I had a craving today for turnip cake, which is one of my favorite dim sum items. However, I'd been hanging out with my vegetarian friend much of the weekend and was not feeling inclined to cook with meat. "There mus be a recipe on the Internets for vegetarian turnip cake!" I thought. I thought wrong.
So in the end, I took this recipe and made some modifications. I used a six-ounce pack of fresh shitake mushrooms instead of the dried variety; I omitted the pork sausage and dried shrimp and added dried onions; I replaced the chicken boullion granules with "Better than Boullion" vegitable boullion and, instead of using sliced ginger and removing it, I diced in and left it in the mixture.
Unfortunately, I also apparently used a little too much of the five-spice powder and white pepper; I'd be more cautious about how much I put in next time.
Also, Michael's initial reaction was
that the texture was "weird" —
too "chunky." I had grated the turnips, and the texture seemed
similar
to that of some homemade turnip cake I'd had before, but I wonder if
the restaurants puree the turnips or add something else to make the
cakes creamier.
Matters were helped somewhat when, after steaming the cake per the directions, I cut it up, poured a little olive oil into a pan and pan-fried a few pieces. The bottom got nice and crispy.
The whole
project took me two hours — longer than I expected — but
now I have a plate of turnip cakes waiting in the fridge for my next
craving!
