Water Chestnut Cake (aka Ma Tai Gou in Cantonese) is a light, sweet, crunchy, gelatinous cake. Made of just water chestnut flour, fresh water chestnuts, and sugar water, water chestnut cake is a simple Chinese New Year dessert or snack popular among Cantonese people. It is also frequently seen offered at dim sum restaurants. However, ingredients are not always available and are most often found around the Chinese New Year. Fresh water chestnuts (grown from the plant: eleocharis dulcis) are not nuts, but rather are a vegetable that are grown in marshes or under water in mud. They have tubular green leaves and the water chestnuts are the bulbs that grow on the roots underwater. You need to peel the bulbs to cook and eat them. Fresh bulbs are hard when you press on them and when boiled have a firm and crunchy texture.
Water Chestnut Cake (aka Ma Tai Gou)
Course: DessertCuisine: Cantonese, ChineseDifficulty: Easy12
servings30
minutes30
minutes1
hourWater chestnut cake is a gelatinous sweet and crunchy cake frequently made during Chinese New Year among Cantonese people.
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Ingredients
8 bulbs fresh water chestnuts
1.5 cups water chestnut flour
1500 mL water
1 cup Yellow rock sugar or Chinese brown sugar
Directions
- The most time consuming part is preparing the water chestnuts. Prepare the water chestnuts by cutting off the top and bottoms and then peel off all the skin with a peeler or paring knife. Chop the water chestnuts into 1/8″-1/4″ pieces.
- Whisk the water chestnut flour with 500 mL water in a bowl well and set aside.
- Boil the remaining water and add in the sugar. Stir until sugar is completely melted. Taste to see if the sweetness level is to your liking.
- Turn heat to medium and add in the chopped water chestnut and stir together.
- Whisk the water chestnut flour mixture again to prevent the water chestnut flour from settling at the bottom of the mixture and then slowly add it to the hot sugar water in the pot constantly stirring until mixture thickens into a gelatinous paste.
- Remove from heat and then pour the paste into a lightly oiled steam proof container (e.g. 8″ square x 2″-3″ deep Pyrex/non-stick pan or 8″ round cake pan). Use a spoon or spatula to smooth out the surface.
- BoilPlace the container in a steamer and steam for approximately 30 minutes. To test whether it is done, use a toothpick to poke it and if it comes out mostly clean, the cake is done.
- After steaming, set aside and let cool. Once cooled, it can be cut into slices for eating or you can pan fry the slices with a little bit of oil before eating.
Notes
- Fresh water chestnut tip: You can peel and prepare the water chestnut ahead of time and freeze it until you are ready to cook them.
- The cake will stay fresh in the refrigerator for up to one week.
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