Yam Cake / 芋头糕 (MM#8 - Savoury Cake)

Yam Cake - a popular savory cake amongst Chinese communities in Malaysia and Singapore especially for breakfast. It is also my family's all time favourite. Although we can get it from the food stalls but the taste is vary depend on the cook. To me, mum's spicy and peppery yam cake is the best (always *_^). It was the first time for Tak to enjoy this delicious cake. He had his with heaps of fried shallot and dark soy sauce. Told him about another way of enjoying this cake, he already "ordered" it for dinner. Yeap... I love deep fried yam cake too!

Ingredients (6-8 servings):

Batter

200 g fine rice flour

20 g tapioca flour

500 ml water

1 tsp salt

½ tsp ground white pepper

¼ tsp Chinese 5-spice powder

½ tsp chicken stock powder

300g yam, peeled and diced

50g dried shrimp, soaked and chopped coarsely

5 nos. shallots, sliced thinly

2 tbsp cooking oil

1 no. red chili, seeded and sliced

1 stalk spring onion, chopped

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, prepare batter and set aside.
2. Heat oil in wok, stir in yam and stir fry until lightly browned. Remove yam from wok and set aside.
3. Stir in shallot to the the same wok, fry until golden brown. Remove from shallot from wok and set aside.
4. Stir in dried shrimp and fry until the aroma is released. Pour the batter in the wok, stir in yam and half amount of fried shallot. Stir until the batter is thickened.
5. Transfer batter into a lightly greased 8" pan, steam for 30-40 minutes. Cool completely in the pan.
6. Slice and garnish with red chili, fried shallot and spring onion.

Note: Brought this dish to Monthly Mingle's party, it is interesting to see the collection of savoury cakes from around the world.