Today, I will introduce you to fried carrot cake which is something that's commonly sold in hawker centres in Singapore. The fried carrot cake is made of white radish and rice flour, cut into pieces. It is then fried in a wok with seasonings. You can choose it "black" or "white" style. "Black" ones uses black soy sauce (sweet type) while the "white" ones omit that. Be careful though, many of the non-vegetarian stalls serves fried carrot cake that isn't vegetarian because they use lard, and if you don't take eggs some people opt to have eggs in their chai tow kway, so the stall owner will just prepare the next order without washing the wok. You can find the vegetarian stall at the Causeway point foodcourt serving vegetarian Chai tow kway. If you don't visit Singapore, here's a non-vegetarian recipe from makantime.com (which I edit to a vegetarian one) to make your own.
Ingredientds
500g rice flour
2 spoonful tapioca flour
8 full small rice bowl water
dried mushroom - soak and shredded
Shallots - chopped and fried in oil
shredded radish
sugar
salt
msg (optional)
pepper
Method:
Fry shallots in oil, add in mushroom. Season and set aside.
Mix 3 bowls of water with flour, boil the rest of water, add and mix.
Season to taste with salt, msg and sugar. Mix in the fried
ingredients, put in steamer and steam till ready, about half an
hour. Let cool and cut.
(If you want to omit the shallots and mushroom it's ok, my mum's version of carrot cake is made without the extra ingredients. But again, if you want these flavours in final product, it will be better to include it. Note: you can also buy pre-made chai tow kway ready for stir-frying)
Dark chai tow kway
Ingredients:
sweet dark soy sauce (my mum uses dark soy sauce and sugar)
chilli paste
garlic
vegetable oil
Method:
Heat oil, fry garlic, add chilli paste, add Chai tow kway, sauce and fry till it's done.
Light Chai Tow Kway
Ingredients:
Chai Poh (I believe this is available in Chinese food shops)
garlic
spring onion
chilli paste
pepper
Method:
Heat oil, fry garlic and spring onion, add chai poh and fry till fragrant, add chili paste, and finally, add Chai tow kway and fry till it's done.
Investing in a wok instead of a pan for stir-frying is a good idea. This is unhealthy food, and requires more oil for stir-frying (otherwise the Chai tow kway will tend to stick to the wok).
These sound so easy, I will have a go and try making them. Why are they called carrot cakes when there is no carrot in them?
Posted by Sara | August 14, 2007 10:49 PM