On Friday morning I’m taking a car to Newark Airport and getting on a plane, where I will remain for 14 hours and 45 minutes until I arrive in Mumbai, at which point I will wander in a daze for 4 hours before boarding another plane, where I will likely fall asleep for an hour and 45 minutes before arriving in Goa around 5pm local time on Saturday. It is my first real solo trip and I decided to go big.
My itinerary, which consists of reading several books, swimming in the ocean and the pool, applying numerous face masks and other indulgent skincare products every night, eating seafood curries whenever the mood strikes, sleeping 10 hours a night, exploring historic towns, getting at least two ayurvedic massages and talking to very few people, has been met with skepticism by a friends and acquaintances who have asked me: “Why would you fly to India just to go to the beach?”
I guess the answer is: because I want to and because I can, and also because I think I need to. Life is feeling very good at the moment, but the past 6 months have been challenging and exhausting, and when I booked this trip in what felt like an impulsive moment back in July, I don’t think I actually did it without thinking. I think I knew for sure that I needed to take some time to really unplug, and that meant going really far away to somewhere beautiful and luxurious and foreign and a little scary, and to be by myself there and just see what that’s like.
I picked this recipe to share with you today not completely randomly, but because I got it from the Adventures of Fat Rice cookbook, which focuses on the food of Macau. You might be asking yourself what’s particularly unique about the food of Macau, and the answer is that it was colonized by the Portuguese back in the 1550s. I wanted to try SO many of the recipes in this book and it was so interesting to pick out the Portuguese influences throughout. Which brings me to Goa! The Portuguese colonized Goa a few decades earlier, and I’m excited to eat all the food there too, when I’m not busy self-administering skincare regimes in my four-poster bed.
This particular recipe is fun to make, and it’s going to look a little unsettling until the very end. Part of the fun! Basically you make an unpromising-looking mash with rice flour, water, mushrooms and chopped vegetables, put it into a vessel (I used a standard 9″ x 5″ baking tin), stick it into a steamer and cook it for two hours until it comes together into a very gelatinous loaf. Sound delicious yet? Then you cut the loaf into slices, pan-fry each until brown and crispy and top with a super savory and funky and HOT stir-fry and some sauce. It is so, so good and it will make your eyes water.
It also requires making XO sauce (or buying it, or leaving it out. But I think you should make it). You’ll need to buy dried seafood, which you can get in those big glass jars in Asian markets. I left a bag of dried scallops on my dining table overnight and my cat ate about $40 worth of the bag’s content and then vomited it all over my carpet. Just wanted to share that with you.
I’ll try my best to be in touch while I’m in India- but if I can’t be, I’ll see you back here in two weeks.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 lbs. shredded daikon radish
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 cups rice flour
- 1/4 cup coconut oil
- 6 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 (1-inch) piece fresh ginger, peeled and minced
- 4 oz. shiitake mushrooms, stemmed and coarsely chopped
- 1 cup green onions, white part only, cut thinly on the diagonal
- 1 teaspoon tian jin preserved vegetable
- 3 tablespoons preserved mustard stems (suimi ya cai)
- 1 teaspoon sambal oelek
- 3 tablespoons peanut oil
- 2 tablespoons chili oil
- 10 garlic cloves, sliced
- 1 red onion, finely diced
- 1 green bell pepper, seeded and finely diced
- 6 green onions, white parts only, cut thinly on the diagonal
- 2 fresh red finger or fresno chilis, sliced into thin rounds
- 1 jalapeno, sliced into thin rounds
- 1/4 cup vegetable or chicken stock
- 1 cup XO sauce (recipe below)
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- Small handful of cilantro, torn into pieces
- Dried whitebait (yin yu), fried in peanut oil for about 45 seconds until golden and crisp
- 3 oz. (1/2 cup) dried scallops
- 1 1/2 oz. dried shrimp
- 2 cups chili oil
- 5 oz. (1 cup) good-quality cured ham (Iberico, Jinhua or Smithfield), finely diced, fat included, no skin
- 3 shallots, minced
- 1 (2-inch) piece fresh ginger, peeled and minced
- 9 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/4 cup Chinese black olives, pitted and finely chopped into a paste
- 1 1/2 teaspoons sherry vinegar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons fish sauce
- 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons sweet paprika
- 1 teaspoon extra-hot ground chili or cayenne pepper
Instructions
- First make the XO sauce (if you're making it), which you can keep in the refrigerator...forever. Soak the dried scallops and dried shrimp in cold water in separate small metal bowls overnight.
