Yam Cake Recipe -Simple recipe.

My family loves Yam cake, the savoury type that goes well with chili sauce and sweet sauce. I would usually buy it from the early morning market. There are a few versions sold such as the ones with minced meat added into the batter, some with minced dried prawns and some just the plain flour and yam only. As far as I know, the Penang type is just yam and flour. 

Since Yam cake is my family favourite, I have been trying to make it for some time. I have tried a few versions adding minced meat, dried prawns and even spring onions inside. Finally, my children and I still prefer the plain type with just yam and flour. This yam cake recipe become a vegetarian dish if you just omit the dried shallots topping. 

Yam Cake Recipe:
Ingredients
A. 600-700 g yam (cut into cubes of 1 cm square, can be a bit bigger but not smaller)
B. 2.5 cups rice flour
     1 Tbsp cornflour
     1.5 tsp salt
     1 tsp five spice powder
     3.5 cups water
C.  3 Tbsp cooking oil
     5 cloves of garlic (chopped)
     1 tsp pepper
D. 1 red chilli (chopped finely)
     2 cm of ginger (sliced finely)
     2 spring onions cut into small 3mm length

Method:

1. Heat steamer/wok, put in the yam cubes to steam when the water is boiling hot. Steam the yam 

     cubes until soft, about 10 minutes. 

2.  In a large bowl, mix B together. Leave aside.

3.  Heat up the wok, add oil, garlic saute until slightly brown, lower heat add pepper and stir.

4.  Put in half the cooked yam cubes, stir a bit then add in B. Continue stirring for a while (until  some yam dissolved into the batter), then add in the rest of the yam. 

5. Slowly stir until everything is mixed well and the batter becomes a thick paste. 

6. Pour into a 10 inches round metal tray and smoothen the top.

6. Steam for 30 minutes until firm. I test by putting a spoon into the middle and open a slit to see 

     whether it is firm inside. (That's why my photo got a slit)

7. Sprinkle the top with D - spring onions, red chillies and ginger

8. Serve with chilli sauce and/or black sweet sauce.  Enjoy!

The slit in the batter in the photo below is the one I tested for firmness (to gauge whether it is fully cooked) with a spoon. If you see inside still very watery, this means it's still not done.

  For non vegetarian dish, add fried shallots and fried dried prawns on top.

 This is sprinkled with fried shallots. I do not add dried prawns. 

Note for Yam Cake recipe:

a) The method for number 4 is done such that half of the yam cubes stay intact as I like to see and bite the yam cubes when eating.  

b) I will normally make this in the evening or night and my children can pack (ta-pau) to work for their lunch the next day. But put the garnishing only in the morning (not overnight)
Happy Cooking!