Home is Where the Heart is

Whenever I begin to miss my parents and brother even the slightest bit, I always have a craving for chinese food. Doesn't matter if I don't usually eat it. Doesn't matter if I don't even like it. I WILL find the means to make it. And so, here is today's recipe from home.

After a few months, I found rice flour (asian brand at that - just plain white rice flour - not brown, not glutinous). A little while later, I got my hands on some tapioca starch. I know, I know. Sad but true, it took about 3 and a half months before this recipe finally came to be. But you know what. It was worth it. I already had lap cheong scurried away in my freezer and dried shrimp in the fridge, a canister of shiitakes from home, already with their stems taken off. But daikon radish. Another elusive item I had seen only at one store on the island.

If you're on St. Maarten, between the Grande Marche in Cole Bay and Maho Market, you can get most of the essentials for this staple of dim sum. Sadly, anything remotely ethnic will require a shopping trip at home or a special care package from those who love you the most.

Rice flour/daikon radish/green onions - Grande Marche - Cole Bay (they often have a lot of gluten free flours and mixes)
Tapioca starch - Maho market
Dried shiitakes - Afoo supermarket in Philipsburg (they might even have dried shrimp/lap cheong - unlikely but worth a shot)
Lor Bak Go 蘿蔔糕
2 cups rice flour
1/4 cup tapioca starch
3 cups shredded daikon radish
2 links lap cheong 臘腸 minced
1 green onion, minced
4-5 dried shiitakes, soaked and minced
handful of dried shrimp, minced
3 cups of reserved cooking liquid/water
salt to taste

In a large bowl, combine the rice flour and tapioca starch. Add about 3 cups of liquid to the shredded daikon and boil in a pot until cooked. Drain the daikon and reserved the liquid. In a small bowl, soak the shiitakes. Mince the lap cheong and dried shrimp. When rehydrated, mince the shiitakes and green onion.Add the cooked daikon to the flour mixture with the green onion, add the 3 cups of liquid slowly and mix until no clumps remain. In a pan, do not add oil, cook the lap cheong, dried shrimp and shiitakes until softened/cooked. Add to the flour/radish mixture and combine. The batter will be neither thick nor thin.
Using a steamer safe dish, pyrex, aluminum whatever you have on hand, oil the dish lightly and pour in the batter. I used two dishes, one about 12 inches in diameter and the other about 7 inches with sloping sides. The depth of the batter will determine your cooking time. I steamed the smaller pan for about 30 mins and the larger for 40 minutes. You will be able to tell when the lor bak go is cooked. The mixture will go from liquid to solid to opaque/white to opaque but slightly clear and a toothpick in the center will come out clean. Don't forget to check the water level on the steamer and add more boiling water as needed.

When steamed, take out and let cool. Slice into 2-3 inch pieces and fry in a little oil if desired. Fresh out of the steamer, it tastes better as if without frying.