Carrot Cake (Lo Bak Go)

Ingredients

• 1 link Chinese Sausage (use sparingly as this is not keto)
• 2 tbsp Dried Shrimp
• 15g (5 pcs) Dried Shiitake Mushrooms
• 20g (3 pcs) Dried Scallops (Optional)
• 1 cup Hot Water
• 750g Daikon / White Radish / Turnip (weight before peeling)
• 100g Almond Flour
• 30g Tapioca Starch
• 2 tsp Erythritol
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1/2 tsp Ground White Pepper
• 2 tbsp Oil
• 1/2 tsp Xanthan Gum
• 1 Egg
• To Serve Soy Sauce, Hot Sauce, Hoisin Sauce (Sugar-Free), XO Sauce

Instructions

1. Prepare at least 2-3 hours in advance: rinse dried scallops, shrimp, and mushroom under cold water then soak them all together in 1 cup of hot water until the scallops are fully hydrated and can be pulled apart by hand with ease (3 hours). If scallops are not being used, mushrooms and shrimp soften much faster (about 1 hour).
2. Drain the dried products but set aside the soaking water to use later.
3. Shred the scallops by hand into strings, removing the chewy pieces of muscle.
4. Remove the stems from the mushrooms, then dice finely.
5. Roughly chop the shrimp.
6. Peel the daikon and cut into juliennes (a coarse grater may also be used here).
7. In a wok over medium-low heat, cook the Chinese sausage and render out the fat. Add some oil if the sausage is lean, and cook until the sausage has browned slightly.
8. Add mushrooms, scallops, and shrimp. Sauté over medium heat for about 3 minutes, until they become aromatic, then remove from the wok and set aside.
9. Add the daikon to the wok, and toss it over medium-high heat until slightly wilted, then pour in the water that was used to soak the dry ingredients (do not pour the grit ). Keep tossing the daikon around until it becomes wilted, then lower the heat to medium and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally until daikon is fully cooked and soft.
10. Drain the daikon through a sieve or colander, squeezing out as much liquid as possible, reserve the liquid. Put the daikon back into the wok, off heat.
11. Measure about 1 cup of the daikon cooking liquid. Add some cold water if there is not enough. Set aside and let it cool.
12. Meanwhile, add the mushroom mixture to the daikon in the wok along with erythritol, salt, pepper, and oil. With the heat still off, mix well.
13. Once the daikon water has cooled down to warm, whisk in tapioca starch, xanthan gum, and almond flour and mix until there are no more lumps creating a slurry. Add this slurry into the daikon mixture, and mix well.
14. Turn heat on to medium, and continue mixing, making sure to scrape the bottom of the pan. Keep stirring until the mixture turns into a paste, then remove from heat.
15. Generously grease a large cake pan, then add the daikon mix.
16. Steam the cake for 1 hour over boiling water. Note: loosely cover your cake with foil or a tea towel to avoid condensation dripping onto the cake. If using a bamboo steamer, this is not necessary.
17. To test doneness, use a thermometer to check that the internal temperature is 200ºC. You can also use a wooden skewer to poke the centre.
18. Let the cake cool completely, or chilled, before cutting it.
19. You can store the cake in the chiller for 1 week, and slice it up to fry whenever you are ready to serve.
20. Before serving, pan fry the chilled cake in a little oil or butter and serve with soy sauce and hot sauce.

Tip!

The cake might be sticky so grease the knife for easy slicing.