A:
Pork belly (cut into thin strips) 140 g
Soy sauce 1 tbsp
Oil 1 tbsp
B:
Rice flour 400 g
Rock salt (table salt) 2 tsp
Caster sugar 2 tbsp
White pepper 1/2 tsp
Water 350 g
C:
White radish 820 g
Carrot 50 g
Water 950 g
D:
Cheng Chi fried shallots 40 g
Method:
1. Heat oil in a wok, break up the pork belly strips and fry with the soy sauce until fragrant. Set aside.
2. Mix the group B ingredients — rice flour, salt, caster sugar and white pepper — then stir in the water. Set aside.
3. Shred the carrot, and shred a tenth of the white radish as well, for texture and for the look of it.
4. Cut the remaining nine tenths of the white radish into chunks and blitz with water in a blender to a purée.
5. Put the radish purée, shredded radish, shredded carrot and the rest of the water in a pan. Bring to the boil and cook for another 3–5 minutes, so the shredded radish softens and the mixture is hot enough to gelatinise the batter properly.
6. Pour the hot cooked radish and liquid into the rice flour batter, stirring into a thick paste, then fold in the fried pork belly and the fried shallots. Pour into a mould lined with cellophane — I use the 23 cm inner pot of a rice cooker (the 10-cup size).
7. Steam in the rice cooker with 2 measuring cups of water in the outer pot. When it switches off, add another 2 cups; when it switches off the second time, it is done.