This is a dish that is very close to heart! During my childhood years, this is a “MUST HAVE” dish during festive season – like Chinese New Year, Mooncake Festivals, Dragon Boat Festivals and etc in my family – “Fried Rice Cake”. It is also known in my dialect – foochow, as “Cha Ba Gui”. I missed this soooo much and everytime, mom came for a visit, this is one of the dish that our family will request of her to prepare for us.  As the preparation time can be lengthy – overnight soaking, steaming, then only  frying….., at times, this dish never make it to our wishlist menu by mom.

Recently, the craving for this dish heighten and I took up the courage to try it on my own with guidance from mom over the phone.  I finally did it!  My sis gave “thumbs up”!😍

Boy oh boy! I felt like in seventh heaven when I took a bite on the chewy rice cake!  Every pieces tasted so awesome.  Bringing me back to my childhood years….  Those days, I don’t appreciate this dish at all.  Somehow, as we grew older but not sure wiser or not, we tend to reminiscing more and wish we could turn back time!  I guess, this is a sign of getting “mature”! Hahaha!

Recipes as attached below :

Ingredients

  • 400g White Rice Cake (available in major grocers)
  • 3-4 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 70-100g dried prawns, soaked and finely chopped
  • ~200g prawns, shell removed. (I used big size prawn, thus, split into half)
  • 100g diced Siew Yok (roasted meat) or lard (I don’t have lard so replace with roasted pork)
  • 5 pieces Seafood tofu, sliced (alternatively, use fish cake)
  • 200g Choy sum, cut into 1 1/2 inch
  • 1 1/2 tbsp garlic oil
  • 2 tbsp dark soya sauce
  • 1 tsp light soya sauce
  • 1 tsp Shao Xing Hua Tiao Chiew, optional
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • Salt to taste

Some image of the ingredients I used in the recipe :

Methods

  1. Soak white rice cake overnight or at least for 12 hours.
  2. In preparation to steam the white rice cake, grease the pan with cooking oil and mix 1 tsp of garlic oil into the white rice cake (coat the rice cake with oil to avoid them from sticking to one another after steaming).
  3. Steam for about 20-25 mins. 
  4. Note: don’t over steam as it may stick to one another and difficult to stir fry.
  5. Heat the wok and add in diced roasted pork. Oil will emerge and remove the diced roasted pork before adding in some garlic and sliced seafood tofu. (You may add cooking oil if there’s not enough for stir fry)
  6. Once they are fragrant and brown, remove from pan and set aside.
  7. To saute the prawn, add cooking oil into the wok, followed by garlic and  prawn. Stir fry until the prawn colour switch to pink, then remove from wok.
  8. We may now start to stir fry the rice cake.  Heat up some cooking/garlic oil and add in the remaining chopped garlic.
  9. Add in chopped dried prawns and sauté till fragrant.
  10. Add 1 cup of water and let it simmer.
  11. Season with dark soya sauce, light soya sauce, Hua Tiao Chiew and sugar.
  12. Add in rice cake and let it simmer for another 8-10 mins. As the sauce start to thicken, add in the Choy sum, sautéd prawn and fried seafood tofu.
  13. Add salt to taste.
  14. Remove from pan after 2 mins and garnish with roasted pork/lard.
  15. You may also garnish with fried garlic to enhance the taste.

Do give it a try as it is not as complicated as it seems.

Happy Trying!

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