Pan-fried Turnip Cake (Daikon Mochi) is a simpler version of the traditional Chinese Turnip Cake. The Turnip Cake batter is cooked in a frying pan instead of steaming the batter, then pay-frying the sliced cakes.
Don't forget to see the section 'MEAL IDEAS' below the recipe card! It gives you a list of dishes that I have already posted and this recipe that can make up a complete meal. I hope it is of help to you.
- 250g/0.6lb shredded daikon (white radish, note 1)
- 4 tbsp flour (rice flour or wheat flour)
- 4 tbsp corn flour / cornstarch
- A pinch of salt
- 1½ tbsp sesame oil
- 60g/2.1oz bacon cut into thin strips (note 2)
- 10g/0.5oz dried paper-thin baby shrimps (note 2)
- 4 tbsp green onion finely chopped (note 2)
- Ponzu (note 3)
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Put daikon, shrimps, bacon and green onion into a bowl and mix well with a spatula. You can omit mixing ingredients in this step but it makes the mixing with the flour easier.
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Add flour and salt to the bowl and mix the ingredients very well ensuring that the flour is evenly mixed, and there are no clusters of the ingredients in the mixture.
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Heat a medium size flying pan (about 23cm/9 1⁄16" in diameter, note 4) with 1 tablespoon of sesame oil over medium heat.
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Spread the daikon mixture in the frying pan to shape a round pancake. The thickness should be about 2cm/¾".
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Using the spatula, smooth the surface of the mixture as well as all around the edge (note 5).
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Place a lid on and reduce the heat to low. Cook for about 3 minutes.
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Check the bottom of the Daikon Mochi to see if the surface is browned. If required, cook for extra minute or so.
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Hold the handle of the frying pan, shake the pan and shift the Daikon Mochi away from the handle, then in one quick tossing motion, flip the cake upside down (note 6).
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Cook further 3 minutes with the lid on.
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Transfer the Daikon Mochi to a cutting board. Cut the Daikon Mochi into 16 pieces by cutting it into 4 equal width strips, then cut them perpendicular to the first cut into 4 pieces each.
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Heat the frying pan that you used previously over medium heat. A small amount of oil should still be in there, but if not add sesame oil.
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Put all of the Daikon Mochi pieces back into the pan. Using cooking chopsticks or tongs, hold the piece vertically and lightly brown the cut-side of each piece.
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Transfer the Daikon Mochi pieces to a serving plate and serve with a dipping sauce.
1. Make sure that daikon is very fresh and full of moisture. When you buy it, compare the weight of daikon roots and buy a heavier root for the same size. The heavy root contains more water.
I used a very fine mandolin shredder that I bought from a Daiso discount shop to shred daikon (see the photo in post). If you are using a shredder that makes larger shredded pieces, such as a 4-sided grater, you should make half shredded, and half grated. See the comparison photos in the post.
2. You can substitute these ingredients with other ingredients of your choice. For suggestions, please refer to Additional Ingredients under the section WHAT’S IN MY PAN-FRIED TURNIP CAKE (DAIKON MOCHI) in the post.
3. Alternatively, you can simply mix soy sauce and vinegar with a little bit of chilli oil/sauce, just like having Japanese Gyōza.
4. A larger frying pan is ok since you can easily control the size of the round cake. But if your frying pan is too small, the mixture becomes too thick to cook through without burning the surface.
5. By smoothing the surface, it gets evenly burnt when flipped and cooked. Tidied up round edges results in neater shapes of Daikon Mochi pieces.
6. Because Daikon Mochi is quite heavy and thick, it is not so difficult to flip it in a pan.
Here is how you flip it:
i) Angle the handle slightly higher than the other end and pull the handle towards you.
ii) In one quick motion, push the pan forward, then up. This will cause the cake to jump and turn over.
iii) When catching, your pan will be approximately where you started from.
If you are not confident to flip without using a utensil, use a very large spatula to flip the cake.
7. You can keep Daikon Mochi in the fridge for 2-3 days, or the freezer for 1 month. Warm up the chilled/frozen Daikon Mochi in microwave, then pan-fry to re-heat.
8 Nutrition per serving as a main, using wheat flour. Using rice flour will be slightly higher calories, by about 50 kcal.
serving: 213g calories: 355kcal fat: 23g (35%) saturated fat: 5.6g (28%) trans fat: 0.0g polyunsaturated fat: 6.6g monounsaturated fat: 9.5g cholesterol: 30mg (10%) sodium: 364mg (15%) potassium: 455mg (13%) carbohydrates: 29g (10%) dietary fibre: 3.8g (15%) sugar: 3.0g protein: 8.6g vitamin a: 3.7% vitamin c: 35% calcium: 3.8% iron: 10%