红（萝卜）运当（菜）头 | the approach of good luck!

• Ingredients
• 1 kg white radish, grated (reserve water)
• 50g red carrots, grated (reserve water)
• 150g rice flour
• 50g corn starch
• 1 Chinese sausages, removed from casing and diced
• 8 pcs dried black mushroom, soaked and diced (reserve water)
• 1 piece of dried cuttlefish, soaked and cut into bitesized strips
• 30g dried shrimps, soaked (reserve water)
• 2 shallots, finely sliced

• 
  
• 
  
• Method: 
• 
  
• Marinate the black mushroom, cuttlefish and shrimps with 1/4 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp wine and a small pinch of sugar.
• 
  
• Combine the corn starch and rice flour with 21/2 rice bowls of water including reserve water from the radish, carrot, black mushroom, scallops and shrimp, soaking the mushrooms and cuttlefish. Stir and mix well to form a smooth batter.
• 
  
• With 3 tablespoons of oil, sauté shallots till fragrant with chopped sausages then add in shrimps, mushrooms and scallops. Toss in grated radish and carrots, add 1 tsp sugar, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp oyster sauce, 1 tsp soy sauce, 1/2 tsp ground white pepper and 1 tbsp oil before stirring well. Toss it well to mix and keep frying till the liquid appears from the radish and carrot strips.
• 
  
• Turn to low heat, slowly stir in flour mixture into the turnips. Turn and mix well until it forms a sticky dough. 
• 
  
• Grease dish for steaming. Transfer the batter into the pan and over high heat for about 40 minutes.

 Leave to cool and cut into slices to be pan fried. Or steamed and garnished with parsley, spring onions and chopped
  chilli.

Recipe adapted from : http://www.tastehongkong.com/recipes/featured/turnip-or-radish-cake-with-chinese-sausages/

I substituted cuttlefish for scallops. It tasted good too but I'll probably stick with scallops in future :)
Have adjusted the sugar because I used red carrots for natural sweetness.
I'll probably try it with just white radish in future to try and recreate the ones served at dim sum restaurants! 

From our kitchen to yours,

Brenda x

"Mix It Up" on Health Perch

上海人家 Shanghai Ren Jia

A tiny enclave in the Ang Mo Kio area serving up shanghainese cuisine.

Tucked away in the void deck of Block 151 in Ang Mo Kio Avenue 5,

it's a blink and you'll miss it.

Ordering for four.

They don't have GST or service charges here.

But they do have a table setting fee of $1.20 per person which includes the wet tissues and hot tea.

These were the first to arrive.

The popiah freshly deep fried.

A delightfully crisp exterior with a filling of moist savoury cabbage that melt in your mouth.

$7.20 for 6 pieces.

Once you pop, you can't stop.

猪排鸡丁手拉面

Pork rib and diced chicken cube noodles at $6 a portion.

The pork rib was a bit of a misnomer.

It's just a piece of pork cutlet so painfully thin and tough.

The diced chicken cubes were rightfully so with three pieces, the rest were pieces of tau kwa.

The saving grace?

Their noodles.

Delightfully springy and although pale, were delicious with the shallot oil and dark soy based gravy.

At a price of $6, the toppings were tragic.

And this didn't use to be the case when I had them a couple of years back.

小龙包里的内涵。

This bamboo basket of 5 soup dumplings go for $6.

These were packed full of savoury soup with a hint of ginger.

That would be the reason why they do not serve ginger slices here.

Vinegar is served only on request.

The dumpling skin was a tad too thick for my liking so for the price they are charging, 

I'd rather have the ones at Din Tai Fung.

These pan fried pork buns cost $8.40 for 6 pieces.

Which works out to be $1.40 per bun.

上棉下脆。肉馅多汁。一口的完美。

What I loved was the texture of each bite.

The pork buns had a soft fluffy skin on the upper half.

And a crisp exterior on the lower half where it had been pan fried.

I would've liked the pork filling encased within to be a bit more generous but that pint sized filling packed a punch on its own with its savoury juices aplenty.

It left me a little moreish after every bite.

Would it work if I bought those deliciously fluffy handmade pork buns from dim sum stalls and pan fried them at home?

The cosy interior of the restaurant promises a queue for lunch and dinner since seating space was very limited. 

Wait time for the food was not as long as mentioned in other reviews, we waited for about an average of 10 minutes before the noodles arrived and time in between dishes was about 5-10 minutes.

We will be back to try the other more substantial dishes for dinner. :)

Address: Blk 151, Ang Mo Kio Ave 5 #01-3046
Operating hours: 11.30am to 3pm, 6pm to 10pm, closed on Monday