Orh Kueh (Steamed Yam/Taro Cake)

芋头糕

I love to eat yam cake but store bought ones hardly have any yam inside. Here is my homemade yam cake recipe which is adapted from Kitchen Tigress and Lucinda Lau. It is packed with have lots of chunky yam pieces, mushrooms, dried shrimps and sometimes I added ginkgo nuts. So savoury and delicious, I can have it breakfast, lunch and tea break.

Ingredients

500-600g yam 

200g rice flour

45g tapioca flour (or wheat starch)

840ml water (including water for soaking dried shrimps and mushrooms)

20g dried shrimps

20g dried shiitake mushrooms

100g shallots

1 teaspoon minced garlic

Toppings: fried shallots, spring onions, red chilli, roasted white sesame seeds, coriander

Method

1. Line the steaming tray with parchment/baking paper (optional).

2. Soak dried shrimps for at least half hour. Chop the shrimps into smaller pieces. Retain the water for soaking dried shrimps.

3. Soak dried mushrooms until they are rehydrated. Squeeze the water from mushrooms, then thinly slice the mushrooms. Retain the water for soaking mushrooms. 

4. Mix the rice flour with tapioca flour in a mixing bowl. Add in 440ml of water and stir until you get a smooth mixture (i.e. no lumps), and set aside. 

5. Top up the water from soaking dried shrimps and mushrooms to make 400ml, and set aside. 

6. Cut the yam into small cubes. Note that yam contains calcium oxidase which causes skin irritation. If your skin is sensitive, you may want to wear gloves while handling yam.

7. Cut shallots into thin slices. Heat up wok and fry shallots over low heat until golden brown. Transfer the fried shallots to a plate.

8. Using the oil from frying shallots, fry garlic and dried shrimps over medium heat until fragrant. Add mushrooms and continue to stir fry. Add seasoning (1.5 tablespoon soy sauce and dashes of white pepper) and mix evenly. Add the yam cubes and fried shallots (keep 2 tablespoon as topping) into the wok and stir fry the yam for 2 to 3 minutes until the yam cubes are soft. Pour in 400ml of water (from step 5) and stir to combine. Bring to boil and simmer under low heat for 5 minutes. Turn off fire. Note: seasoning is deliberately light so as not to overpower the frangrance of yam)

9. Take the flour mixture (from step 4), stir it for a few seconds and pour it into the wok. Quickly stir to evenly mix the flour mixture with yam. The mixture will be very thick.

10. Transfer the yam to steaming pan and use spatula to level the mixture. Steam over high heat for 40minutes and remove from steamer when done. Check and top up water in wok/steamer accordingly. It is ready when you insert a skewer into the yam cake and it comes out almost clean. Cool down completely before cutting or un-moulding from pan.

11. Garnish with toppings (optional) and serve.