BEBINGA DE RABONO | LO PAK KOW

This popular Cantonese dish is now readily available in Chinatowns all over the world. It uses daikon (variously called Chinese white radish, Chinese turnip and lo pak in Cantonese).

To read the recipe using taro instead of daikon, click HERE.

Approx. 5½ lb | 2½ kg lo pak  (daikon)

34 US fl oz | 1 litre chicken stock

2 cups rice flour, mixed with a little cold water to a smooth consistency

6 tbsp cornflour mixed with a little water

8 Chinese sausage (lap cheong), diced

3 tsp sugar

10 dried shitake mushrooms

salt and pepper to taste

Soak the dried mushrooms in boiling water.  When soft, cut off and discard stalks and slice thinly.

Reserve a little of the mushrooms and Chinese sausage for garnishing.

Peel and grate the daikon.  Simmer in the chicken stock and a little extra water, stirring occasionally.  Be careful not to overcook as the turnip flavour will be diminished.  When tender, drain and return the daikon to the saucepan.

When cool, add the rice flour, cornflour, mushrooms, Chinese sausage, sugar, salt and pepper.

Stir thoroughly; taste to check if there is enough salt.

Place the mixture in a Pyrex bowl or cake tin, garnish with the reserved mushrooms and sausage and steam for approximately 1½ hours.

Serve hot or pan-fry cold slices.

5 lbs daikon shredded
½ stick Chinese bacon diced
½ pkg Chinese sausage diced
3 mushrooms diced (save some for topping)
1 pkg rice flour and a little more if needed
1-2 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp little dried shrimp soaked to soften
Cilantro for decoration

Shred the daikon in a pot. Add water just to cover 1/3 of the daikon. Boil for about 15-20 minutes. (There will be more water after boiling.)
Add Chinese sausage, bacon, mushrooms but save some mushrooms for topping.

Add salt & white pepper to taste.
Remove from the fire. Add rice flour, a little at a time.

Stir to make sure all the daikon is coated. Add a little more rice flour if you cannot get it into a paste consistency.
Add cornstarch if needed to thicken a bit.

Grease pan that you will be using to steam. Add your mixture and smooth the top with a spatula. Decorate with shrimp, mushrooms & cilantro.

Steam in steamer for about one hour. Cool and then refrigerate overnight.

Next day, cut into square servings and fry until brown on both sides.
Serve with hot sauce and soya sauce.

6-8 lo pak (daikon)

6 lap cheong (Chinese sausages), sliced very fine

1 piece of lap yuk (Chinese roast pork), sliced very fine

4/5 Shitake mushrooms (soaked in hot water and sliced fine)

500g rice flour

pepper and salt to taste

shallots (spring onions, chung), sliced fine

light soy sauce to taste

1-2 cups water

Shred the lo pak with a shredder. Boil the shredded lo pak with 1 to 2 cups of water until soft and put the pot with the lo pak aside.

Heat oil in a large deep pan and fry sausages, lap yuk, mushrooms and lastly shallots (chung).

Put the pot with the lo pak over low fire and start to add rice flour slowly, stirring as you go. Check the consistency: not too dry or too moist. Then slowly add the rest of the ingredients, reserving some for decoration. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Spray oil in a 30-cm | 8-inch cake tin and put the mixture in the tin, then sprinkle the top with the remaining ingredients. Cover the tin with tinfoil and put in a steamer to steam until cooked.

Rice flour (as needed)

¼ lb pork

4-6 large Chinese white radish (especially good in Autumn)

2-3 tbsp chopped raw Chinese ham

10 spring onions, finely chopped

4 cloves of garlic

Salt and pepper to taste

Lard

Water

Mince the pork.

Cut white radish in thin 3″ (8cm) strips.

Crush the garlic. Heat lard in a rather large pan and, when quite hot, fry the garlic with skin on until light brown.

In turn add and fry the spring onions for a minute and the minced pork with salt and pepper for 5-10 minutes. Then add the white radish, stirring occasionally till cooked.

Remove the garlic and skin, add ¾ of the ham.

Reduce to a low heat, add the flour and stir well until thoroughly blended. Lastly add the boiling water gradually, until the mixture comes to a moist but pasty consistency.

Turn this on to a cake tin, sprinkle the quarter of the chopped ham left and some diced spring onions on the surface and steam for ½ – 1 hour. Cool down a little, turn on a dish, surface up and serve.

Alternatively, instead of a cake tin, use a round pyrex dish which can be brought to table without turning out.

3kg lo pak (variously called daikon, Chinese white turnip or radish)
600g rice flour
1 slab of Chinese brown sugar (wong pin tong) or 1 tbsp of ordinary brown sugar
600g Chinese sausage (lap cheong)
600g Chinese roast pork (lap yôk)
1½-2 tsp salt
2 tsp 5-spice powder
pepper
40g dried shrimps
8 dried Chinese mushrooms
Red preserved ginger
Fresh coriander
Sesame seeds
Spring onions
¼ cup of oil or pork lard

Soak the dried mushrooms in boiling water. When soft, cut off and discard stalks. Chop up the mushrooms, spring onions sausage and roast pork.

Peel and shred the turnip. Cook in a little oil, using up all the turnip water. Add the brown sugar to take away the smell of the turnip.

In a separate wok, fry the spring onion, chopped sausage, roast pork, shrimps, diced mushrooms. Reserve just less than half of this mixture for garnishing and mix the remainder with the turnip and cook a little longer.

In a large bowl, put the rice flour, 5-spice powder, salt and pepper. (Note: Never add salt to the turnip as it would make it bitter.)

Add oil or lard (pork fat gives a richer consistency). Add a little water and mix well into a dough at first, then gradually add water until the mixture has the consistency of thin cream.

Place the bowl of rice flour mixture beside the cooking turnip and, when the latter is done, spoon into the bowl, mixing well.

Pour into well-oiled pans, cover with aluminium foil and steam for at least 1 hour from when the water starts boiling. Test if done by poking with a skewer which should come out clean without sticking.

Garnish with remainder of sausage mixture, red ginger and fresh coriander.

Serve hot or pan-fry cold slices.