What's up everyone?
Today, Chef Daddy Lau is going to teach us
His delicious Taro Cake recipe
It's a classic Sunday dim sum favorite
And also commonly made around Chinese holidays
Every time Chinese New Year or
Or the Mid Autumn Festival rolls around
My dad always makes huge batches of Taro Cake
For our family
Taro cake is pronounced, "wuh táu gōh" in Cantonese
The words for "cake" and "high" share the same pronunciation
"gōh", which is why Taro Cake and other cake dishes
Are good luck charms for higher growth
And prosperity in Chinese tradition
Teaching us how to make Taro Cake will be my dad
Who's been cooking Chinese food for over 50 years
And who also happens to be playing the flute
That you're listening to right now
Be sure to stay tuned at the end to eat with my family
And learn more about the dish
Check out our blog post for a printable
Adjustable list of ingredients, as well as
Step-by-step videos and instructions on
How to make this dish
Hope you guys enjoy!
Hello, today I’ll be sharing with everyone
Our home-cooked version of Taro Cake
We'll need 1.5 lbs of taro
And 1/2 lb of rice flour
For today's recipe
The first thing we'll do is wash and rehydrate our dried shrimp
Using about 1/2 ounce of dried shrimp
Wash the shrimp in warm water for a few seconds
Then drain the water, pour hot water into the bowl
And let the shrimp rehydrate for 5-10 minutes
We'll also be using 1 lap cheung (Chinese sausage)
2 cloves of garlic
And just a little bit of ginger
Can you explain to everyone what lap cheung is?
Lap cheung is almost like a…
Chinese hot dog
You can call it a Chinese hot dog
We'll cut a few thin coins of lap cheung from the top
We'll place it on top (of the Taro Cake) later
It will look better
For the rest, we'll cut it into small pieces
The lap cheung is uncooked
You have to cook it before you can eat it
Okay, we're done
Next, we'll cut few slices of ginger
We don't need a lot of ginger
The ginger makes the Taro Cake more flavorful
Use 2 cloves of garlic
Let's place it to the side
We'll use two strands of green onion
Cut into small pieces
We’ll chop our dried shrimp into very small pieces
so that the shrimp will be more evenly mixed, and more flavorful
Great, let's cut the taro
This taro weighs over 8 lbs!
We'll use about 1 1/2 lbs
When you buy taro, if it’s a big piece
You’ll see, it should be, it shouldn’t be broken or cracked
This taro is very beautiful
We won't be using this top piece
Let's cut out 1 1/2 lb of taro
Let's weigh it
This piece weighs about 2 lbs
It's okay, I'll cut some away later
During my own research, I've read that some people
Recommend using food-safe latex gloves
To peel and cut taro
Raw taro contains calcium oxalate underneath its skin
Which can be toxic due to the mineral's
Microscopically sharp needles
And which can cause skin irritation and a burning sensation
If eaten raw
Maybe my dad is just a gangster
But in all the years my dad has made Taro Cake
He's never used gloves
But he does wash the taro before cutting it further
Which helps wash away some of the calcium oxalate
To be super safe, definitely do not eat raw taro
And use food-safe gloves when peeling and cutting it
Great, now we'll cut the taro
Some people like to cut it into strips
I like to cut it into small pieces
First, cut it in half
Cut the taro into 1/4 inch slices
Not too thin, not too thick
Next, cut it into strips
The pieces should be about the size of a peanut
See? Just like this
Let's cut the other half
We won't need to cut all of this
Since we only need 1 1/2 lbs
Great, now we've chopped everything
Let's prepare to start cooking
Let me tell you why I place a hand towel beneath my cutting board
It's so the board doesn't move
When you cut the taro, it's hard
If the board moves, you might cut your hand
Having done this for a long time, you have to think about safety
Next, we'll set our stove to its highest heat
And heat our wok for 3-5 minutes as we prepare our rice flour
It's really important to choose the right type of rice flour
In Asian grocery markets, they usually sell two kinds
Regular rice flour
And a glutinous, or sticky, rice flour
Which is commonly used to make boba balls
Mochi, and many other Asian desserts and recipes
For this recipe, we should be using regular rice flour
Which leads to a taro cake with the perfect
Firmness and chewiness
Weigh out 1/2 lb rice flour in a bowl
And add 1 1/2 cups of water
Mix the water and flour for about 30 seconds
If you don't have a food scale
You can roughly use 1 7⁄8 cups of flour
Weighing is the most accurate method
So I've included a link to our food scale on Amazon
As well as regular rice flour if you
Don't live near an Asian supermarket
After the wok is hot enough, we'll add 1 tbsp (vegetable) oil
We don't need to add too much
Because the lap cheung will release some oil
Mix the oil around
Now we'll begin cooking our garlic, ginger, shrimp, and lap cheung
Stirring constantly for about 2 minutes in total
Before adding the taro
Add the garlic and ginger, and cook for about 20 seconds
Then, add the rehydrated shrimp, and cook for about 40-50 seconds
Let the dried shrimp release its flavors
When you cook the dried shrimp in oil
Its flavors get released
Can you smell the aromas of the dried shrimp?
