A Very Special Dish to celebrate our Wedding Anniversary

I woke up to this wonderful post yesterday morning that caused my stomach to growl and made weird noises that I never knew it could make. Char Kuih Kak: a scrumptious dish of stir-fried radish (daikon) cake in dark soy sauce with eggs, chives, beansprouts and a dash of spicy chilli paste - another kind of perfect breakfast, one that's uncustomary in this part of the world but one that I grew up eating back home. "Char" in Hokkien (a type of Chinese dialect that's the mother-tongue of most Penangites) means stir-fried, "Kuih" is cake and "Kak" denotes the square cubed form of the radish in this dish.
This dish immediately transported me back to our courting days.
My husband and I started dating at a very early age - even before I could get a driver's license and he had barely started driving himself! We only had our meagre school allowances; going on a date to McDonald's was, in and of itself, a rare luxury back then but thankfully, we had the inexpensive yet delicious and endless choice of Penang street food to fall back on! One of our favorite dating spot was the early morning market five minutes from my home. D would get on his bike (by that I meant BICYCLE!), peddled one plus mile or so to my house to "pick me up". It wasn't exactly romantic as he didn't have a bicycle built for two, so both of us would, unglamorously, walk (good 'ol bus #11) to the busy market and our first stop was always the Char Kuih Kak stall!
Fast forward to TODAY, two decades later and celebrating our 11th wedding anniversary, I thought nothing would be more befitting than making Char Kuih Kak for our anniversary lunch.

Before we start, it's important to note that in order to get the best flavor, this dish has to be stir-fried in a flash in a very hot flat pan (I used the flat iron griddle), otherwise you may end up with greasy, soggy and even gooey radish cubes that would be quite unappetizing!

Ingredients for Char Kuih Kak (Stir-fried radish cake) - serves 2 to 3 persons

1 packet of ready-made, pre-cooked radish cake (you can get them from your local Asian grocery stores), cut into ~ 1/2" cubes

2 cups beansprouts, rinsed and dried of excess water
1 cup chives, cut to ~ 1" strips
2 strips preserved turnip (optional), soak in water to remove brine, rinsed and dried of excess water then minced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 eggs
5 tablespoons vegetable oil for stir fry

For the sauce:
1/4 cup light soy sauce
1/4 cup sweet, thick dark soy sauce

1/4 cup water
1 tbs sesame oil
Pepper to taste
a dash of sugar


Optional: 2 tsp chilli paste - I used this sambal









The mise-en-place for CKK:

Method:
1. Make the sauce by mixing together all the ingredients and set aside in a bowl or preferably a squirt bottle. You may have leftover sauce that you can keep, refrigerated.
I prefer cooking this per serving to get the best smoky flavor because if you "crowd" the pan, the kuih kak may not get caramelized on all sides.
2. Heat up a flat griddle pan until it's smoky - it's important that the pan is very hot for this dish to be a success!
3. Add in about 2.5 tablespoon oil to the hot, smoky pan.
4. Add one clove minced garlic and minced turnip; stir fry for about 2 minutes.
5. Crack an egg onto the pan, let it cook for around 1 minute
before breaking and stir-frying it.
Push the fried egg to the side of the pan, together with the garlic and turnip
6. Next, add in half of the radish cubes and allow it to pan-fry for at least half a minute on each sides
or until the cubes are caramelized. See the slightly "charred" bits (it's not really burnt) in the first snapshot of this post? That's the caramelization you'd want.

7. Pour in one-third cup of the sauce - at this point, you'll have a sizzling hot plate so yes, go ahead - pretend you're the Teppanyaki chef, move your spatulas back and forth vigorously and make as much noise you can!
If you're using chilli paste, this is the time to add that in.
8. Finally, throw in 1 cup of beansprouts and 1/2 cup of chives, work that mighty Teppanyaki Chef skills of yours, give it a good stir then immediately spoon the kuih kak onto a serving platter.
9. Clean the pan with a moist paper towel. Make sure to get all the bits of char kuih and vege. off the flat pan (leftover bits will stick and turn into burnt, charred pieces that will spoil your next batch). Start on a clean slate.
10. Repeat steps 2 - 8 for the next serving

Our favorite CKK vendor would serve this in a banana leaf-lined newspaper cone
and using toothpicks, you'd pick 2 or 3 pieces of the radish cubes, along with bits of eggs and the stir-fried vege. - getting the beansprouts could be a challenge - and just eat it right from the cone! D and I, being the young lovebirds that we were, would share and eat from the same cone.
Today, we didn't do that. Not because we don't love each other anymore but because the stir-fried CKK was just too darn good to share!

Happy Anniversary, darling! A toast to many more wonderful CKK-filled anniversary celebrations to come!