Chinese turnip cake is a dim sum classic worth making at home. It is a flavorful rice cake made with shredded radish and loaded with various meats, such as sausage, scallops, cured pork, and shrimp. You’ll love its umami and savory flavors, as well as its soft and chewy texture.
All About Chinese Turnip Cake (Lo Bak Go)
Chinese turnip cake (萝卜糕) is also known as lo bak go, lo bak ko, radish cake, or carrot cake. This dish is commonly served at dim sum restaurants and is popularly eaten on Chinese New Year or any Chinese celebrations. When it comes to Chinese-style turnip cake, it uses shredded Chinese radish rather than the Japanese daikon.
The cake is packed with various meats and seasonings, including Chinese sausage, Chinese cured pork, dried scallops, dried shrimp, salt, sugar, black pepper powder, green onions, and sesame seeds. Holding everything together is the batter made of rice flour, cornstarch, and water.
The combined batter and flavoring ingredients are usually steamed and cut into rectangular slices. You can make two variations of turnip cake, one that is only steamed and the other that is also pan-fried for a crispy exterior. Serve this cake with soy sauce, chili sauce, oyster sauce, or hoisin sauce.
Why make your homemade Chinese turnip cake when you can have it at restaurants? I promise you, the homemade version is better since the flavoring ingredients of store-bought turnip cakes are typically not as loaded as homemade ones. With this recipe, you can be certain that the turnip cake is not just heavy on rice flour and starch but with meat and seasonings as well.
Tips And Tricks To Make Chinese Turnip Cake (Lo Bak Go)
The ingredients are basically for the batter, daikon base, and flavoring. You will have to properly prepare these three key components in order to make the perfect Chinese turnip cake. So, make sure to take advantage of my tips and suggestions below when making Chinese turnip cake.
- Preparing the batter: A traditional Chinese turnip cake is made of rice flour, cornstarch, and water.
- Rice flour: Take note that rice flour is different from glutinous rice flour or all-purpose flour. It is made from milled long or medium-grain white rice, such as japonica, sinandomeng, angelica, or indica, to name a few. You can use white or brown rice flour for turnip cake. The purpose of rice flour is to give the cake structure and a slightly chewy texture. If you use glutinous rice flour, it will make the cake sticky, chewy, and firm.
- Cornstarch: Cornstarch is essential in this recipe to have a crispy exterior should you decide to pan-fry the cake after steaming. It also helps make the cake thick and chewy. If you don’t have cornstarch, use the following substitutes:
- Arrowroot Powder (1:1 ratio)
- Tapioca Starch/Flour (1:1 ratio)
- Potato Starch (1:1 ratio)
- Water: You can adjust the texture by adding less or more water. Adding more water will make the cake softer, while less water will make it firmer.
- Making shredded daikon:
- Make it more authentic by using Chinese radish. Nevertheless, any type of daikon will work for this recipe and will have minimal difference in taste. The reason why Chinese radish is preferred is that it is not as bitter as Japanese daikon.
- Adding sugar helps lessen the slightly bitter taste of daikon. You can use rock sugar or granulated sugar to neutralize the taste.
- When preparing the daikon, chop off the top and bottom parts and peel the skin. Unlike in the Braised Daikon Radish recipe, which calls for cutting into large chunks, here I slice the daikon into thin strips to make shreds. You can also use a grater to make shreds. If you prefer a faster way to make bits of daikon, you can use a food processor.
- Selecting the flavoring ingredients: There are countless ways to add flavor to the turnip cake. In my recipe, I use Chinese sausage, Chinese cured pork, dried scallops, and dried shrimp. You can add other flavoring bits of your choice.
- Chinese sausage: It is a type of dried and hard sausage made from pork and pork fat, which is also known as lap cheong or lap chong (腊肠). Chinese sausage adds a sweet and smoky flavor to the cake. I chop the sausage into tiny cubes. You can buy this in the international section of grocery stores or on Amazon.
- Chinese cured pork: Add cured pork for more porky flavors. You can use Chinese cured pork belly or la rou (腊肉), which is also known as Chinese bacon. If you can’t find Chinese cured pork, you can use other types of cured meat. Generally, Chinese cured pork is available in Asian grocery stores, the international section of grocery stores, or on Amazon.
- Dried scallops and dried shrimp: You will need to prepare these in advance. These two dried ingredients must be soaked for a few hours or overnight before cooking. It should be soft enough to be chopped into bits for frying.
- Optional ingredients: If you want to add non-meat ingredients, you can use dried shiitake mushrooms. I prefer dried shiitake to fresh for a stronger umami, smoky, and “meaty” taste. Dried shiitake mushrooms also need to be rehydrated with water to make them soft to chop and fry. As a final touch, you can top the cake with green onions and sesame seeds.
- Serving suggestions: After steaming, pan-fry the exterior for an extra crispy bite. Make sure to let it cool before cutting to make the cake stiffer and easier to cut. When slicing the cake, use a sawing motion to have a smooth cut piece. Although it is already good on its own, you can add a kick of flavor by dipping it in soy sauce, chili sauce, oyster sauce, or hoisin sauce.
- Storage and reheating suggestions: Make a large batch of the cake to have a readily available snack in advance. Store it in the fridge or freezer to last long. To reheat the cake, simply steam it again or pan-fry it with a bit of oil.
