Chai Tow Kway

Chai Tow Kway is one of my hawker favourite that I must have when I return to Asia for a visit. I can have this for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Chai tow kway (Chai tao kway) is also known as “carrot cake“.  No carrots are used in this dish. Instead shredded radish is the star of this dish. Chai tow is radish in Hokkien ( a chinese dialect) and Ang chai tow is red radish and hence why it is called “carrot cake”.

It didn’t cross my mind to make this dish until my mum send me this recipe via MSN! I was very surprised and glad. Unfortunately, it was only 1/2 a recipe and so I decided to use my memory and taste buds to re-create the dish. It is probably not the most authetic Chai tow kway but Mister reckon it is pretty good for a first attempt. I love both black or white version but I decided to go with black. I thought that the sweet sauce will add the caremalised flavour and Mister prefered it black as well.

Rice flour, preserved radish and dried shrimps

Ingredients:

• 300g of shredded radish
• 450ml of water
• 240g of rice flour
• 2 tbsp preserved radish
• 1 stick of lup cheong (chinese dried sausage)
• 3 eggs
• 2tbsp thick black sweet soya sauce
• 11/2 tbsp dried shrimps
• 1 thinly sliced shallots
• 11/2 tbsp of chilli paste (more or less depending on how spicy you like it to be)
• 2 cloves of minced garlic
• 1 tbsp light soya sauce
• 1 tsp white pepper
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• Salt
• Sugar
• Coriander
• Fresh bean sprouts

Dried Shrimps, preserved radish and radish

Method:

The cake

1. Grate the radish, add 100mL water and a pinch of salt to it and bring to a boil.
2. Use the remaining water to mix in the rice flour, 1 tsp of salt, sugar and mix very well and until no lumps
3. Combine both mixture and preserved radish and stir well to achieve a uniform consistency. Pour the mixture into a metal container. I used a round cake tin.
4. Steam under boiling water for approximately 30minutes or until the cake is set.
5. Allow the cake to cool then remove the it from its container.
6. Cut into small cubes

Shredded radish

Mix rice flour with cooked and preserved radish

I didn’t have a proper steamer so I just placed my bamboo steamer on top of the cooking pot. It was a balancing act!

My make shift steamer

Stir-fry

1. Heat the oil, stir-fry the dried shrimps and shallots till crispy. Set aside.
2. Heat 2 tbsp of oil till the pan is smoking. Sweat the garlic and chopped lup cheong (Try to use a non-stick wok or else you will have to use more oil to coat the wok)
3. Add the lightly whisked eggs and mix lightly
4. Pour in the radish cake when the eggs are half-cooked and stir fry
5. Add the dark sweet soya, light soya sauce, a dash of sesame seed oil, chilli sauce, salt, pepper
6. Once it is all mixed well, add the bean sprouts and give it a quick stir through
7. Dish up and top up with the fried shrimp & shallots with a topping of fresh shallots

Cubed kway

Dried shrimps and shallots in the pan

Chai tow kway or fried carrot cake

If you like the white carrot cake, then leave out the black sweet sauce. This recipe is based on my preference for the dish. Please adjust as you deem fit. More or less seasoning. Different topping. Spring onions instead of coriander. It was hard to create the wok hei at home and I used cooking oil instead of pork lard. But it turned out well. Making it at home means that I have more ratio of radish than rice flour!

And my mum sent me more recipes that her friends have cooked for a pot-luck. How sweet. Thanks mum! And thanks mum’s friends.

Do you remember the first recipe that your mum or grandma had given you?

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