Sweet Potato Rice Cakes with Savory Filling

When Mama Lin visits my house, she often brings homemade snacks, such as dumplings or steamed cakes. One thing that I love are her rice cakes with savory filling. The filling varies based on her mood, but they usually consist of a combination of Chinese sausage (臘腸), Chinese cured pork (臘肉), ground pork, dried seafood, and a crunchy vegetable like jicama.

I wanted to make a variation of my mom’s rice cakes but do something different with the dough. Instead of a plain glutinous rice flour dough, I made it with glutinous rice flour and steamed sweet potatoes. The sweet potatoes not only add a lovely color to the cakes but also a subtle sweetness. The trickiest part of this recipe is making the dough and pan-frying the cakes. I’ve provided many tips below so that you can recreate these sweet potato cakes in your kitchen!

I eat these sweet potato rice cakes as a snack and as a side dish for dinner. If you want to make this a meal, they’re great with any of my tofu dishes, air fryer green beans, or even simple roasted asparagus.

COOKING NOTES FOR SWEET POTATO RICE CAKES

Filling Ingredients — Ingredients for filling, clockwise from left: scallions, jicama, dried shrimp, Chinese sausage

THE FILLING

To simplify things, I’ve chosen 4 main ingredients for the filling: Chinese sausage, dried shrimp, jicama, and scallions. I used the Kam Yen Jan brand of Chinese sausage (affiliate link), which is more widely available (I’ve seen it in Safeway and Costco!). Feel free to use your favorite brand instead.

In terms of dried shrimp, I used tiny shrimp that are about 1/4-inch wide. I usually find this in the refrigerated sections of Asian grocery stores. Some Chinese grocers, especially ones in a large Chinatown will sell this kind of dried shrimp in bulk. If you can’t find dried shrimp, you can use another half of a Chinese sausage, Chinese preserved vegetables, or diced shallots.

The jicama provides a light crunch to the filling. If you’d rather not buy a large jicama for this recipe, you can use another type of vegetable, like carrots or bell peppers. Even better, you can use fresh water chestnuts!

USE GLUTINOUS RICE FLOUR

You must use glutinous rice flour for the dough. I use Erawan brand’s glutinous rice flour (from Thailand), which comes in see-through plastic bags with a green label. You can find the flour in Asian grocery stores or on Amazon.

Do not use regular rice flour, as the dough will not become pliable. Avoid the rice flour that comes in the bag with a red label.

Although glutinous rice flour and sweet rice flour (like mochiko) have similar qualities, I don’t think you can make a 1-for-1 substitution in this recipe. First of all, the texture and weight of these flours are different. Moreover, because this dough is made with very little water, a dough made with mochiko (or similar sweet rice flour) will not be malleable enough.

MAKE THE DOUGH WITH HOT SWEET POTATOES

Typically, I mix glutinous rice flour with boiling hot water to develop a stretchy dough. For this recipe, I used hot, just-steamed sweet potatoes instead of hot water. The heat from the sweet potatoes will yield a dough that’s malleable enough to wrap around a filling. Do not make this dough cooked sweet potatoes that are cold.

PAN FRY CAKES ON MEDIUM-LOW HEAT

Do not try to speed up the cooking process by cooking the cakes on high heat. Because the dough contains a good amount of sugar, the cakes will burn before they’re fully cooked on high heat. I like to cook the cakes on medium-low heat for about 8 to 10 minutes, flipping them occasionally. If you notice that the cakes turn deep brown within a minute or two, the heat is too high.

The edges of the cake on the phot in the left is still pale orange, so it’s not fully cooked. Photo on the right shows the cakes fully cooked

HOW TO TELL IF THE RICE CAKES ARE FULLY COOKED

Usually, when we pan fry foods, we look at the level of browning to assess whether or not the food is done. For this sweet potato rice cake recipe, we need to rely on more visual cues. Since the 2 flat sides of the cakes come in contact with the pan most of the time, they’ll become cooked first. The sides, on the other hand, take a bit longer. Instead of focusing only on the level of browning, pay attention to the side edges of the cake.

When the dough is still raw, it will look pale orange. Once cooked, the dough takes on a richer orange color. You want to make sure that the edges also turn into a rich orange color before removing them from the pan. Moreover, the cakes will puff out slightly when they’re done. I want to reiterate here that you should cook these cakes on lower heat to ensure even cooking.

USE A NONSTICK PAN

Because the dough is made with sticky rice flour, it’ll easily stick to a pan that is not nonstick. I recommend using a nonstick skillet or sauté pan, like this 12-inch nonstick pan by All-Clad (affiliate link).

CAN YOU BAKE THE RICE CAKES?

I don’t think these cakes bake well. I tested a batch and found the cakes way too dry. See the photo above for reference.

CAN YOU DOUBLE THIS RECIPE?

Yes, but you may need to modify the ingredients for the dough. I haven’t tried doubling the recipe yet, but I suspect you don’t need any additional water to make the dough. In other words, the flour, sweet potatoes, runny sugar syrup, and oil should be enough to form the dough. However, have 1 or 2 tablespoons of water on the side and drizzle water if the dough feels dry.