Dim Sum

Hong Kong from the Kowloon ferry

I’ve had dim sum in a number of different Asian restaurants over the years. But I don’t think I truly appreciated these little mouth-watering poppers until I went to Hong Kong. They come filled with just about anything you want to put in it: beef, chicken, pork, shrimp or a variety of veggies. But, it is most often ground pork or shrimp that we see in this country.

Lucky Peach offers a good guide to eating dim sum with the number of different ingredients, wrappers, and condiments. Serious Eats also gives a nice round up of them with an added guide for eating etiquette. Both sites discuss how dim sum is typically eaten on the weekend as brunch, called Yum Cha in Cantonese. The cha indicates the tea that is often drunk with dim sum.

There are two ways dim sum is usually served. You can fry them folded over like a pierogi or empanada or you can steam them. They may taste delicious fried, but who needs the added fat and calories? I prefer them steamed and it’s not as difficult as one might think.

Courtesy of Serious Eats

One thing you do need is a good bamboo steamer and rice or parchment paper to prevent these little goodies from sticking to the bottom. I pop the steamer on top of my wok with about 2” of water in the bottom. Once the water starts to boil, I can set it and wait for them to cook (usually about 5-6 minutes). Obviously, if you’re cooking with pork, you want to make sure that it’s cooked all the way through. I usually have one “sacrifice” to mutilate so I can see if the meat is done. Once you’ve got an idea of how many minutes, you can just keep cycling the dim sum in and out of the steamer until you’re finished. Serve with a little dipping sauce and you can make this a snack or a meal.

Here’s my recipe that got rave reviews (from my family, at least):

DIM SUM:

1 lb. ground pork

2 TB. soy sauce

1 tsp. Sriracha

1 tsp. sesame oil

1 tsp. rice wine vinegar

1 large garlic clove, minced

½” knob of ginger, minced

2 scallions, chopped

1 pkg. round won ton wrappers

DIPPING SAUCE:

¼ c. soy sauce

1 small garlic clove, minced

½ tsp. sesame oil

¼ tsp. ginger, minced

½ tsp. sesame seeds