Ingredients And Kitchenware For Chinese Turnip Cake (Lo Bak Go)
Preparing the ingredients may take a lot of work, but cooking everything together is much easier with a few basic kitchenware. The tools you need are a bowl for mixing, a pan for frying, and a steamer for cooking the cake. If you don’t have a steaming appliance, you can still steam without a steamer in 5 ways: pan with steamer rack, microwave, pan with sieve, rice cooker, and instant pot.
As for the amount of meat, it’s up to you how much you want to add. However, make sure it won’t be more than the batter that you will be making. Without further ado, here’s a complete list of what you need to get started:
Kitchenware
- Knife and chopping board
- Mixing bowl
- Stirrer or whisk
- Non-stick pan with lid
- Spatula
- Tray for molding
- Steamer
Ingredients
- 150 grams of rice flour
- 50 grams of cornstarch
- 200 grams of water
- 500 grams of radish, peeled and shredded
- 100 grams of Chinese sausage
- 80 grams of Chinese cured pork
- 50g Dried scallops(option)
- 50g Dried shrimp(option)
- Cooking oil for sautéing
- A bowl of water for sautéing
- 1 tsp of salt
- 1 tsp of sugar
- 1/2 tsp of black pepper powder
- Chopped green onions
- Sesame seeds
Instructions On How To Make Chinese Turnip Cake (Lo Bak Go)
In a nutshell, the recipe calls for the following 5 main steps:
- Make the batter.
- Make shreds of radish.
- Saute the meat and shredded radish.
- Combine the batter and flavorings.
- Place in the mold and steam.
I will go through each step in detail below. You can also watch my tutorial video on Instagram or TikTok for a better view of the instructions. When you are done making it, share them with me by tagging @kitchenmisadventures.
Make the batter by mixing the rice flour, cornstarch, and water until well combined.
Chop and peel the radish and cut it into thin shreds.
In a non-stick pan, sauté the Chinese sausage, Chinese cured pork, dried scallops, and dried shrimp with a bit of oil. You can also omit the oil since the sausage and cured pork will release its fat and serve as oil.
Then, add the shredded radish to the sautéed meat and cook until soft. Cooking the radish thoroughly is important so that it does not release more water in the batter. The extra water released can alter the water and flour ratio and change the texture.
Pour a bowl of water into the pan.
Season with salt, sugar, and black pepper powder to taste.
Mix thoroughly and cover the pan with a lid to let it cook until tender.
Next, combine the mixture with the batter and mix until well combined.
Prepare a tray for steaming and transfer the mixture into it.
Flatten the top of the mixture to have an even finish.
Steam the mixture on high heat for about 20 minutes.
After steaming, top it with chopped green onions and sesame seeds.
Let it cool slightly before slicing it into rectangular pieces for serving.You can also let it cool in the fridge overnight to make it firmer. Once it is firm, you can pan-fry the slices of turnip cake with a bit of oil to have a crispier outer layer.
Enjoy your delicious Chinese Turnip Cake with your choice of dipping sauce! Other classic dim sum recipes to try are Sweet & Fluffy Steamed Taro Bun, Cantonese Steamed Egg Custard Buns (Nai Wong Bao), and Soft & Bouncy Chinese Water Chestnut Cake (Ma Tai Gou).
Dim Sum Classic Chinese Turnip Cake (Lo Bak Go)
Equipment
- Knife and chopping board
- Stirrer or whisk
- Non-stick pan with lid
- Tray for molding
- Steamer
Ingredients
- 150 grams of rice flour
- 50 grams of cornstarch
- 200 grams of water
- 500 grams of radish peeled and shredded
- 100 grams of Chinese sausage
- 80 grams of Chinese cured pork
- 50 g Dried scallops option
- 50 g Dried shrimp option
- Cooking oil for sautéing
- A bowl of water for sautéing
- 1 tsp of salt
- 1 tsp of sugar
- 1/2 tsp of black pepper powder
- Chopped green onions
- Sesame seeds
Instructions
- Make the batter by mixing the rice flour, cornstarch, and water until well combined.
- Chop and peel the radish and cut it into thin shreds.
- In a non-stick pan, sauté the Chinese sausage, Chinese cured pork, dried scallops, and dried shrimp with a bit of oil. You can also omit the oil since the sausage and cured pork will release its fat and serve as oil.
- Then, add the shredded radish to the sautéed meat and cook until soft. Cooking the radish thoroughly is important so that it does not release more water in the batter. The extra water released can alter the water and flour ratio and change the texture.
- Pour a bowl of water into the pan.
- Season with salt, sugar, and black pepper powder to taste.
- Mix thoroughly and cover the pan with a lid to let it cook until tender.
- Next, combine the mixture with the batter and mix until well combined.
- Prepare a tray for steaming and transfer the mixture into it.
- Flatten the top of the mixture to have an even finish.
- Steam the mixture on high heat for about 20 minutes.
- After steaming, top it with chopped green onions and sesame seeds.
- Let it cool slightly before slicing it into rectangular pieces for serving.You can also let it cool in the fridge overnight to make it firmer. Once it is firm, you can pan-fry the slices of turnip cake with a bit of oil to have a crispier outer layer.