Mmm!
You can smell the aromas, right?
Okay
Finally, add the lap cheung and cook for another 45-60 seconds
The flavors of the lap cheung and dried shrimp have come out
Good
Let's add the taro into the wok
You can hear the sizzling
Before we add more flavors
We'll be cooking and stirring the taro around for about 1 minute
We'll also start boiling about 5 cups of water
Which we'll be using in a few minutes
We don't need to cook the taro for too long
We just want the taro to absorb some of the flavors in the wok
Good, now let's add some salt
1 tsp salt, 1 tsp sugar, 1 tsp chicken bouillon, 1 tbsp oyster sauce
Cook the taro for about another minute
Doesn’t it smell delicious?
Next, we'll pour 1.5 cups of boiling water into the wok
Stir the taro around the wok for a few seconds
And cover the wok until it starts boiling again
For us, this took about 2 to 3 minutes
Great, while we wait, let’s coat our plate with oil
We add oil so that when we're done cooking
The taro cake won't stick to the plate
We don't need to add a lot of oil
Just add a little bit
Spread it around the plate
When it's done cooking, it won't stick to the plate
It should start boiling soon
We want the taro to cook a little bit here
Let's stir our flour a little bit
Let's use our spoon and see if it's flavorful enough
Just about right
Not too salty
When we first started, the taro looked like this
When it's raw, it looks like this
When the taro is cooked - see that?
Let's mix our flour again, and pour it into the wok
Add a bit of sesame oil to taste
And stir the wok around for about 90 seconds
Great, the mix is cooked enough
Let's transfer it to this plate for steaming later
Mix it really well, and pour it into the plate
Let's flatten out the surface of the taro cake
Once we're done, let's wash our wok before we start steaming
Let's start steaming. Place a steamer rack in the wok
Add some boiling water to the wok
This way, we can save some time
The water should just be touching the bottom of the plate
Steam at max heat for 20-25 minutes
And wait patiently
Since these plates we're using are thicker
I'll need to steam for 3 more minutes
The longest I'd need to steam is for 25 minutes
Then it should be ready
I usually use metal plates to steam
With a metal plate, it should be ready in 20 minutes
It's ready
To check if the taro cake is ready
Poke it with chopsticks
If it's not ready, the cake will stick to the chopstick
Now I know that this taro cake is cooked long enough
Next, we'll add some green onion for garnish
At this point, we're done cooking, but we need to let the
Taro cake cool down and harden before we can cut
Into it and start eating
All you need to do is just leave the taro cake out
Until it reaches room temperature
And it will be ready to eat
It's best to let it cool naturally, but if you’re in a rush
You can place the plate on a bed of ice to speed up the cooling
If you want to make it even more tasty
After it's cooled, cut the taro cake into slices
And pan fry them in oil for 3-5 minutes on each side
For some golden, crispy deliciousness
Wow, you're so handsome, Cam!
Of course you're handsome Cam!
Cam Cam - say, "Hi everyone! Hi friends!"
I cannot eat Taro Cake yet, but I’m going to eat it soon!
Yeah! Can't wait!
