Dim sum – pork & prawns, kimchi, and scallop siu mai

Posted by petra08 on February 2, 2017 · 11 Comments 

The other week I read that one of my favorite dim sum restaurants had closed. There are plenty in London but this one had some unique and very delicious dim sum.

Reading about it made me crave dumplings and I thought I would invite some friends around and make us a batch. One of them came around early and we had a great time making dumplings and catching up.

 

I used pasta dough for the dumplings. A while back I did watercress pasta and I wanted to make it again as it had a lovely color. There was no watercress at the green grocers but I found land cress instead and I mixed it with some coriander that I steamed and blended to a smooth paste.

 

Coriander and land cress pasta 

preparation time 15 minutes 

cooking time 0 minutes, to be steamed later 

serves 4

Ingredients

• 150 gr or 5.3 oz strong flour
• 50 gr or 1.8 oz semolina
• 1 large egg + 1 tbsp egg white
• 1/2 dl or 1/4 cup land cress and coriander paste

Mix the strong flour and semolina. Place the flour mix on a table and crack the egg in to the mixture. Knead the dough and add the green paste, start with half and add the rest as you are working the dough. If the dough is too sticky knead in more flour.

Knead the dough until it is firm, for about 10 minutes.

Wrap the dough in clingfilm and let it rest for about an hour.

 

 

Cut the dough in quarters and run it through the pasta machine. Cut out rounds and keep them separated with a light dusting of corn flour and covered whilst working through the whole dough. It made 36 dumpling wrappers in total.

 

I made three different fillings. My aim was to make another kind of dumpling wrapper but I ran out of time so that will have to wait until another day.

 

For the first filling I chopped up kimchi and mixed it with some butter. I have made them before and I like the kimchi “hit” that you get when you bite in to the dumplings. I pleated the dumplings in to a classic half moon shape before making pot sticker dumplings. I gently fried the dumplings in a little oil and when lightly browned I added 1/2 dl or 1/4 cup of water, placed the lid on top and steamed them for a few minutes.

 

The second filling was more classic pork and shrimp filling.

 

Pork and shrimp dumplings

preparation time 15 minutes 

cooking time 5-6 minutes in the steamer

serves 4 as part of a dim sum assortment, makes 8-10

Ingredients

• 150 gr or 5.3 oz pork shoulder, minced
• 6 peeled and de veined shrimp
• 1 tbsp Shaoxing rice wine
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 2 spring onions/scallions, sliced fine
• 1 tbsp corn starch
• dim sum wrappers

Mix all of the ingredients. Place a teaspoon of filling on each dumpling. Wet the edges lightly with water to glue the dim sum closed. These ones were folded twice and had a slightly rectangular shape.

Keep the dumplings covered with a damp cloth in the fridge until you are ready to steam them. They will steam in 5 minutes or until they are firm to touch.

 

I had scallops for the third filling. I wasn’t quite sure what else to put in there and went on a fridge raid. In the end I did cauliflower mash as it goes very well with scallop.

 

Scallop and cauliflower siu mai 

preparation time 10 minutes 

cooking time 5-6 minutes in the steamer 

serves 4 as part of a dim sum assortment, makes 5

Ingredients

• 4 large scallops, rinsed and without the roe
• about 1/2 dl or 1/4 cup of cauliflower mash
• 1 tbsp butter
• salt to taste
• 8 dim sum wrappers

Garnish

• streaky, crispy bacon, cut to a crumble

Start with the cauliflower mash. Clean and cut the cauliflower in to fairly even chunks. Steam until it is cooked all the way through. If the cauliflower is al dente it will not get the right consistency. Place in a blender with the butter and a pinch of salt and blend until aerated and smooth.

Slice the scallop and place one slice on a dim sum wrapper. Add a little cauliflower mash, another scallop slice, more cauliflower mash and a third slice of scallop. Pleat the edges until the wrapper envelopes the scallop and cauliflower but keep it open.

 

 

Steam for 5-6 minutes and serve with the bacon crumble.

 

 

I mixed soy sauce, grated ginger, mirin and rice wine vinegar as a dipping sauce and served the dumplings. They were very different in flavor and texture. I couldn’t pick a favorite. The kimchi dumpling had a great bite. The pork and prawn had that classic dumpling flavor and the scallop and cauliflower was delicious. The scallop flavor really came through and they were absolutely the prettiest.

I didn’t get a photo of the cooked dim sum as I now have to admit that I cook them, served them and we had eaten just about all of them before I remembered! We were hungry greedy and I got so excited I forgot all about the camera but I hope it can still inspire you to have a dim sum evening, it is the perfect sharing food!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Filed under Allotment/Veg, Amuse bouche, Cauliflower, Fish & Seafood, Herbs, Main course, Meat, Pasta, Pork, Prawns, Recipe, Scallops, Side dish, Snack, Spring onion, Starter · Tagged with Dim Sum, dim sum wrappers, dipping sauce, fresh pasta, Home made pasta, kimchi dumplings, pork and prawn dumplings, scallop and cauliflower dumplings, scallop dumplings, siu mai