Turnip Cake (Lo Bak Gou)Loaded with shredded turnip (daikon), steamed and pan fried until crispy golden brown. Garnished with fresh cilantro and served with soy sauce and chili. This turnip cake is a delicious savory delight!
Turnip cake, also known as radish cake or Lo Bak Gou, is a savory steamed traditional Cantonese snack often found in Chinese Dim Sum restaurants. I grew up eating this quite often as our family is Teo Cheow and we would pan fry this with egg and fresh cilantro, then dip it with soy sauce and chili. So delicious!
The turnips should be firm and bright white in color. Choose turnips that are heavy indicating they have higher water content and are not too old. Old turnips are very dry and fibrous, which are bitter and have lost its natural sweetness.
You can also use shredded taro instead of turnip to make taro cake. It’s another one of my favorite!
Enjoy!
| Turnip Cake (Lo Bak Gou) |
Ingredients
For the Turnip Cake
- 2 tablespoon of vegetable oil
- 1 pound of turnip (daikon), peeled and grated
- Pepper to taste
- 1 teaspoon salt or more to taste
- 1 teaspoon shitake Mushroom seasoning
- Sesame oil
- 16 oz (450 g) rice flour
- 7 cups of water
Dipping Sauce:
- 3 tablespoon of soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon chilli paste (Sambal Oelek)
Methods
- Add the oil into a wok.
- Add the grated turnip, ½ teaspoon of salt, pepper, ½ teaspoon sesame oil and shitake mushroom seasoning. Stir fry for 5 minutes.
- Dish onto plate and set aside.
- In a deep pan at medium heat, add 7 cups of water and rice flour and mix thoroughly.
- Add and stir the fried turnip (daikon). Slowly stir until mixture gets thick, then turn off heat.
- Cover a stainless steel dish with cling wrap.
- Transfer into the dish and cover the top with a cling wrap.
- Steam for 30 minutes, then leave to cool completely.
- Slice and pan fry with oil at medium heat until golden brown.
- Serve immediately and garnish with fresh cilantro (coriander).
What weight is a bag of rice flour?
Can I use something besides plastic wrap to cook it in?
Hi Nicole,
A bag of rice flour is 16 oz (1 pound).
You don’t have to wrap the bottom with plastic, just oil it well but the plastic helps remove the turnip cake easily as it tends to stick to the bottom due to its sticky texture. For the top, you can cover with foil paper during steaming.
Hope that helps 🙂
Thank you! I love turnip cakes!
This is the preferred rice flour.
May i know the gram of 1 pound raddish and the gram of 7 cups of water?
Hi Lynn,
Thanks for your interest in the recipe. 1 pound is approximately 450g. As for water, you are better off getting a measuring cup to measure it in cups instead of grams because it is more accurate that way.
Enjoy!
Korie 🙂