Steamed Pork Ribs Dim Sum

Ingredients:

250 g soft bone pork ribs, cut to bite size

1 tbsp black bean sauce
2 clove garlic, minced
1 tbsp minced ginger
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp oyster sauce
1/4 tsp white pepper
1 tbsp shaoxing wine

1 tsp tapioca starch or cornstarch
1 tbsp sesame oil for sprinkling

Method:

Mix pork with the remaining ingredients except cornstarch and set aside to marinate for at least 30 minutes.

Add-in cornstarch and mix well to incorporate.

Steam with boiling water over high heat for 8 minutes.

Dish-up and sprinkle with sesame oil.

Crunchy Shrimp Wantan/Wontan/Wonton/云吞 Rolls

Ingredients:

10 shrimps, peeled by leaving tail-on
10 wantan wrappers
oil for deep-frying

Marinade:

2 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tsp lemon zest
1 tsp minced fresh ginger
1 tsp sesame oil

Method:

In a bowl, combine together all the marinade ingredients.

Add-in shrimps and set aside to marinade for 30 minutes.

Place a shrimp horizontally in the middle of wantan wrapper (cover the unused wantan wrapper with damp kitchen towel to prevent dry out and become hard sheet).

Brush a bit water on all edges.

Fold-up side edge over shrimp, follow by the bottom edge, roll-up till end and press to seal.

Heat enough oil in pot/wok/deep pan over medium high heat.

Drop-in shrimp wantan rolls in batches (single layer) and deep fry till golden brown, crispy and crunchy.

Remove shrimp wantan rolls from oil and drain well on absorbent paper towels.

Best serve with Thai chili sauce, sweet and sour sauce, ketchup or mayonnaise.

Thai Tom Yam 冬粉/Glass/Cellophane Noodles Spring Rolls

Ingredients:

250 g dry 冬粉/bean threads/Glass/Cellophane Noodles
200 g shrimps, shelled with tails-on (omit it for vegetarian version)
5 large dried chinese mushroom, soaked and drained
3 handful bean sprout
3 cloves garlic, chopped
3 tbsp tom yam kung paste dissolved in juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp sugar or to taste
1/4 tbsp salt or to taste
4 tbsp vegetable oil

enough medium size spring roll wrappers (thawed)
water or beaten egg or 1 tsp cornstarch/1 tbsp water paste to seal

Method:

To stir-fry the cellophane noodles:

Soak noodles in cold water until soften (about 30 minutes) and drain well; set aside.

Heat oil in a wok, pot or non-stick deep pan, saute garlic till fragrant and starting to brown.

Add mushroom and shrimps, stir-fry until shrimps are slightly pink and half cooked.

Add bean sprout and continue stir-fry for short while.

Add noodles and tom yam solution, keep stirring until noodles are well coated with the paste.

Adjust taste with sugar and salt, continue stir-fry till noodles cooked-through.

Dish-up; set aside to cool completely (Best serve hot immediately at this state too :P).

To assemble spring rolls:

Place a sheet of spring roll wrapper on a clean working surface.

Locate enough tom yam noodles on one corner of the wrapper (try to balance among the distribution of noodles, shrimp, mushroom and bean sprout for each spring roll).

Spread the filling lengthwise along the wrapper by using chopstick or fork (reserve some spaces at all edges for sealing).

Fold-up left and right sides of wrapper over filling.

Lift-up the filling side egde and roll upward to the other end.

Seal roll end by brushing-on some water.

Deep fry spring rolls under hot oil till golden brown and crispy.

Remove from oil and drain well on absorbent papers.

Serve spring rolls warm with Thai sweet chili sauce or any favorite homemade dipping sauce (chopped fresh chili in 1/3 cup plum sauce and 3 tbsp light soy sauce).

Deep-Fried Shrimp Wantan/Wontan/Wonton/云吞

Ingredients:

Shrimps Filling:

1 cup (200 g) shrimps, shelled and diced
1 tbsp finely chopped carrot
1 tbsp finely chopped spring onion
1 tbsp chopped beansprout

Seasoning:

1/2 tbsp light soy sauce
1/4 tbsp oyster sauce
1/4 tsp salt or to taste
1/4 tsp sugar or to taste
1/4 tsp white pepper or to taste
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp corn flour

enough wantan wrappers
water to brushing (to seal)
oil for deep-frying/shallow-frying

Method:

In a bowl, combine together all the filling ingredients.

Add-in seasoning ingredient, stir well to incorporate; set aside.

Place about 1 teaspoon of the filling mixture in the middle of wantan wrapper (cover the unused wantan wrapper with damp kitchen towel to prevent dry out and become hard sheet).

