Taro can be used many ways, sometimes cooked and mashed to a paste with sugar and used to fill pastries, sometimes boiled or steamed and in a savory dish, sometimes fried, and sometimes a combination of steps such as steaming, mashing, mixing with ingredients, chilled and fried.
One dish that I've really wanted to work on is a dish served in Dim Sum resturants called Wu Gok. The Taro root is normally cooked by boiling or steaming, then mashed and mixed with a fat and wheat starch and an egg, chilled, then formed around a savory filling, usually consisting of pork, shrimp and mushrooms, then fried. The end result should be a crispy, flaky pastry like dish with the outside kind of open and lacy. However when biting in and chewing, there would be a contrast between the crispy layer, the soft mushy layer, and the saucy meat texture.
The difficult part was that I've not made them before, though I used to eat them, and that even people making it with wheat starch have had trouble getting the feathery, lacy outside, winding up with a more solid fried outer layer instead. Still edible and delicious though.
I didn't do the inner filling with the tests this week, but worked on the outside to see how it would react. The oil I have is somewhat old and used, and I really need to fry with fresh oil, so I currently do not have good pictures.
The wrapping recipe called for
300g peeled taro, steamed or boiled until tender then mashed.
50g fat (butter, oil, lard, shortening)
50g starch, wheat
50mL hot water
15g sugar
5g baking soda
Interestingly, the starch is mixed with the boiling water first, then it cools into a doughlike substance, then blended with the remaining ingredients, then chilled for about 30 minutes. Then about 35g of the mix is taken, formed into a ball, flattened and filled (usually on a flour dusted board), then closed around into a semi circle, one side over the other. This is then fried in a pot of oil on medium heat (350F/ 177C)
I simply rolled the taro mix into a ball and dropped it into the fryer.
The starches I had and tested with were, in order: Tapioca starch, Potato starch, Corn starch, Arrowroot starch, Sweet/glutenous rice flour.
Tapioca starch didn't create any flaky later at all, but gave the ball a slightly firmer, chewy texture.
Both Potato and Corn starch worked somewhat well, in that it created a lacier outside.
Arrowroot starch didn't work too well, instead spreading it's layer out too quickly and dissolving.
The Sweet/glutenous rice flour didn't work at all, dissolving without leaving behind anything.
At this point, it's a matter of trying to confirm the texture, or go with a mix of tapioca and potato or corn starch. This will likely be the next test, unless I either sacrifice my digestion with a bite of wu gok that I would have to spit out and rinse after, or find a test subject.
