Yam Cake I

With the excuse of cooking or baking something for the Singapore Asian Food Fest month, I have at first a whole long list of what to cook or bake and then I realised it's only 1 month long. We are almost towards the end of the month as it is. Time really flies.

I have been wanting to make yam cake for a long long time now. Yes you are right. This is on my to-cook bucket list.

This recipe is from Hedy Khoo and also referenced from Cooking for the President. See my modifications or comments in blue.

Ingredients:

40g dried prawns

4 dried mushrooms (I used a handful)

500g yam, peeled and trimmed to 1cm cubes

100g shallots, sliced thinly

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tbsp shallot oil

1 tbsp fish sauce

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp five spice powder

1 1/2 tbsp light soya sauce

1 tbsp oyster sauce

1/2 tsp ground white pepper

Ingredients to make batter:

300g rice flour

100g corn flour I omitted corn flour

100ml water that comprises of water from dried prawns and mushrooms

500ml hot chicken stock (I used boiling stock and pork stock can also be used)

Garnish:

spring onions, chopped

coriander, chopped

red chilli, sliced

huge dollop of sambal chilli

Method:

1. Cut the yam into 1 cm cubes.
2. Soak the dried prawns with hot water until soft and squeeze dry. Keep 80ml of the soaking liquid. Follow suit for the dried mushrooms and keep some of the soaking liquid.
3. Heat the wok to stir fry the shallots and strain it dry after frying till golden brown.
4. Heat 2 tbsp cooking oil together with one tbsp of shallot oil.  Fry the dried prawns and mushrooms.
5. Add the diced yam, prawn liquid and 80ml water.
6. Season with fish sauce, light soya sauce, five spice powder, oyster sauce, sugar and pepper.
7. Cover and fry intermittently for five minutes until yam is cooked (soft) and is able to yield when poked with chopstick is not hard in texture.
8. Remove from wok and set aside.
9. Put the rice flour and corn flour in a metal container. Stir in the water.
10. Add the hot chicken stock and mix well. Add in the seasoning followed by the yam mixture.
11. Steam for 40 minutes. Garnish with coriander, sesame seeds (optional), sliced fresh red chilli and sambal chilli.

To be honest, Mr G really liked the full flavour of this yam cake but he did mention that it could be slightly more moist. I would say that for my 1st attempt to try and cut a yam singlehandedly, cook this yam cake and that I'm very glad that it didn't turn out to be a globby mess. However, on my own personal standards, I think this yam cake can be improved much further. Hopefully on my next attempt, I will promise not to omit any item and hopefully, this yam cake will be a perfect success.

Likewise, you may also refer to Stefanie Sun's mother's recipe here. Yeah you are right, Stefanie Sun ;) Oh but of course, there will be some people who will believe that their recipe is much better. To each his own I suppose, whichever that is the best according to your tastebuds.

I am submitting this post to Asian Food Fest #11 Sept 2014 : Singapore hosted by Life can be Simple.

I'm also submitting my post to Cook-Your-Books#16 organized by Joyce of kitchen flavours.