Dim Sims

Dim Sims ready for steaming.

Now as part of our big Chinese Banquet the other week I made home made dim sum (dim sims).

They are actually very easy to make, you just mix the filling ingredients together, place a teaspoonful in the centre of the wrappers, fold or gather wrappers as you want then steam.

I had circle wrappers so I placed the filling in the centre and gathered the sides up to form an edge around the filling. Also it is best if you steam them on baking paper, so that they don't stick to your steamer basket.

These are the wrappers I used, you can also get square ones

I must admit that I have bamboo steamer basket which I use to steam the dim sims, but a normal steamer works just as well.

Dim Sim

250 grams pork mince, 1 desertspoon very finely diced celery, 1 desertspoon finely diced water chestnuts, 1 spring onion, finely diced - white part only, 2 button mushrooms finely chopped, 1/4 tsp ground white pepper. 2 tsp oyster sauce, 1/2 tsp sugar, 2 tsp light soy sauce - you can also add 1 tbsp finely shredded cabbage

chopped ingredients before adding the pork mince

Mix all ingredients together. Place a heaped teaspoon into wrapper of your choice, fold as you wish. Place on parchment/baking paper. Steam 15 minutes. Remove from heat, then eat.

You can also bring all the edges together to create what is called a purse

Or using square wrappers fold the points together to create this shape

Chinese Banquet for a lazy Sunday

Now you might think that lazy Sunday and Chinese Banquet is a contradiction in terms, but for those of us that enjoy tinkering in the kitchen creating yummy food items it is exactly that.

Now Mr CLI & I were creating the food shopping list for this week when he asked about the weekends meals - beating Miss Fish who likes to have her meals well planned. I replied that I hadn't thought about it yet !

He replied "what about making some homemade dim sims and vegetables spring rolls". Now if I am going to make dim sims and spring rolls I might as well go the whole hog and have a banquet.

So what is going to be on the menu

Dim sims - peanut & pork wontons - vegetable spring rolls - fried rice - prawn crackers - and either gado gado or satay chicken skewers & vegetable stirfry.

Now I won't be creating everything on Sunday, but Miss Fish & I will potter on Saturday making dim sims, wontons & spring rolls. I will also cook the rice so that it is nice and dry on Sunday for the fried rice. I will also cut chicken & vegetables ready.

Now what is Mr CLI's contribution to this meal other than suggesting it and eating eat - cooking the springs rolls and wontons.

Now for dessert I normally have steamed custard buns in the freezer from a restaurant in Templestowe, but I don't at the moment so I might try one of the packets of custards/jelly I bought from a Chinese grocers in Adelaide on my last visit, this will be another job for Saturday.

Pork & Peanut wontons

250 grams pork mince, 2 tsps peanut butter, 1 spring onion - white & light green part chopped finely, 2 tsps oyster sauce, small pinch ground white pepper, wonton wrappers

Mix together all ingredients, except wrappers. Place 1 tsp of mixture on 1 1/2 of the wrapper on the angle. Moisten edges fold over to create a triangle, with the fold edge facing you twist and tuck the left and right corners under to create ears, or join the 2 corners like the photo below.

Heat about 1 cm of oil in a frypan or 4 cm in the bottom of a wok, heat to 170 c. or when a piece of wrapper turn golden slowly. Cook turning until wrappers crispy and centre cooked, approx 3 - 5 minutes. Remove and drain on paper towel.

Serve with a dipping sauce.