Pan-fried Yam Cake

Makes two 6" cake pan
Ingredients	Amounts
Yam, diced	300g
Rice flour	500g
Water or Stock	1.8 litres
Minced chicken	200g
Salt, Pepper and 5-spices powder	As desired
Dried shrimps (soaked and chopped finely)	50g
Spring onions (Chopped finely)	2 small stalks
Vegetable Oil	2 .5tbsp + 1 tbsp
Sweet sauce	As desired
Corn flour	Gauge accordingly

1. Heat oil in a frying pan and bring the diced yam, minced chicken and dried shrimps to cook over medium low heat. Scopped the cooked ingredients and set aside.
   
   
2. In a big bowl, pour in the rice flour and add in some salt , pepper and 5-spices powder. Add 1.8 litres of water into the mixture and blend well. Make sure that it does not get lumpy.
   
   
3. In a deep wok, add a little oil (approx. 2 tsp). Pour 1/4 of the flour batter into the wok and bring to cook over low heat. Add the cooked ingredients into the batter.
   
   
4. Pour the remaining flour batter into the wok and cooked till the mixture gets thicken.
   
   
5. Scooped the thicken mixture into cake pan and bring to steam over medium high heat for 30-40 mins. Allow cooling before slicing it up.
   
   
6. Pat the sliced yam cake with corn flour. In another frying pan, heat up 1 tbsp of oil and when ready, bring the sliced yam cake to fry over low heat till golden brown.
   
   
7. Sprinkle some spring onions over the yam cake and drizzle some sweet sauce over.

I made this yam cake for our breakfast on Tuesday. The cooking method is somehow similar to HongKong style Radish cake except that this is a simpler version. The original recipe calls for roast pork but well, having yam cake for breakfast is heavy enough, imagine having a roasted pork yam cake will be far too greasy for us.

As you know, it's been really long since I last hand-made some breakfast for my Prince Charming. The yam cake really makes his day, so its all worth while even though I'm really tired from work :) I'm getting better with my working environment now, so I hope I get to present more food entries here!

Hong Kong Style Radish Cake

Ingredients	Amounts
Rice flour	250g
Corn flour	30g
Chinese Sausages (Diced)	3
Minced Pork	300g
Dried Shrimps (Finely Chopped)	1 Handful
Minced Onions + Garlics	1 + 3
Water	250ml
White Radish	89g
Oil	6 Tsp

Seasonings:
- Salt 2 tsp
- Sugar 2 tsp
- Chicken Powder 2 tsp

1. Wash the radish, peeled and shred into fine thin slices. Drain away the fluid and set aside.
   DO NOT THROW THE FLUID AWAY! Keep the fluid for later use.
   
   
2. Sift the flour ingredients together. Add in the water and mixed well, followed by adding in the fluid from the Radish and blend well.
   
   
3. In a wok, heat up some oil and stir in the minced onions and garlics and fry till fragrant. Ad in the dried shrimps, Chinese sausages and minced pork. Stir well, scoop onto a plate and set aside for later use.
   
   
4. Heat up the work and add in some more oil and bring the shredded radish to cook. Once the radish is soft, add the batter to the radish mixture and stir well.
   
   
5. Add in the ingredients in step 3, stir in the seasonings and mix till all is incorporated well. The mixture should be thick and gluey.
   
   
6. Pour the mixture into an aluminum pan and bring to steam over high heat at 45 mins.
   
   
7. Allow the radish cake to cool before slicing it. Heat up some oil in a wok and pan fry the sliced radish cakes till golden brown.
   

This has been on my To-Do list for quite sometime. I was truly in love with Radish cake when I went Hong Kong in 2005. The radish cakes over there were so yummy delicious that I could eat them almost everyday for breakfast while on Holidays :P

In Singapore, it's not very hard to find pan fried Yam cake and local Carrot cake but to find Hong Kong style pan fried Radish cake (With Chinese sausages and minced pork), I guessed that's only available in Dim Sum outlets. It's not very cheap to dine in Dim sum outlet I can say. My mummy's friend spent a wholesome $100+ on dim sum! Worse of all, $100+ for only 2 person! That's seriously very very expensive.

Actually I always wanted to try out doing Yam cake. My mummy makes super whopper heavenly delicious Yam cake. Whether it's purely steam or pan fried, the yam cakes could just make my taste buds dance! How amazing isn't it? So, knowing that I am not possible able to do the perfect Yam cake like how my mummy does, I decided that if I have the crave for yam cake, I shall ask my mummy to make for me instead ;) Seriously, I love all the food my mum whips up. She can cook a dinner for 6 in less than 45 mins! It's really time to go on a cooking training with my mummy.

Anyway, my Royal Prince Charming love this radish cake! He commented that it taste exactly the same as the ones we had in Hong Kong except that mine has a slightly wetter texture. I guessed probably I shouldn't have add in that much water as requested in the recipe? Oh, this recipe was adapted from Leisure Cat. I modified the amount in the recipe as accordingly.

Dim sum - Siew Mai

Makes 20 ~ 25 Siew mai
Ingredients	Amounts
Minced Meat	240g
Minced Prawns	240g
Spring Onion (Sliced)	1
Sesame Oil	1 tsp
Egg White	1
Wanton wraps	2 packet
Salt	1 tsp
Pepper, Corn flour and Vegetable Oil	A little each

1. Place all the minced shrimps, fatty pork and crabmeat in a large mixing bowl. Using a large wooden or a pair of hands, mix the ingredients well.
   
   
2. Add in the salt, sesame oil, pepper and egg white and work into the mixture evenly, then add in the oil and sprinkle a generous amount of cornflour, then drizzle a little oil over the mixture and continue to work mix.
   
   
3. Add in the water chestnuts and spring onions, work these into the mixture and mix well. Now the filling is complete. Set aside in a refrigerator for approx. an hour.
   
   
4. Stamp wontan skins into 7 cm rounds with a biscuit cutter.
   
   
5. Spoon two teaspoons of the filling into the center and gather the edge of the wrapper to the top. Let it pleat naturally. Continue for the rest of the filling. When done each siew mai should look like little cylinders, the height a little more than the diameter (approx. 2 1/2 cm by 2 cm).
   
   
6. For each siew mai, add a bit of the crab roe on the top.
   
   
7. Rub a little oil in a sizeable bamboo steamer basket and place the siew mais in it, cover the top, and steam over rapidly boiling water for approx 20 - 30 minutes or until cooked.
   
   *You may garnish the steamed siew mai with crab roe or salted egg yolk if desire.*
   

I've always got a soft spot towards dim sum, especially siew mai! I found this receipe online and decided to give it a try. Frankly speaking, this dish of Siew Mai were done quite sometime ago and I only found this picture just recently. I'm sorry. I've already slapped myself for the blurness.