Law Pak Ko

To herald the Chinese New Year, I have used gold and red for my blog, they are the auspicious colours for the Chinese and I hope you all will like it too!
The first item in my CNY cookout will be this Law Pak Ko or Radish Cake. This cake is a must for every Chinese family in HK, as the meaning behind this cake is really auspicious too! To serve friends and visitors with this cake during the CNY season is like wishing them 步步"糕"升, that is wishing them great heights in all their endeavours.
The recipe that I am posting is the best one that I have tried so far, try it for yourself and you'll know. This recipe was given to me by a friend, Susanna a couple of years ago and have been well liked by many friends and relatives.

This is a photo from last year, didn't snap one for the Ko that I did 2 days ago!


This is the slice I had for lunch just then(photo before pan fried)!


This is the particular chilli sauce that goes very well with the LawPakKo!


Ingredients: (24cm round pan)
1.8 kg Radish (shredded)
1/2 piece Slab sugar
1 cup Clear chicken broth
210g Rice flour
160g Corn Starch
2 tbsp Corn oil
Diced Preserved Meat + Diced Chinese Sausage = 1 cup
40g - 50g Dried shrimps
8 - 10 pieces Dried Chinese Mushroom

Seasoning
1 tbsp corn oil
1.5 - 2 tsp Salt
0.5 tsp White pepper

Topping
3 Dried canpoy (soaked in water till soft)


Method：
1. Soak mushroom and dried prawns separately until soft. Dice mushroom and dried prawns into small pieces.
2. Cut up preserved meat and Chinese sausage into small pieces.
3. Put shredded radish with slab sugar into a big pot, add in 1 cup of chicken broth to cook for 20 minutes.
4. Strain cooked radish to collect 3 cups or up to 900ml of radish water. If not enough, top it up with more chicken broth. Add seasoning to radish water and stir well. Leave aside to cool.
5. Put 2 tbsp oil into wok, fried preserved meat and Chinese sausage for a while then add in dried prawns and mushroom. Stir fry till fragrant and leave it in the wok.
6. Pour cooled radish water into flour mixture and mix well. Make sure there are no lumps, otherwise sieve the mixture.
7. Heat up the wok in (5), add in the radish and stir well. When radish is hot add the flour mixture into the wok, stirring all the time until the mixture become paste like. Dish it into a greased round pan.
8. Steamed on high heat for 60 minutes.

Notes:
1. You can add up to half cup more water/broth if you prefer the LPK to be less firm.
2. The topping is optional, you can mix it into the cake instead of using the canpoy as topping.
3. You can serve this cake either in the steamed version or pan fried them. We all liked it pan fried with the crispy exterior and very shiok with this particular Koon Yick chilli sauce (see photo above).