老板, 一 盘 Chai Tow Kway, 炒黑的! (in not-so-perfect Mandarin...can someone help?)
Lao ban, yi pan Chai Tow Kway, chao hei de! (try pronouncing this, you be speaking Mandarin)
Boss, I like to order a plate of fried carrot cake, fried "black" (black: fried with black sweet sauce)
They all mean the same thing, in different languages, and yes, this is the fried carrot cake, Chai Tow Kway, I'm talking about. Singaporeans can have it for breakfast, lunch, dinner and even supper!!!
The main ingredient is the white radish The white radish is grated, mixed with rice flour, and together with water, the mixture is stirred while cooking. Then the thick mixture is poured in a round pan and steamed to form the carrot cake. The carrot cake is then cut into pieces and stir fried with eggs, diced garlic, spring onion, preserved radish and occasionally dried shrimp. And if you order a larger portion (higher price), some hawkers will serve it with prawns too.
When I stir fried my chee cheong fun, some readers said it looked like fried carrot cake, chai tow kway. I thought so too :) ...so much so that when I actually tried a semi-homemade fried carrot cake, it turned out another way.
Can you remember how you eat the leftover nian gao -年糕 (directly translated to "Year Cake"?- a sweet, sticky glutinous rice cake, traditionally eaten during Chinese New Year?). My family will usually cut up leftover sweet, sticky glutinous rice cake into rectangular pieces, coat them with egg and deep fry them. And this time, I thought my fried carrot cake look like fried nian gao. What do you think?
So there goes, my radish/turnip cake in fried niao gao style.
Pan fried radish/turnip cake (serves 2)
Ingredients:
-Ready made turnip/radish cake (available in some Asian supermarkets, together with the frozen buns sometimes)
-2 eggs, whisked
-green onions, chopped finely
Method:
1. Cut the radish/turnip cake into rectangles
2.Add the chopped green onions in the whisked egg
3.Heat some oil in a shallow frying pan. Add the rectangular pieces of radish/turnip cake in the eggs and mix them well for coating to spread evenly
4.Add 5-6 pieces at one time. Pan fry 2-3 mins one side till browned, then flip over and fry 2-3mins other side, till browned
4. Serve warm
Dipping sauce to recommend : Chilli sauce (garlic, or sweet...your preference)
Crispy egg edges and firm cake texture. I prefer my carrot cake "cubes" to be softer.
I don't think I can replicate fried carrot cake (chai tow kway) 100% homemade + ground-zero, with my current cooking skills. Meanwhile, every time I think of fried carrot cake, I would always think of heading back to Singapore to have it.
I'm not going to tag anyone here since I don't have such a broad database of names to choose from. But if you are YOU, and have a favorite food, rant it, rant it, we would all love to hear about it. Just do your favorite food in your blog post, and link back here. :)
***Start Copy***
Proposition: What is your favorite food in your state or country?
Requirements: Find some info about the food and show delicious pictures of it?
Quantity: FIVE PEOPLE.
Tag Mode: You leave their blog and post link and add to the list below.
Mybabybay loves Asam Laksa from Penang, Malaysia
JustMyThoughts loves Penang Char Koay Teow
My Lil Venture loves Laksa Sarawak
Monterssorimum loves Teluk Intan Chee Cheong Fun
Chinnee loves Melaka Wan Tan Mee
PeimunLeah loves Hakka Lei Cha
Hui Sia
Jonamum
Karen loves Pan Mee
Something about Lai loves Crispy duck skin from China
Simple American loves Cheese Enchiladas
Nicole Tan loves Char Tau Kueh
Velverse loves Otak-otak
Kenny Ng loves Jawa Mee
Fatty Poh loves Nasi Dagang Kelantan
wmw loves Kuih Tutu
Lyrical Lemongrass loves Asam Boi
Giddy Tiger loves Dim Sum
may loves Roti Bakar
Selba loves Gado-gado
Chen loves Satay*
eastcoastlife loves Shanghai Buns
Kev loves 蕃薯旦
Bokjae loves Ipoh Sar Hor Fun
Cooking Momster loves Penang Heah Koh & Chee Cheong Fun
Blur Mommy loves Clam Chowder
Granmother Stories loves everything
East Meets West Kitchen loves Good Dim Sum
Little Corner of Mine loves Nasi Lemak & Penang Assam Laksa
Tag: chai tow kway, fried carrot cake
think of chai tow kuey you wanna come back, then fly back lah...
