Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Daikon Cakes

Daikon Cakes
Daikon is a large white radish that's very popular in East Asian cuisine. It can be simmered, dried, pickled, or eaten raw. I love the taste and crispness of raw daikon so I wanted to preserve that crunch and raw bite in these cakes. In making this recipe, I borrowed elements from latkes and crabcakes. The first time I experimented with this idea, I made the cakes thin like pancakes and by the time the outside finished frying, the insides were too cooked and had lost that raw crunch. This time I made the cakes thicker, more like crabcakes, and dredged the outside in some panko for an extra crispy exterior.

Notes:
- Although this dish has the same name as the other daikon cake (luo buo gao), the two cakes are very different.
- The egg and flour serve as binders to hold the daikon together. The first time I made this I used a tiny bit of batter made from flour and water.
- The daikon is first salted to dry out excess moisture.
- You can probably substitute jicama for daikon in this recipe but I haven't tried this.

Crispy and Crunchy Daikon Cakes
3 C packed coarsely grated daikon radish
3/4 tsp salt
2 green onions, minced
1 egg beaten
2 Tbsp flour
1 tsp sesame oil
1/4 tsp white pepper
About 1/2 C panko bread crumbs
Vegetable oil for frying

Coarsely grate the daikon radish and mix with 3/4 tsp of salt. Let this sit in a bowl or colander for 30 minutes.

After the 30 minutes, squeeze the water out of the daikon with your hands. You'll want the daikon really dry.

Mix the daikon with minced green onion, beaten egg, flour, sesame oil, and white pepper. Take 1/3 C of the mixture and form cakes that are about 1/2 in thick. You should get 5 or 6 cakes.

Scatter some panko on a plate and bread the top and bottom of each cake with a layer of panko.

Heat 2 tsp of vegetable oil in a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Panfry the cakes until the bottoms are golden brown. Flip the cakes over, add another 2 tsp of oil, and continue to panfry until the second side is golden brown. Serve with soy sauce if desired.


Links:
My other daikon cake recipe - these are often served at dimsum.

This will be my entry for Weekend Herb Blogging. This week's WHB is hosted by creator, Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen. Be sure to check out the roundup on Sunday/Monday.

13 comments:

Lydia (The Perfect Pantry) said...

What an interesting recipe! I love daikon but really don't use it enough, so I'm bookmarking to try this.

Rachel said...

I love this idea. Very clever

Kalyn Denny said...

I love the sound of this! What an unusual and interesting recipe, great job on the photo too.

Anonymous said...

Would any other raddish replace daikon raddish? We haven't daikon raddish here.

Anh said...

A clever use of daikon. I love it! And I think your recipe is healthier than the normal one, too. Great job!

Amy said...

Lydia,
Thank you! Let me know how you like it.

Rachel,
Thanks! You come up with the most ingenious recipes!

Kalyn,
Thank you!

Cooking Ninja,
I checked on Cook's Thesaurus: http://www.foodsubs.com/Roots.html and I'm guessing the closest substitute is jicama but I think regular radishes might work. I've actually never had a normal radish so I can't say for sure.

Anh,
Thank you! This recipe is a lot simpler than the other daikon cake but I love them both. :)

Kalyn Denny said...

Amy did you send me the link for this? I don't think I got it. Please e-mail it to me (that's how I file the entries) so I don't miss it.

East Meets West Kitchen said...

I have some diakon in my fridge and was wondering what else to do with it other than soup. Thanks for coming up with daikon cakes! :)

Anonymous said...

Amy, smart move, this is so much easier and delicious than making chinese steamed dikon cake. I like this version better, yums !:)

Simona Carini said...

I have never tried to cook daikon, or jicama for that matter: this is a great suggestion for use.ncie62

Amy said...

East meets west,
No problem! I hope you like the recipe!

MW,
Definitely, the steamed luo buo gao takes a looong time to make.

Simona,
I hope you like them!

Tinygami said...

Yummmmmm I Stumbled this for you! I love daikon! I can't wait to try out your recipe. It looks so gooooood! Plus I'm allergic to crab so I can't eat crab cakes. Thanks for posting this.

Anonymous said...

Wow... I was surprised at how good these were. Dipping each bite into a little soy sauce was great.

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