Turnip cake
Turnip cake is a traditional Chinese dim sum dish (and actually made of daikon), but a few twists make it grand enough to act as a vegan Christmas centrepiece. If you don’t have a 23cm x 30cm high-sided tin, use another dish or tin with a similar surface area; the main objective is to get a 2cm-high cake in a tin with high enough sides to sit in a water bath without getting the contents wet. To get ahead, make the day before and keep in the fridge, ready to fry the next day.
Prep 20 min
Cook 1 hr 40 min
Cool 40 min+
Serves 4-6
For the soy-maple nuts
15g dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked in boiling water for 20 minutes
30g pine nuts, roughly chopped
50g ready-cooked and peeled chestnuts, roughly chopped
1 tbsp white and/or black sesame seeds
1 small garlic clove, peeled and crushed
¼ tsp finely grated fresh ginger
3 tbsp soy sauce
60ml maple syrup
Salt
For the turnip cake
130g Thai white rice flour, non-glutinous (don’t confuse it with regular rice flour)
1 tbsp cornflour
2½ tsp caster sugar
1 small garlic clove, peeled and crushed
¼ tsp finely grated fresh ginger
2 tsp sesame oil
1-2 large daikon, trimmed, peeled and roughly grated (600g net weight)
105ml sunflower oil
To serve
40ml soy sauce
20ml maple syrup
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
1½ tbsp finely chopped chives
Heat the oven to 240C (220C fan)/465F/gas 9. Line and grease a 23cm x 30cm high-sided tin. Drain the shiitake, squeeze dry and chop finely.
Put the pine nuts and chestnuts in a large, nonstick frying pan on a medium-high heat. Toast, stirring, for three to four minutes, until golden and fragrant, then add the sesame seeds and cook for a minute more. Stir in the shiitake, garlic, ginger, soy, maple syrup and an eighth of a teaspoon of salt, then cook, stirring, for four to five minutes, until the liquid bubbles, reduces and coats the nut and seed mixture. Spread out on an oven tray lined with greaseproof paper and leave to cool.
In a large bowl, whisk the first six turnip cake ingredients with 240ml cold water and a teaspoon of salt, until smooth, then set aside.
Put a large saute pan on a medium heat, add the daikon and two tablespoons of water, and cook, stirring now and then, for 15 minutes, until the liquid evaporates (take care the daikon doesn’t colour), then leave to cool for 10 minutes.
Stir the daikon and the nut mix into the turnip cake bowl, then spoon into the tin. Smooth the top, wrap tightly in foil, then put in a slightly larger, high-sided baking tray. Pour in enough boiling water to come three-quarters of the way up the sides of the turnip cake tin, then bake for 35 minutes. Lift the tin out of its water bath, remove the foil, leave to cool, then transfer to the fridge for 40 minutes, or overnight, until completely chilled.
Turn out the cake on to a board, cut into eight even rectangles and brush on both sides with four tablespoons of oil in total. Put a large, nonstick frying pan on medium-high heat, then add a tablespoon and a half of oil. Fry the slices in two or three batches, spacing them apart, for two to three minutes on each side, until crisp and golden brown. Keep warm while you repeat with the rest of the cake and oil.
Put all the sauce ingredients bar the chives in a small saucepan, add 80ml cold water and warm through on a medium-high heat for about three minutes. Lay the turnip cake on a platter in overlapping slices, and pour over half the sauce. Sprinkle the chives and remaining nut mixture on top, and serve at once with the rest of the sauce on the side.
Fiona Beckett’s drinks match
There’s a fair bit of sweetness here, which suggests an off-dry white such as a gewürztraminer. Leon Beyer is one of my favourite producers – you can get his from the Wine Society for £16. Otherwise, go for a lush red such as a grenache or the Il Passo Segreto Appassimento Sangiovese 2017 (£8.50 Tesco, 14%), a handsome-looking amarone-alike that looks and tastes really Christmassy. FB
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