Chinese New Year

Nai Nai (Mother-in-Law) Taro Cake

奶奶竽頭糕

1 large taro (~2&1/2 catty)

4 large Chinese mushrooms

3 Chinese sausages (lap cheong)

1 handful of dried shrimps

2 cups of rice flour 水磨粘米粉

1 cup of cornstarch

8 cups of water

1 tsp 5 spices powder

1& ½ tsp chicken powder

1& ½ tsp salt

2 medium sized stainless steel containers or foil trays

Preparation

• Slightly paint containers with oil.
• Well dissolve the rice flour and cornstarch with 2 cups of water, set aside.
• Discard stems of mushrooms. Soak mushrooms with cornstarch and wash thoroughly. Steam mushrooms for about 20 minutes, then dice and set aside.
• Soak dried shrimps overnight. Chopped small roughly.
• Steam Chinese sausages for about 5 minutes, then dice and set aside.

Cooking

• Sauté the diced mushrooms for 3 minutes, then continue by adding the diced sausages and dried shrimps and sauté for another 3 minutes, set aside.
• Peel and cut taro in chucky dices. Stir-fry taro with drizzle of oil for about 3 minutes.
• Pour in 6 cups of water along the 5 spices and the chicken powder into the taro and continue to cook in high fire.
• Once the taro is boiled, slowly incorporate the taro (with the cooking water) into rice flour mixture while constantly stirring the mixture. Failing which, your mixture might be cooked half way through and ruin its consistency for steaming.
• Well blend in the rest of the sauté ingredients into the taro and season to taste, if needed.
• Distribute the taro mixture into the 2 containers and steam for 1 hour. 
• Leave the taro cake to cool down in room temperature followed by refrigeration for a few hours or overnight before cutting it.

Serving

• Slice the taro cake into ½ cm thickness square as wished and pan-fry them until crispy brown on both sides.

Voila!