- Fill a wok full of water, place a steamer basket with a lid in the wok and bring the water to a boil. Water should not enter the steamer basket. Place the bowl of scallops and their soaking liquid inside the steamer basket and steam until plump and easily shredded, about 20 minutes. Repeat the process with the shrimp, steaming until plump and tender, about 20 minutes. Carefully drain the shrimp and scallops, reserving the liquid. Finely chop the shrimp and shred the scallops by hand into small strips.
- Combine all of the soaking liquid in a small saucepan and reduce to 1/4 cup over medium heat. Don't burn it! Set aside.
- Prepare two small pots: one equipped with a candy thermometer and one equipped with a wire mesh strainer over it. In the pot with the candy thermometer, heat the oil with the diced ham to 180 degrees F over low heat. Adjust the flame to hold at this temperature for 20 minutes, stirring gently from time to time. You aren't frying the ham here- you are simply dehydrating it a bit and infusing the oil with its flavor.
- Pour the oil and ham directly directly into the strainer/pot setup. Reserve the ham and return the oil to the heat. Transfer the candy thermometer to this pot and return the oil to 180 degrees F. Add the shrimp and hold at 180 degrees for 10 minutes. Strain the shrimp and reserve the ham. Return the oil to 180 degrees. Add the scallops to the oil, sprinkling the pieces in to prevent clumping, and hold at 180 degrees for 15 minutes, stirring often until the scallops develop a glassy, translucent appearance. Strain the oil and reserve the scallops with the ham and shrimp.
- Heat the oil to 200 degrees F. Add the shallots, stirring for a couple of minutes until translucent, then add the ginger and garlic and cook until fragrant, about 60 seconds. Add the olives and cook, stirring, for another 2 minutes.
- Carefully add the sherry vinegar, fish sauce and reserved shellfish liquid to the oil. Stir for a couple of minutes- things will get bubbly- then stir in the sugar, paprika and cayenne. Return the ham, scallops and shrimp to the oil and gently stir until thoroughly combined.
- Remove from the heat and let cool fully, then store tightly sealed in a glass jar in the refrigerator.
- Now make the loaf. Toss the radish and salt together in a small bowl, then transfer to a strainer and set the strainer over a bowl. Let the liquid drain for 30 minutes, then squeeze any excess liquid from the radish and set the radish aside.
- In a separate small bowl, whisk together the rice flour and 1 cup water to make a slurry. Set aside.
- Heat a prepared wok over high heat. Add the coconut oil and when melted, add the minced garlic and ginger and cook until slightly brown and fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the mushrooms and green onions and cook until fragrant, an additional 2 minutes. Add the radish and mix well, then add the preserved vegetable, preserved mustard stems and sambal and mix to incorporate. Whisk the slurry again and while stirring, add to the wok and thoroughly mix until thickened. Remove from the heat.
- Pour the mixture into a standard 9 x 5 inch loaf pan and set aside. Set up a wok half full of water with a steamer basket insert with lid and bring the water to a boil. Place the loaf pan in the steamer, cover and steam for 2 hours, making sure to add water to the wok as necessary.
- After 2 hours, when the cake is solid and firm, remove from the heat and let fully cool. The cake can be wrapped tightly and refrigerated for up to 3 days.
- When fully cooked, turn the cake out from the loaf pan. Cut into 1-inch slices, then cut each slice in half crosswise. Heat a large saute pan over high heat, add the peanut oil, and when the oil starts smoking, carefully lay the squares in the pan (you may need to do this in batches, wiping out the pan and adding new oil each time). Allow to sit in the pan, untouched, until dark golden brown with a slight char, about 2 minutes. Flip and repeat, then remove to a serving platter and set aside.
- Heat a prepared wok over high heat. Add the chili oil, then the sliced garlic and toast for 15 seconds. Add the onion, bell pepper, green onions, chilis and jalapeno and stir-fry for 60 seconds. Add the stock and stir until most of the liquid has left the pan. Add the XO sauce and soy sauce and stir to combine, then remove from the heat and top the cakes with the stir-fry. Garnish with the cilantro and whitebait and serve immediately.