Cheers!
So good!
I'm so happy
(Laughs)
I love Taro Cake
Mmmm that's so good!
This is one of my favorite, favorite dim sum dishes
We always order this
I like this better than the dim sum one
Because sometimes the dim sum one’s too greasy
This is nice
This is healthier
It's good there, but this is better
So you ate this as a kid?
Yeah, mmhmm
We started eating taro when we were very little
So I just love to eat taro
Did you eat Taro Cake as a kid?
Yes!
What age did you start making Taro Cake?
When I was young, I didn't know how
When I was older, I learned in Guangzhou
But when you were younger -
My mom made it for me
Ah, his mom made it for him
Remember when you went to my old house?
You saw that foot pedal?
It was used to make rice flour
We'd soak and wash the rice, dry it, and then ground it up
Me and your 2nd Uncle
Your grandma would sit there -
Sift the flour
Was it a lot of work?
Yes, a lot of work
Now it's so easy, you just go and buy it
No one pedals the rice nowadays
That was in the old day
How long did it take?
If you were only making flour for one dish, it wouldn't take that long
But we’d use the rice flour for a lot of dishes
Maybe a couple of hours
We'd make a lot of cakes
Not just one
After they make the flour from the pedal
They can do different kinds of -
Cakes
We can make a video for New Year’s Cake
nìhngōu, it is for the New Year
We use the - it’s called sweet rice, sticky rice to make that
During New Year's, is it common to eat Taro Cake
Yes, most likely
Why?
Like American people, when they have holidays
They like to make cake, right?
The same thing - like we have our New Year. We like to make cake too.
Cake in Chinese: "gōu"
gōu means high
So in the New Year, we wish that everything is going higher
Go high, go high
So that means good
Everything is good
Booming
Prosperity
Higher is always good
(Laughs)
Higher position, higher pay. Right?
Happiness
Cam Cam gets higher, taller
Hi Cam Cam, you get taller
“wuh táu gōh” and “gõh (high)”
It's not the same word right?
Different characters for the words, but “gōh” and “gōh” is the same tone
Even in Mandarin, it's the same
Different characters, sound is the same
But we use the sounds for the meaning
Thank you
Oops
That's okay
Oh, oh, oh
Don't get it on the bamboo!
Here just let me -
Do you really have to do this now?!
Don’t you realize we're filming right now?
I'm done!
No, no, no, still here
(Laughs)
Okay, done!
(Laughs)
Taro comes in a small size
Similar to an egg
But this kind is called “bān lòhng wuh”
"bān lòhng wuh" means big sized
It is a little bit of a different texture
If you do Taro Cake, you need to buy the big one
Yeah, the small one won't come out like this
The small ones - most of the time, you'd just boil it
And then peel the skin and eat it
Taro grows all year long
It's a root right?
Mmhmm
Ooooh I'm gonna keep going
I'm gonna have one
Okay, yeah
How do you pick good taro?
Find the ones that aren't wet or moist, that are smooth
Like ours, it's very beautiful, very smooth, right?
Sometimes, they put it in the store for too long
The outside of the skin looks very dry
You can see, it should be a little bit moist, not dry
But it shouldn't be soft?
No
Still hard
With taro, it'll be more fresh if you buy it in Chinatown
The skin looks more beautiful when it's fresh
Yeah, you can look at the skin - it has more color
You can compare, if it's too old, it looks very dry
I can eat taro, just like -
Clean the taro, cut in a big piece, steam it
Without any flavoring, I can eat that
So lunch-time, breakfast, I'd just take a piece out of the refrigerator
And eat it
It's so easy!
It's like Asian potatoes
Yeah, also the taste
Personally, I like it better than potatoes
Yeah it's better
It has more flavor
Hi! Hi dear friends!
It's nice to talk to all of the friends again in the video
Today we made Taro Cake
Our Cam Cam, grandson, 3 months old, joined our video
Thank you so much to all our friends
Everyone around the world for watching our videos
Hopefully all of our friends will make good Taro Cake
Okay, thumbs up for our video
Subscribe to our channel
And Cam Cam, say to all the dear friends
See you next time!