Haven’t made dim sum for quite some time and decided to make a yam cake over the weekend. Mom was telling me briefly on the proportions of the recipe and I reckon she must be thinking that I would certainly failed in my yam cake attempt. Because she actually congratulate me when the yam cake was presented to her for her indulgence, saying I finally succeeded !! LOL.
And I must say, this yam cake is really awesome !! Bustling with scrunches of yam delights unlike those that we had outside, where the proportion of flour to real yam was so much higher and I always felt like I was just eating flour !!
Now I didn’t manage to cook much this week because it has been a heavy steamboat affair over the entire weekend. I was making sure the home-cooked stock that I had brewed for 12 hours was put to good use and also for the need to clear the fridge of all the miscellaneous stuffs before I replenish my fresh groceries from PurelyFresh in the upcoming week.
The yam cake definitely tastes much better after it is pan-fried which is what I liked as always. Here’s a little tip should you need to cut the yam cake even before it has cooled down. You can dip the knife in some very hot water entirely, wipe it clean and slice it through. Be sure to wipe the knife clean after every slice to ensure no yam is sticking onto the knife so that you can proceed with a smoother cut again.
While some may love to include perhaps the Chinese sausage or meat into their yam or carrot cake, but for yam cake wise, I much adore this original version which is made up primarily of yam and some flour only. I felt that the gist about this dim sum should be the yam and nothing else, hence I eliminate all the rest as mentioned. However, if you prefer one that comes with all the meaty stuffs, feel free to hop onto my other recipe here for a similar Radish Cake earlier.
Enjoy !! ^-^
- 700g yam, shredded finely + 500ml water
- 200g rice flour
- 75g tapioca starch
- 500ml water (200ml from the water used to cook the yam + 300ml water)
- 3 garlics, diced
- 40g dried prawns, diced
- 4 tbsp cooking oil
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 cube chicken seasoning
- ½ tsp pepper
- 1 tbsp olive oil (preferred)
- Some fried shallots
- Some chilli shreds
- Some diced spring onion
Cut the yam into chunks and shred the yam into fine shreds (I used a food processor to do it).
Place the yam shreds in a pot with 500ml of water and cook till the yam turns soft.
Drain away the water from the yam. Using the back of a spoon, press the yam firmly in a strainer to remove the excess water. (You should be able to collect around 200ml of "yam water".) Reserve and set the liquid aside till it cooled.
Mix the rice flour together with the tapioca starch, yam water and additional 300ml of water. Stir and mix well. Drain the mixture over a strainer to ensure the batter is smooth and free from flour lumps. Set aside.
Heat up 4 tbsp of oil in a large wok. (You can fried the shallots at this point in time if you do not have existing ones. Drain the shallots well after frying and reserve the oil in the wok.) Add in the diced garlic and dried prawns and saute till fragrant.
Add in the yam and seasoning.
Add in the flour batter from Step 4 slowly and keep stirring till the mixture is very thick and starts to get difficult to stir through. Off the flame.
Place the batter in a greased 8 inch tin and steamed it over medium-high heat for approximately 50 minutes.
Garnish as desired. Serve it steamed or pan-fried as desired.
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