:

1. Mince garlic and onion, combine with shredded radish, chicken and 800ml water. Simmer on low heat until chicken falls apart. Remove chicken and allow to cool.
2. Shred chicken and return to saucepan.
3. Combine rice flour, tapioca flour and remaining water and mix to a smooth paste. Add to saucepan.
4. Add seasoning, bring to a simmer and cook until mixture is thickened to a porridgy consistency.
5. Transfer into a grease tray. Line steamer lid with a towel to prevent condensation dripping back into the tray.
6. Steam on medium heat for 30 minutes or until done.
7. Allow to cool, then cut into slices about 1 cm thick; pan-fry with a bit of oil and serve hot with garlic chilli sauce.

My Live Asian Kitchen broadcasts are made possible with the support of the following –

The post How to Make Hakka Lo Pek Pan (Hakka Radish Cake) first appeared on Jackie M..

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These are authentic, real, NOT FAKE, feedback about my most recent Malaysian cooking Masterclasses –

 “YOUR DA BEST!!!!”
– Tom B Lee Bu, Professor Emeritus, English Literature, Oxford.

“That Pad Thai Masterclass was incredible. Thanks for bringing me closer to mastering Malaysian food!”
– Nigel, food blogger at pretentiouslicious.com (last seen leaving the class on Sunday. His family has filed a missing persons report).

“Awesome to meet Kyle’s co-host, though I have to say, things must be rough at 2Day FM for you to be moonlighting as a cook. P.S. I think I like you with long hair better, plus, sunscreen, girlfriend!”
– O.B Livious, radio junkie

“Jacqui /Jacky M (N?) truly is THE WORLD’S MOST RECOGNISABLE NAME in Malaysian food!”
– Tim Tam (ps. I’m being held against my will. Send help.)

Fooled you, didn’t it? I guess I should’ve asked my real participants to fill out customer satisfaction surveys, but that would entail proper “customer service” – something I’ve never been accused of mastering.

Over the course of two days we covered Laksas of Malaysia and CKT/Radish Cake/Popiah etc.

Both classes were at capacity (thank God for ring-ins. j/k).

Three of the four dishes each day turned out fine; as the Meatloaf classic goes – Three Out of Four Ain’t Bad.

In all seriousness though, I had a great time (never mind the participants. j/k, again.) – and one surprising discovery for me was that almost everyone who signed up had first connected with me once upon a time via Twitter.

Which has inspired me to get back into the Twitter groove after putting it on autopilot the last year or so.

So, Twitterverse aka the angriest place on the internet, the Noodle Nazi is back (cue angry tweets about my glib use of “Nazi”).

Thank you very much to everyone who came along; remember our secret code word – “Agak-Agak”!

For enquiries about future classes or to crack the meaning behind our secret code word, please email me at jackie(at)jackiem.com.au .

The post World’s Greatest Malaysian Cooking Masterclasses first appeared on Jackie M..