Aside from radish cake, this is just one of the things my late mom used to make for me. I love it a lot but was never interested on how to make it. My mom was a good cook, and was frustrated with me when I don’t show any interest in cooking while the rest of my sisters can cook really well. Being a traditional Chinese mom she said women should know how to cook. My older brother even teased me that someday my husband would be very thin because I wouldn’t know how to feed him. Well my husband for 19 years now is not thin. ha! When I got married I started to learn, but still not much because probably at the back of my head I was thinking my mom would be there to give me nice food every now and then. She would be there to cook my favourite food. But sad to say on my third year of marriage, my mom suddenly passed away. I was grieving so much because we were very close, and I was not expecting her to leave so soon. So in my mind I told myself and give her a promise that I will be the woman she would like me to be. Slowly I take my cooking seriously. Almost everyday I cook for my family especially after I became a full time mom. I started to recreate some of the dishes that she used to make for me, so that my family can enjoy it.

I have tried a couple of times making this steamed squash cake. Of course the first time I made it decade ago was a disaster, and my siblings were laughing at me. It was totally tasteless hahaha. After that I was afraid to make one again because I am thinking it might just end up in the trash bin. After so long, and exposures to different cuisines and cooking, I finally found the courage to try it again. Second and third time were not so bad, but I still couldn’t get the right texture, I felt that I need to lessen the flour as I would prefer it to have more squash taste, The fourth one was quite good, but had put too much ingredients like shiitake, sausage and dried shrimp, which made the slicing a little bit difficult. So finally on my fifth try, I find that I got the right one. So here I am sharing with you the best version of my steamed squash cake.

Ingredients

• 710g steamed squash ( butternut squash is my personal preference)
• 280g rice flour
• 380g chicken broth (I used store bought broth)
• 1 Chinese sausage finely chopped(please refer to picture below)
• 15g finely chopped pre-soaked dried shrimp
• 4 pcs finely chopped pre-soaked dried shiitake
• 50g minced shallots
• 1 tbs oil
• 1 tsp white pepper
• 1 1/2 tsp chicken powder
• 2 tsp shallot sauce optional but my preference (please refer to picture below)
• oiled tin container (mine was 9.5 “x 6 “)

Method

• In a heated wok, drizzle one tablespoon of oil. Sauté the shallots for about a minute, add in the sausage, shiitake and dried shrimp. Sauté it further for about 3 minutes. Then set aside.
• Using a hand blender, blend the steamed squash together with the broth and flour. Blend until all the squash are mashed and no white flour residue is visible.
• Add the white pepper, chicken powder and Shallot sauce. Whisk until all combined.
• Pour all the sautéed ingredients into the batter, whisk until all combined.
• Pour into the oiled tin container, steam at high heat for about 1 1/2 hours or until skewer inserted comes out clean. The steam timing varies according to the size of your tin, the bigger the container, the thinner the cake would be, hence the shorter the steaming time required.
• Wait for it to completely cooled down before flipping and slicing it.

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