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| Lo Bak Go a.k.a turnip cake a.k.a mooli cake |
Huzzah – the Chinese New Year is officially upon us. Double
happiness, prosperous lives, with healthy family and friends is all we can look
to for 2014. If you’ve been hiding your head in a hole for the past week or so
this year is all about the year of the horse. Don’t worry, I’m not going to go
all 2013 horse scandal Ikea and Iceland meatballs and burgers on you (the
thought did cross my mind albeit extremely briefly… which I was later disgusted
at myself for) but I’m going to keep things very traditional here. Both Mama Lo
and Papa Lo text me separately saying I should make ‘Lo Bak Go’, a steamed
Chinese turnip cake, for prosperity (and deliciousness). I think they had both
just eaten Grandma’s cake and been compelled to tell me to immediately this
needs to be on the blog. I’ve been saving making this for the new year, however
it is eaten all year round for dim sum. It’s one of those dishes I order with
my ‘gwai lo’ English friends all the time, as its translation doesn’t really
inspire a mouth-watering dish that you would think about trying. But, next time
you are having dim sum, do try it – it is something so different but really to
quickly fall in love with (and will make you seem like a real dim sum
connoisseur – proper foodie kudos).
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| Happy Chinese new year! Year of the horse and I'll eat like one thanks. |
White turnips (known as mooli/daikon known
as well) are the real star of the show here and super easy to work with.
Technically, it’s very simple recipe – it just takes a bit of time. You can
double the recipe and keep some in the freezer for a rainy day. These little
turnips score top marks for health bunnies too – super low in calories and a
great source of calcium and iron, as well as improving circulation. If you’re
still kidding yourself on that
super January diet cleanse, good for you – you can ignore the last step of
frying it at the end, as well as swapping the meat for some spring onions or,
dare I say it, quorn mince. But, I highly advise to keep it traditional yeah?
