thebigfatnoodle

My fried (red) carrot cake

You’ll make short work of the preparation if you have a food processor but don’t stress if you don’t, you’ll just need a bit of patience to cut/shred all the radishes and carrots either with a grater or chopped by hand.

You’ll need a lined 20cm cake tin (or equivalent sized dish), and a steamer. Like most Chinese people, I use my trusty wok for steaming as it has a lid and you can buy steaming racks from any Chinese grocery store.

The carrot cake freezes well too so if you’re not going to cook all of it, I suggest you freeze it as soon as it’s cooled down.

Carrot cake ingredients (makes 6 portions)

500 grams red radish (washed and shredded in the food processor – don’t bother peeling them)

2 medium carrots, peeled then shredded with the radishes

2 teaspoons salt

½ teaspoon ground white pepper

2 cups of ground white rice flour

2 cups of warm water

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

For frying the carrot cake

Don’t forget that the measurements below are for cooking all the carrot cake. Make sure you adjust it accordingly if you’re not planning to use all of the carrot cake.

6 large eggs, beaten (add 1 tablespoon of fish sauce to the beaten egg)

2 tablespoons garlic, finely chopped

3-4 spring onions, sliced

4-5 tablespoons pickled radish, finely chopped (I like lots of pickled radish in my carrot cake)

Making the carrot cake

Heat the 2 tablespoons of oil in a saucepan and add the radish and carrot to fry. Fry this on a high heat for about 2-3 minutes. Add 2 teaspoon of salt and ½ teaspoon of white pepper. Turn the heat down and keep gently frying the vegetables for about 10 minutes, or until all the vegetables are soft. Remove from the heat.

In a mixing bowl, combine the rice flour and water and whisk until smooth. Add the radish and carrots and mix evenly. Pour the cake mixture into your cake tin and steam for an hour. Just keep topping up the water in your wok.

After an hour, remove the cake and allow it to cool before cutting into cubes.

Frying the carrot cake

In a fry pan or wok, heat 2 tablespoons of oil and add your cubed carrot cake. Fry the carrot cake, allowing some of the sides to brown and crisp up. Once you get some nice crispy edges to your fried carrot cake, add the chopped garlic, half of the spring onions and the pickled radish.

If you’re not using a non-stick frying pan and find your carrot cake starting to stick, add a little more oil.

Pour your beaten egg mixture over the carrot cake and let it cook for a few seconds (like an omelette), before flipping sections of the carrot cake. Season your carrot cake with a little bit more salt/pepper if you feel you need to.

Garnish with the remaining chopped spring onions and serve immediately whilst it’s piping hot.

My husband loves to pour a little bit of kecap manis (sweet soy sauce) over the top or spice it up with some sweet or hot chilli sauce.