Steamed mud carp and water chestnut cake with rice
Ready-made mud carp paste mixed with crunchy water chestnuts and steamed as a fish cake on napa cabbage — sweet, springy and cooling without any greasiness.
- 30 min
- Serves 2
- Steam
- Easy
Why it suits you: Major Snow is cold, but with winter hotpots and fried food a Damp-Heat constitution still easily builds up damp heat, with a bitter taste in the mouth and spots. Mud carp is sweet and neutral and strengthens the spleen, water chestnuts clear heat, transform phlegm and generate fluids, and napa cabbage clears heat and promotes urination. Steamed rather than fried, it keeps winter eating light.
Method
Prep 15 min · Cook 15 min- 1Peel and chop the water chestnuts and pat dry with kitchen paper. Chop the spring onion, cut the cabbage into lengths and spread it in a deep plate.
- 2Mix the fish paste with the water chestnuts, spring onion, cornflour and a splash of water, stirring in one direction until sticky, then slap it against the bowl a few times.
- 3Press the paste into one large round cake on the cabbage, top with the ginger and steam over boiling water on high heat for 12 minutes.
- 4Drizzle with soy sauce and sesame oil and serve with hot rice, spooning the cabbage juices over the rice.
Cautions
- Water chestnuts are cold: eat less if your digestion runs cold or you have loose stools. Wash and peel them well, and eat them cooked.
Chef's tips
- Stir the paste until sticky and slap it a few times so the fish cake steams up springy.
The TCM view
Mud carp is sweet and neutral, strengthening the spleen, boosting qi and draining water. Water chestnut is sweet and cold, clearing heat, transforming phlegm, generating fluids and easing food stagnation; napa cabbage is sweet, neutral and slightly cold, clearing heat, easing restlessness and keeping the bowels moving, while a little ginger and spring onion settle the stomach. Together they strengthen the spleen and clear damp heat without depleting.
