Cantonese Steamed White Radish Cake - Yum Cha Dim Sum or Main Course?

Most pan fried dim sum served at yum cha restaurants are either lukewarm (taken from the refrigerator) or burnt.

Try making steamed white radish cake at home and get the perfect bite and fried medium well.

The proportion of ingredients are easy to remember.

1 cup of rice flour, 1.5 cups of water, 1 medium radish (shredded)

Blanched diced 4 inches length of preserved meat (optional)

Chinese meat sausage 2 pieces sliced thinly (lup cheong)

Washed dried shrimp about 2 TB spoons

3 dried shitake mushrooms, soaked and diced

Fry the 2 types of preserved meat and shrimp till fragrant. Dish out and set aside.

Mix rice flour with water and seasoning (pepper, salt, soy sauce)

(preferably run through a sieve for smoother texture)

Fry garlic and shallots in 2 TBS of cooking oil till yellow and stir fry radish quickly.

Add in rice flour mixture and reduce heat. Stir continuously and bring to a slow boil.

Add fried savoury ingredients. Ensure that the bottom of the pot is not burnt as the mixture gets thicker and harder to stir.

Pour mixture into a heat proof dish.

Bring water in a high steamer to the boil. Ensure that the dish could fit into the heater with some space at the sides for easy removal after cooking.

Steam for at least 30 minutes in medium high heat.

Cool the steamed cake for at least 2 hours before cutting into thin rectangular slices.

Heat up frying pan and add a little oil. Pan fry the sliced cake and serve hot with spring onions, chilli sauce and XO sauce.

Different types of wanton, dumplings, wrappers - Shanghai wanton huntun recipe

Cooking dumpling soup for the family is fun, easy and economical.

Small dumplings called "wan ton" in Cantonese and "hun dun" in Shanghai and Beijing may look and sound similar these delicious morsels are quite different, each vying for the top spot.

Larger dumplings are called "gow gee" (in Cantonese) or "jiaozi" (Mandarin) with more filling enveloped in slightly larger round shaped wrappers.

The first main difference between the northern and southern dumplings is in the wrappers (skin, crepe). Cantonese wrappers typically contain egg and alkaline (hence appear yellow in colour). Northern Chinese use plain wheat flour wrappers which do not have any strong taste.

Filling for Wanton
Minced pork
Chopped prawns (deshell and devein)
Waterchestnut (alternatively, use yam bean)
Chinese parsley (coriander)
Seasoning : salt, soy sauce, pepper, oyster sauce (reduce the amount of sauces if deep frying to avoid burning easily)

Filling for Huntun
Pork mince
Chopped prawn

"River Door" small white green vegetable (Kong Moon Pak Choy)OR
Long yellow Chinese cabbage

(Vegetables have to be chopped finely, dry fried with garlic and drained)

[ Proportion of pork, prawn and vegetable should be 3 : 1 : 2 ]

Green shallot (chop finely)
Ginger : slice thinly
Egg
Sesame oil
Seasoning : soy sauce, salt, pepper.

Mix the meat and prawn well, then add vegetables and continue stirring. Add the egg and combine well.

* The same huntun filling can be used for wrapping Fuzhou "yanpi" - a dry paper like skin made from flour and minced pork.

Wrapping : there are basically two methods
Put a little filling (should not cover more than 1/5 of the wrapper).
(1) either bundle and press to seal.
(2) or fold, roll and tuck in towards the back.

To Cook

1. Boil good quality chicken stock.

2. Add a few drops of vegetable or sesame oil so that dumplings do not stick.

3. Gently place prepared dumplings into the soup. Once the dumplings float to the top of the soup and turns transluscent, lower the heat and simmer for another 2 minutes. Be sure to cook the meat well.

* Note : Hundun can be panfried but rarely deep fried. This is different from "guotie" or pot stickers which is made from a floured dough with different types of filling.

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Siew Mai - taste the difference of homemade dim sim

A basic siew mai recipe from a Chinese chef has these ingredients : 300 g of minced meat (pork or chicken); quarter of a cabbage; wanton skin (with egg). Season with oyster sauce, soy sauce and pepper to taste.

Cabbage gives the dim sum a subtle sweet taste and adds crunch to the delicacy. I would add chopped shitake mushroom and minced prawn to create a breadth of tastes and aroma.

The real test is the cook's skill in stuffing the minced meat mixture and shaping them into cylindrical parcels at the same time. You must ensure that the morsels are flattened at the bottom to enable you to stand them neatly in the steamer.

My friend was worried I wasn't too confident if I was able to "make" them as I did not attend his demonstration. Not to be discouraged, I wanted to give it a go. The first few attempts were quite disastrous, producing funny shaped siew mai. However, after a handful of trial and error, the siew mai turned out looking what they should be. One will have to be skilful and trained to be able to make larger siew mai without the filling spilling out or the morsels getting out of shape.

It is much cheaper to make your own dim sum. You would probably spend about $1 per tiny siew mai at the yum cha restaurant but the cost of producing three large siew mai with quality filling is a small fraction of that. The recipe given above yields about 40 large siew mai.

You'll get the hang of it after some practice. Cooking this delicacy is not as dim as it seems.