A taro and shallot savoury cake roll: a soft, moist sponge, taro rich with fresh milk, and the very Taiwanese aroma of fried shallots and braised pork. Sweet against savoury is an odd idea on paper and a very good one in practice — layer after layer of it.
Taro filling (about six batches’ worth — scale as you need)
Taro, washed and cut into chunks 1190 g
Caster sugar 170 g
Natural butter 70 g
Method:
Put the taro chunks in the inner pot of a rice cooker with two measuring cups of water in the outer pot. When it switches off, add another two cups and cook again until soft, then take it out. With less taro you can use less water the second time. Check it is cooked all the way through, or the filling will be lumpy.
While still hot, mix in the sugar and butter. You can knead it smooth with your hand inside a plastic bag — that gives you a firm taro paste.
For this cake filling, fold in sweetened cream (whipped or liquid, either is fine). If you use dairy cream, add 8% caster sugar to it, since dairy cream is unsweetened but wonderfully rich. That makes the taro filling tastier, and loose enough to spread easily over the sponge, with a finer texture.
Braised minced pork (about four batches’ worth — scale as you need)
Skinless minced pork 300 g
Cooking rice wine, a splash
Soy sauce 46 g
Shallot sauce 84 g
Fine rock sugar 18 g
Water 134 g
1. Break up the minced pork in a frying pan over a medium heat, then add the rice wine and keep stirring.
2. Add the soy sauce and stir until you can smell it, then add the shallot sauce, rock sugar and water.
3. Keep stirring until it thickens. Done.
For the sponge:
Eggs 8, caster sugar 180 g, olive oil 75 g, water 75 g, cake flour 107 g, cornflour 21 g
Salt 0.5 g
Method:
1. Separate the eggs.
2. Mix the water, oil and a quarter of the sugar, then fold in the sifted cake flour and cornflour. Finally stir in the yolks and set aside.
3. Whisk the whites, adding the sugar in stages, to soft peaks.
4. Fold a little of the meringue into the batter first, then add the rest and fold gently with a spatula until completely even.
5. Line a baking tray with paper, scatter over fried shallots, pour in the batter and level it. Bake at 170°C top heat and 120°C bottom heat for 20 minutes.