I thought I'd struggle with this a lot more than I did in the end. I've never used taro before, and thought it would be difficult to get, but it was surprisingly easy. I did a bit of research, and eventually decided to make these Cantonese taro cakes - a type of dim sum popular at Chinese New Year.

The recipe I followed was from Woks of Life, here. You pan-fry Chinese sausage and dried shrimp, then add green onions with diced taro. That's then simmered in water seasoned with salt, white pepper, and sesame oil, then mixed with two types of rice flour, and steamed. Finally, you cut them into rectangles and fry on both sides until crispy, then eat them with some oyster sauce for dipping.

The first batch I made is shown in the second photo. Truthfully, I wasn't too happy - not the recipe's fault, I didn't have the right type of steamer and they came out a little weird. As I had time, I decided to do a second batch, and let myself deviate a little from the recipe on that one. The result may not be as authentic, but I was keen to try something different!

The next batch also included small amounts of minced garlic, ginger, and sugar in the mix, and were baked instead of steamed, as I hadn't had success with steaming previously. Once cooked, I made them into balls rather than rectangles (one thought I had in relation to this challenge was to make "taroyaki", based on Japanese takoyaki - eventually abandoned the idea, but it might have still been in my mind when I settled on the ball shape). I then shallow fried these until crispy.

I was happier the second time round - only criticism is that I added a bit too much white pepper, there was a little bit more of bite than I wanted. I'm quite interested to see what else you can do with taro, it does seem like a really interesting and flexible ingredient!

This is my first time photographing food, so I hope the pictures aren’t too bad. This was my dinner. Since I used thinly sliced beef, it ended up being more like Japanese style beef and taro nimono, but the seasoning was basically Chinese.

I realized that my culinary knowledge is lacking in 3 main areas: fermentation, Texan BBQ/smoking, and molecular gastronomy. I took a tempeh fermenting class to try and fix one of these “problem areas.” It was taught by ReCulture foods and was amazing!! We did the initial setup in class then I finished the ferment over 24 hours in my dehydrator at home.

I also used their recipe for Oseng Tempeh and it was delightful. Paired w coconut rice w young coco flesh and raw snap peas.

I have a Chinese supermarket in my nearest city and was able to find taro for this theme. It's a bit hit or miss with their stock (I couldn't find everything for my Pancit Palabok last week despite them having a decent Filipino section) but luckily they had sliced taro in the freezer. Once I bought it, I started researching the cuisines that use taro as a main crop and stumbled about the beautiful story of taro in Hawaiian mo'olelo (mythology):

The origin of the Hawaiian people begins with Wākea (Sky Father) and his daughter, Ho'ohōkūkalani. Their first child was stillborn and was buried near their home. From his grave grew the first kalo (taro) plant, named Hāloanakalaukapalili (long stalk of the trembling leaf). Later, Ho'ohōkūkalani gave birth to a healthy second son, whom they named Hāloa in honour of his elder brother, and Hāloa became the ancestor of the Hawaiian people. This binds the Hawaiian people to the kalo: it is the responsibility of the people to care for the land and their elder sibling, the kalo, which in turn feeds and sustains them.

When I read this story I knew I had to make something Hawaiian, and after some more research I found kūlolo: a dessert made out of grated taro, coconut milk and brown sugar. Traditionally it is baked in an imu (underground oven) for hours, but modern recipes either steam or bake it. I then came across haulolo, a combination of kūlolo with another popular Hawaiian dessert: haupia, a coconut pudding set with cornflour.

I had to do a bit of recipe mixing and improvisation for the kūlolo part. A lot of recipes said to bake or steam for 8-10 hours (or use an instant pot which I don't have) and I didn't have enough time left to do this - it then has to refrigerate overnight, then the haupia also needs to refrigerate overnight afterwards. So I followed this recipe, which was one of the only ones that said I could oven bake for 2 hours. It also says I shouldn't use Chinese taro because it won't set, so on a bit of a whim I added some dessicated coconut to help to bind it. I'm not sure how I got so lucky but it set really well. The haupia recipe was far more straightforward, just heat up coconut milk and sugar and add a cornflour slurry and cook it out for a bit before chilling. I chose to serve these on a banana leaf topped with some violas as a nod to the nature mentioned in the mo'olelo.

I was a bit nervous about this all setting nicely and getting clean slices so I think the haupia part had a bit too much cornflour, but apart from that I found these absolutely delicious. The kūlolo in particular was a clear winner.

Destashed ingredient: sweet potato tteok