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.

Beef with black bean sauce

Our masterchef friend also taught us how to stir fry beef with black bean sauce. The salty fermented soy beans used for flavouring the dish is not the same as Mexican black beans. These beans need to be rinsed first so as to make it palatable yet flavoursome. This dish originated in south China.

Our masterchef recommended using chuck tender as there is only one main tendon running through and could easily be removed. Slice beef thinly about 2 mm thick and wide enough for some chewy bite.

The other ingredients are onions, bell peppers, fresh button mushroom, carrot and zucchini.

Firstly, run the beef fillet briefly through mildly boiling oil till half cooked.

Fry garlic and black bean. Then fry the vegetables in order of time required for cooking - onions and carrots first ....

Return the beef to the wok with the vegetables. Add cornstarch solution and more seasoning sauces if required.

Cover the wok for 5 seconds so that the sauce could steep into the beef and vegetables. Remove from heat, plate and serve.

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Chef Demonstration of Sang Choy Bao

I had the privilege to witness the cooking from a hotel masterchef who is trained in international, western and asian cuisines during a recent social event I helped to organise.

Pronounced Sang Choy Bao in Cantonese, shen cai bao in hanyu pinyin and written 生菜包. It means lettuce wraps.

The main ingredients are : waterchestnut, button mushroom, meat (diced chicken or minced pork),

Seasoning sauces : a little of dark soy sauce, hoisin sauce, oyster sauce and sugar, adjusted to taste.

Of course, most run-of-the mill restaurants give you lots of chopped brown onions and carrots as these are cheap ingredients. It's up to you how much goodies you would like to add to whip up this healthy and delicious all time favourite.

Stir fry the ingredients in a medium high pan or wok quickly. Then stir through the sauces.

Prepare lettuce cups by washing lettuce and cutting them into bite size. Scoop the savoury filling into the lettuce cups and serve promptly.

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Ways to Cook Pork

There's a little secret in each of the METHODS for cooking pork :

Roast : marinate with either vinegar or lime juice to create a crispy crackling and reduce the grease.

Stew : sear the fatty outer layer before adding sauces and liquids to slow cook.

Pan fried : ensure the heat is put on at high so that liquid does not ooze out of the meat when

Stir fried : wine is essential in the marinade to get rid of possible unpleasant smell in some cuts and to enhance the taste when it's fried.

Steamed : mix the ingredients well just before steaming so that the meat does not stick together in uneven clusters.

SAUCES AND CHUTNEY

Worchestershire sauce, soy sauce, sweet and sour sauce, oyster sauce.

Apple, fennel, mint leaves, cranberry.

* It is important to cook pork well preferably at high temperatures, above 140 degrees Centigrade.

My friend grilled this roast pork crackling - succulent and juicy.

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Delicious Celeraic - don't be deceived by appearances

Not appealing? Don't be deceived.

Celeraic is a yummy winter vegetable.

Ways to cook celeraic :

- puree and cook into a thick sauce

- as roast vegetable in a salad dish

- an ingredient in mixed vegetable soup