Brush a bit water on all edges.

Fold-up edges and pick to seal.

Heat enough oil in pot/wok/deep pan over medium high heat.

Drop-in filled wantan in batches (single layer) and deep fry till golden brown and crispy.

Remove crispy wantan from oil and drain well on paper towels.

Best serve with Thai chili sauce, sweet and sour sauce, ketchup or mayonnaise.

Golden Mantou/Baozi/Pau/Buns with Curry Mussel Filling

Ingredients:

Filling:

Dry Curry Mussels

Pastry:

5 tbsp warm water
2/3 tbsp sugar
1 tsp dry instant yeast

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tbsp wheat starch
1/8 tsp salt
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1/4 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup water

1/4 tsp water
1/2 tsp baking powder

Oil for deep frying

Method:

Dissolve sugar and yeast in warm water, set aside for 10 minutes or till foamy.

In a large bowl, mix flour, starch and salt.

Pour-in yeast solution, knead to mix.

Add-in oil and coconut milk, knead to mix again.

Gradually, pour-in water and knead till smooth, soft and elastic dough form.

Transfer dough into a lightly greased container, turn dough to evenly coated with oil, set aside covered to rise till double volume (about 2 hours).

Dissolves baking powder in 1/4 tsp water; set aside.

Punch down the dough, add-in baking powder solution, knead till well-blended.

Roll-up dough into cylinder shape, cut into 8 pieces and shape to balls.

Flatten each piece roundly into 1/2 cm thick, fill-in the prepared filling in the center, twist to seal the top and roll up nicely into balls again.

Place the filled buns on individual parchment papers, cover with kitchen towel or in a covered container and leave to rise for another 20 minutes (not to over rise).

Steam buns covered over high heat for about 15 minutes.

Remove from steamer (best serve warm immediately if prefer soft skin buns).

Heat oil in a pot over medium high heat, deep fry buns till golden brown (turn buns continuously for even browning).

Drain buns on paper towels and set aside to room temperature.

Crystal Skin Chives Dumplings (Koo Cai Kuih/韭菜粿)

Ingredients:

Chives Filling:

1 tbsp vegetable oil (I used shallot oil but garlic oil, sesame oil or other cooking oil work fine too)
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/3 cup dried shrimp, soaked and drained
3 cups diced Chinese chives (about 1 cm length)

Crystal Skin Pastry:

1 ½ cup wheat starch
1/4 cup tapioca starch
1/2 salt
300 mL boiling water
3 tsp shallot oil/lard/garlic oil/sesame oil

Method:

To prepare the filling:

Heat oil in a wok or pan over moderate high heat, stir-fry garlic till fragrant and golden yellow.

Remove from heat and let to cool to room temperature.

Reserve 2 tbsp garlic oil for dumplings surface brushing and mix the remaining garlic oil with the rest of the filling ingredients, stir-well to incorporate; set aside.

To prepare the pastry:

In a large bowl, mix wheat starch, tapioca starch and salt.

Pour-in boiling water and immediately stir to mix by the help of chopstick to form dough, set aside to rest for 5 minutes.

Knead dough till smooth and homogeneous texture.

Add-in fragrant oil and knead to incorporate homogeneously.

Divide dough into 18 equal portions and shape to dough balls.

Cover dough balls with moist towel before start to assembly dumplings.

Dumplings assembly:

Lightly grease a surface of large plastic wrapper.

Plate-on a dough ball, flatten with oily hand palm and press outward evenly from center of the pastry to about 3 mm thickness by oily fingers.

Alternatively, cover dough ball with another piece of greased plastic wrapper, rolling out dough ball thin via rolling pin.

Lift up carefully the pastry by the help of greased thin spatula or knife and place-on oily hand palm.

Put-on enough chives filling in the middle of the pastry, fold-up pastry in half, press well all edges to seal and pleat accordingly to shape.

Place the filled dumplings on parchment paper and steam over high heat for about 8 minutes.

Remove from heat and immediately brush-on the reserved garlic oil.

Best serve hot immediately with chili sauce.

Siew Pau (Crispy Pork Buns)

Ingredients:

Char Siew Filling:

500 g pork belly, diced
4 chinese dried mushroom, soaked, drained and diced
1 large onion or shallot, finely chopped
2 tbsp vegetable oil

Pork Marinade
2 1/2 tbsp hoisin sauce
1 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp light soy sauce
1/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp shao xing wine
1/2 tsp chinese five spice powder
1/4 tsp black pepper powder
1/4 tsp salt

Seasoning
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp oyster sauce
1 tsp shao xing wine
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp cornstarch + 1 tbsp water

Pastry:

1 cups all purpose flour
1 egg
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup iced water
100 g butter

Egg Glaze:

1 egg yolk
1 tsp water

Method:

Char Siew Filling:

In a bowl, mix all the marinade ingredients.

