Chinese Steamed Yam Cake (Wutao-kou)

This has always been on my To-Do List and finally I got it done! And taste good too, if Hb may say so... (biased, probably?) :-D

My Mom used to make this quite often and as usual I didn't pay attention then, but I remembered vaguely this is how it's done. I found a nice medium size round yam in the morning market and knew I just gotta get it to make Chinese Steamed Yam Cake. I like mine on the medium firm with lots of yam cubes with subtle hint of Chinese 5-spice powder (not over-powering).

The ingredients below will fit a 20cm metal baking pan.

280g yam, cubed

½ tsp Chinese five-spice powder

250g rice flour

2 tbsp cornflour

600ml water

¾ tsp salt

Pepper

3 tbsp sunflower oil

3 tbsp dried shrimp, soaked in hot water, drained and chopped coarsely

3 shallots, sliced

A few slices of chinese sauges, chopped small (optional, I omitted this as I didn’t have this)

Some chilli and spring onion, for garnishing

1 tsp sesame seeds, toasted

1.     Mix rice flour, cornflour and water till smooth (no lumps) with salt and pepper. Set aside

2.      Fry shallots and 1 tbsp of the dried shrimps till brown and crisp on low flame. Dish up, set aside.

3.      Use 1 tsp of the oil in (2) for coating the baking pan (base and side)

4.      With the remainder oil, fry remainder dried shrimps for 5mins on low flame, till fragrant.

5.      Add in yam cubes and stir-fry on medium flame for 10mins

6.      Add in spice and fry for another 5mins till fragrant. Dish up

7.      Pre-heat water in wok for steaming

8.      With pan on simmering water, pour flour solution into the baking pan, add in fried yam cubes and stir to mix with a pair of chopsticks, the batter will begin to thicken

9.      Steam on high for 30-35mins

10.   Remove and set on wire tray to cool

11.   Garnish with crisp-fried shallots/dried shrimps, spring onion, chilli strips and some toasted sesame seeds

Enjoy with some sweet chilli sauce.

Note: It may seem soft but will firm up when cool. Preferable to cool about 4 hours or overnight before cutting, if you can wait J, then you’ll get a nice cutting edge.

I'm submitting this to Muhibbah Monday, to Test with Skewer and 3 Hungry Tummies for their Muhibbah Monday postings. What a great idea, sharing Malaysian cuisine with the world!