ReplyDeleteI like chai tow kuey with lots and lots of garlic. colleague buy from this old old ah pek who puts lots of it. we all in the office love it!
You like the black one? I like the white one, the crispy one at Toa Payoh Lorong 1.
ReplyDeleteWhen you come back, we can go carrot cake hunting. :)
I must go rest, so I can heal faster. In case you suddenly come back leh.
Hmm... one of my forgotten food that I don't have for a long time. I remember when I was a child, my mom used to make it during Chinese New Year. But I guess in HK, people just either just steam it or stir-fry them with nothing else. Anyway, look nice thou.
ReplyDeleteAlamak, looks so authentic. Like the ones you get at the hawker stall.
ReplyDeleteI want, I want.
You know, I never thought radish cake (chai tow kway) can be fried like that. I thought they use chui kway.
I have made chai tow kway before, so if I do make it again, I will definitely try to fry like your style. Thanks for the recipe. :)
Thanks for this recipe -- I've never heard of fried carrot cake, but it looks mighty delicious....
ReplyDeleteI like both the black and white kinds of chai tow kway! Love it!
ReplyDeleteHehe. I thought it was the other kind of carrot cake and was soooo curious to see how you were gonna do that! And I was thinking maybe you made carrot pancakes and called it that... :P
ReplyDeleteoh man...carrot cake is my weakness man..I rem a long time back when Lakeview Hawker Centre was still around and there was this stall owned by an elder couple selling it.
ReplyDeleteThe stall did live up to the name tho... "Good good fried carrot cake". Business was so good back then that they close at 11am everyday...then after some renovation and shifting, everything went downhill..sigh..I miss 'em..
opps sorry..side tracked a bit..:)
KM, then that will be most expensive chai tow kuay! I think now can find chai tow kuay here liow, but 2hrs drive just to eat the chai tow kuay, forget it!
ReplyDeleteECL, I like white one if it's good like the Toa Payoh pancake-type :P
CARROT cake HUNTING sounds like rabbits scouring and hoppin ard for food! LOL!
windy,I tried steamed carrot cake in a S'pore rest. serving HK dimsum before - very nice. But they adde bits of dried shrimps and chinese sausages to it :D yummy!
judy, the hawker center one of course authentic lah! But the one I did at home, not so leh! :(
Still nice but not those I was craving for - the black CTK!
lydia, wooo..it is mighty AND delicious!
su-lin, it's hard to choose isn't it?
Wandering choppy, the actual cake you mean? hahahhah, just dip the carrot cake in batter and fry! LOL!
I guess the word "cake" is used too loosely, and in this case interchangeably with "kuih" or kueh" (hokkien) that easily translates to "cake".
jason, I love to hear about carrot cake! Tell me more if you will ;p
But why did "standard" dropped unless it's not the same stall owners anymore? They could not get used to the new environment and so did the carrot cake?
I absolutely love pan fried turnip cake...looks so lovely! Been quite a while since I've eaten one of these.
ReplyDeleteWow looks good, make mewant to eat it again.
ReplyDeleteWe actually have fried radish cake at the same chinese restaurant here. But it's the white version, also hojiak leh.
wmw, I like both the fried carrot cake, and pan-fried turnip/radish cake! So hungry now even typing out THESE words...
ReplyDeletelittle corner of mine, looks like your chinese restaurant there has an extensive menu leh, got all the live seafood, and got dimsum too :D
Fried carrot cake sounds pretty interesting.
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