Dim Sum is a favourite cantonese “snack” of mine. They come in small portions like those spanish tapas. You can never have enough of these cantonese foodies as they come in small baskets of variety and in many flavours. There’s sweet, sour, or pastry, buns, dumplings or even chicken feet. Most of these dishes are steamed and must be eaten hot. Traditionally, you usually start off with something steamed like har kow, kau chi, siew mai or char siu bao, and then continue with steamed chicken feet, tripes with black bean garlic sauce, spare ribs, spring rolls and finish off with egg tarts, or pancake in lotus bean sauce.
These days, you eat them when you see them on the menu and find a restaurant that makes them fresh! I still remember those days when we would go to Neptune, in Singapore just to specially eat Dim Sum. When you enter the hall, you think you entered a differant world. A night club in the night, a busy teahouse / restaurant during the day. The restaurant gets really loud, you think you’re in the middle of the market. The waitresses would be busy pushing their little wagens around filled with many warm goodies. All you would have to do is to call her, and she’ll come wackling to you. Then you’d ask her what she has to offer. After decideing what your stomach tells you to do, she’ll put just the whole bamboo basket on your table, which takes only at most 2-4 pieces of the food you chose. Of course, you make a few choices. Then after finishing your portion, you wait till the next waitress comes your way, bringing many other kinds of dim sum for you to choose. In that way, you always get them really fresh and warm, no chance for them to get cold. And no way to get bored. It’s a lot more fun if you’re going to eat them with a few more people than just the 2 of you. A 4-som would be almost perfect. And…the best would be to eat them in asia, to really feel the traditional atmosphere of eating your dim sums together with tea.

Well, there’re diverse restaurants here serving Dim Sum. But there also only a few who serves them fresh and tasty. I had been craving for them for quite a while already and just had to try make them myself. Remember I said that you eat usually just a small portion of maybe 2-3 pieces of that kind? Well, this recipe i made makes about 50….and errr.. i finished them up together with my hubby and crowned it to be my main course. And don’t make the same mistake i did. Finish making your wraps, then only start steaming. Otherwise you’ll be busy making, steaming and eating it all at the same time, and your kitchen will look like WorldWar2 . Well, there’s always a first time, but it was very worthwhile and tasty too.

Ingredients:

3x Water chestnut (chopped)
300g Minced meat (mixed)
250g prawns (clean & diced)
30g dried Shitaki mushroom
1 stalk spring onion
1 stalk coriander leaves
salt, pepper
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp corn oil
2 tbsp corn starch (mondamin)

1 big red chilly, deseeded (chopped)
1 can crab meat (optional)
1 egg white

250g Wanton wrappings
water

Method:

Pour boiling water over the dried shitaki mushrooms and soak till soft for about 20 mins. Slice and then dice in small pieces. Chop spring onions and coriander leaves finely. Mix them all together with the mince meat and prawns, adding salt, pepper and sesame oil, oil and corn starch. Mix well and cover, and leave aside in the fridge for about 15 mins.

Take about a teaspoonful of filling into a piece of wanton wrap. Wet the ends with water. Fold the rectangle half, making it a triangle. Now take the bottom 2 ends and wet them and press this firmly together. There are videos available to show you how to form them. You could try forming them into a cup by gathering the ends of your round wrap. But I found it much easier to shape them like won tans. Grease your steamer , and steam them for 12-15 mins. This make about 50, so make sure you either have multiple stories of steaming baskets or you’ll have to do them in different turns.

Eat while hot and serve together with the typical Dim Sum chilly sauce. Garnish with Chilly strips or sprigs of parsley or coriander. Honestly, my samples looked like tortellinis, well….i did my best!

Gosh, my stomach was happy, but my poor legs wasn’t when I had to clear the mess in the kitchen!