Marinate pork for at least 2 hours or overnight in refrigerator.

In a pan or wok, heat oil over moderate heat, stir-fry onion still fragrant and begin to be golden yellow.

Add mushroom, stir-fry for another 2 minutes.

Add pork, stir-fry for about 2-3 minutes.

Add-in all the seasoning ingredients, stir till pork is cooked-thorough, homogeneously incorporated with thickened gravy and almost dry up.

Dish up and set aside to cool completely.

Pastry:

In a large bowl, combine flour, egg and salt.

Slowly, pour-in water and knead till resulted to smooth dough, cover with kitchen towel and leave to rest at cool corner for 30 minutes.

Wet fingers with water, knead butter till obtaining consistence texture, form into rectangular block.

On a well-floured working surface, roll out dough into big rectangular and place the butter block onto the upper-middle of dough.

Fold another half of dough onto butter, roll slightly on dough with rolling pin to spread out the internal butter and incorporated with dough, leave to rest for 5 minutes.

Well-flour hands, rolling pin and working surface, roll out dough into 1 cm thickness rectangular, fold-in two ends of dough into middle forming 3 layers and roll out again, repeat rolling and folding for 3 times, place on glass plate, leave in refrigerator to rest for 15 minutes (repeat the whole rolling, folding and resting process for another 2 times).

Assembly:

Roll out dough into about 3 mm thick rectangular, cut into individual 6 x 6 cm rectangles.

Place enough filling onto middle of each rectangle, fold-up four edges toward center, twist to seal completely.

Place char siew sou on a baking tray lined with parchment paper.

Brush each char siew sou surface with egg glaze and bake in preheated oven at 190 °C for 30 minutes or until pastry puff-up and became golden brown.

Chee Cheong Fun (Filled Glutinous Rice Balls-Base)

Ingredients:

1 cup glutinous rice flour
2 tbsp dried prawn, soaked, drained and finely chopped (substitute with mushroom for vegetarian version)
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup water or just enough to form dough
dried prawn for filling, soaked and drained (substitute with chopped mushroom for vegetarian version)

Chee Cheong Fun Sauce:

1 cup water
2 1/2 tbsp hoisin sauce
1 tbsp peanut butter
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tbsp light soy sauce
1/2 tsp dark soy sauce
1/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp fried shallot crispy for sprinkling (optional)

Method:

In a mixing bowl, mix flour, chopped dried prawn and salt.

Pour-in water little by little till soft and smooth dough formed.

Divide dough into small pieces balls.

Flatten each ball, fill ball with a dried prawn in center, close to seal and roll up into ball again.

Bring a pot of water to boil.

Drop the filled glutinous rice balls into the boiling water.

Scoop-up dry once it floated.

To make the chee cheong fun sauce, mix all the chee cheong fun sauce's ingredients in a wok or pan except sesame oil and fried shallot crispy, bring to boil.

Remove from heat and stir-in sesame oil.

Pour-over the filled glutinous rice balls and sprinkle with fried shallot crispy to serve warm.

Chinese Steamed Filled Buns

Ingredients:

Filling:

1 cup pork (not too lean), finely chopped
1 cup red onion, finely chopped
2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
2 tbsp light soy sauce or to taste
1/2 tsp pepper

Pastry:

1/2 cup warm water
3.5 g active dry yeast
2 cups flour
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1/4 cup water
3/4 tsp salt

Method:

Filling:

In a bowl, mix pork and onion.

Add-in the rest of ingredients and marinate for at least 30 minutes.

In a wok or non-stick pan, stir-fry the mixture till cooked through, set aside.

Pastry:

In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water.

Stir-in half cup of flour, cover and let rise for 1 hour.

In a wok or non-stick pan, mix sugar, oil and 1/4 cup water, bring to boil and stir to dissolve the sugar.

Remove from heat, leave to cool and mix with yeast dough.

Add-in the remaining flour, knead till soft and smooth.

Lightly greased a container, place-in the dough, cover and let rise till doubled in size (about 1.5 hours).

Punch down the dough, knead again for another 2 minutes.

Roll-up dough into cylinder shape, cut and roll into 12 balls.

Flatten each piece roundly into 1/2 cm thick, fill-in the prepared filling in the center, twist to seal the top.

Place the filled buns on parchment paper, cover with kitchen towel and leave to rise till doubled in size.

Steam buns covered over high heat for about 15 minutes.

Remove from heat and serve hot.