Well, hello from day eleventy-hundred of social distancing! My birthday celebrations have been extended, as part of the Husband’s gifts for me came later in the month. He bought me some fun books, as is now Tradition. These books, he paid full price for, not book sale bag day prices. 😁 Feel free to skip down a couple paragraphs if you just want cookbook review.
One was a flamingo coloring book, which I have already started using. I forget if I have shared the picture I have colored or not, so forgive me if it’s a double.
I used watercolor pencils, so that’s why it looks wet. He also bought me a book about Pibbles! It’s called “I’m A Good Dog!” It’s an overview of pibbles and the prejudice against them. Of course I adored it. It has lovely pictures of the dogs being their best, lovey, dopey selves. I mean, look at Fancy! Can you even believe people are scared of her?
The other book was a Dim Sum cookbook! Dim Sum has a special place in our relationship. I met the Husband’s parent for the first time at a dim sum place and we introduced my family to the same place right before our wedding. I also planned a dim sum surprise birthday party for the Husband a couple years after getting married. We have it for it for various family celebrations with my inlaws at a couple of the local restaurants too.
Here’s the book. Dim Sum: The Art Of The Chinese Tea Lunch by Ellen Leong Blonder
Here’s a quick overview of Dim Sum, in case you haven’t had the experience. Which if you can ever try it, I would highly recommend it. Not all Chinese places have it and the hours can vary. We have gone anywhere from 11 AM to 11 PM at different restaurants. There’s always tea, but you can also get water or other drinks normally. It’s about the only time I’ll drink jasmine tea.
There’s no menu, instead food items come around on little carts and you point to what you want. The foods will be different, depending on where you are too. Sometimes there’s a soup or two, be sure to check what’s in it. One of the more common soups has tripe in it. Most of the orders are small little metal tins, containing 3-4 of each dish. When you request one, they’ll add it to your little check at the table. It’s best to plan for a large budget, as it’s hard to resist just getting one more thing.
Some of our most ordered dim sum items include steamed dumplings. Typically pork dumplings and shu mai, a translucent shrimp dumpling called har gao, steamed pork buns, steamed shrimp and chive dumplings (my newest favorite,) fried taro dumplings (my MIL’s favorite,) tea leaf steamed rice packets with delicious things inside, steamed Chinese broccoli, these rice noodles with soy sauce, and surprisingly a flash fried squid dish that’s crispy and spicy. (I’d fight someone for the squid, it’s that good.) If we can, we also get fried noodles. Now that may seem like a lot, but it’s very small portions of all of them. Last time we went, I also tried a sweet steamed bun with egg custard in it.
It’s a really fun experience and I’m very glad it’s now part of my family traditions! Now, on to the cookbook and recipes!
I immediately went overboard and planned a ridiculous number of dishes. 🙄 In the end, I narrowed it down to just a few things, split over two days. The first day we had pan fried bao, fried noodles, and beef meatballs.
The bao was tricky. This first set burned on one side. I should have probably used my cast iron, as it recommended a non-stick pan. I don’t own one, other than the cast irons. They looked much prettier before they were cooked!
They were filled with ground turkey, instead of pork. We enjoyed them and I would probably make them again, but this time with a different pan. The book included multiple recipes for different types of bao, both sweet and savory. I would like to try some more of the recipes, especially the coconut buns.
We didn’t like the meatballs very much. They had citrus in them and it was just a little off putting. They were interesting to make though, as they steamed instead of fried, they looked pretty raw because of the steaming, but were actually cooked through. I don’t think we’re going to making the meatballs again.
For the noodles, we just added precooked angel hair pasta to probably a little too much oil, fried them, flipped them, and added a slurry at the end of chicken stock and cornstarch. They were okay, but we haven’t mastered the techniques yet. The Husband took care of the noodles while I was working on the bao.
The second night, we had a dumpling feast with three different types of dumplings. Oh, and because I, 1) have a problem with my brain being missing, and 2) couldn’t find dumpling wrappers at either store we got groceries delivered from, made my own wrappers. 😱
The book also has multiple recipes for dumplings and homemade wrappers. It even has flavored wrappers. We also went super fancy and ground our own chicken, although, if we could have found some, we would have used that. The Husband was extremely grossed out by the squishy noise the meat grinder attachment makes. I’ve made sausage before, so,was expecting it. We will most likely keep doing that. It’s a lot cheaper than buying it pre ground, I think, and definitely easier than trying to find it at the stores right now.
We tried mushroom wontons, scallop dumplings, and curry chicken potstickers. The mushroom and scallop dumplings technically needed wheat starch wrappers so they would be translucent after being cooked, but I could not get my hands on wheat starch in time. They were still good.
We ate the mushroom wontons in a 5 spice beef broth.
The scallop dumplings were steamed and the potstickers I fried and then steamed. And they actually worked! I’ve had trouble with potstickers before.
Look how crispy they were! The curry ones were my favorite and the Husband liked the scallop ones better. The mushroom ones were okay, but I don’t know if we would have them again.
I also tried a sweet from the book. Almond Pudding- it’s pretty much milk jello with almond flavoring and sugar. Slightly strange and I attempted to inhale it and choked myself on it the first bit I took. It was super scary. It’s good with fruit though. The Husband got weirded out after trying a bite and declined to eat any more.
I especially liked that it gave pork subs for a bunch of the dumpling and bao recipes. Since I can’t eat pork, we tend to use chicken for most of the recipes, so it was nice to see that offered as an option. It included the author’s stories and memories of dim sum too, so that was nifty. The book is a nice size and has drawings, rather than photos of the foods, which lends extra charm. It also suggests teas to go with the foods.
Overall, the cookbook is delightful and will make an excellent addition to our Lunar New Year feasts. Of course, there are a lot more recipes waiting to be tried, so I’m sure you’ll see it again.
