Sang Maw Mah Tai Goh
Editor's note: This recipe is reprinted from My Grandmother's Chinese Kitchen: 100 Family Recipes and Life Lessons, by Eileen Yin-Fei Lo.
This simple dish is a New Year prize. Its sweet flavor is one of the recurring themes of the New Year. It was special to my grandmother, and it is to me as well. I make it not only every New Year, along with Turnip Cake, but also at other times throughout the year when I fancy it. The water chestnut powder at this recipe's base is cereal-like and can be eaten as a breakfast porridge when cooked with water and dark brown sugar. Among traditional Chinese it is considered a substitute for mother's milk when cooked with water. My granddaughter, Siu Siu, loves it.
Ingredients
Preparation
Step 1
Grease a 9-inch square cake pan.
Step 2
Pour boiling water into a wok over high heat, add sugar and stir to dissolve. Add chopped water chestnuts and mix well. Add water chestnut powder mixture. Turn heat under wok to low. Stir mixture continually in one direction for 5 to 7 minutes, until mix is very thick and pasty.
Step 3
Pour water chestnut mixture into greased pan. Place pan on a rack in wok. Add 8 cups boiling water, cover and steam for 40 minutes until it sets firmly and becomes translucent. Replenish boiling water after 20 minutes. Turn off heat, remove cake pan from steamer. Allow to set 4 minutes. Slice immediately and serve.
Step 4
This is a most unusual cake. When freshly steamed and sliced, it has the consistency of a firm jelly. As it cools, it becomes very much like an aspic. It can be frozen either whole or in slices. To reheat, allow cake to return to room temperature, then steam for 10 minutes or until heated through. It will become more jellylike again. Eat it just as if it had been made fresh.
Step 5
It can be pan-fried as well, but it must be cooled and refrigerated overnight preferably (not frozen) before doing so. To pan-fry, cut cooled cake into slices 2 inches square, 1/2 inch thick, and pan-fry in the same manner as turnip cake.
