My 'Road Home' Dim Sum Dinner...How Everything Turned Out

Last night's Valentine dim sum dinner was delicious and delightful, although the preparation did not go off as planned. I had originally intended to do all the preparation ahead of time and cook everything tableside. However, things began to go awry when I was unable to find an electric deep fryer. The only one available was a very large, commercial model that was very impractical and very expensive. So tableside cooking was no longer an option. However, I did manage to do all the preparation and assembly well ahead of time, and by the time Rene arrived, I was poised to begin cooking one dish after another until I'd finished, photographed and tasted all 14 items on my dim sum menu. As a result, however, we ended up eating our dim sum in the kitchen with a couple of cold TsingTao beers. Afterwards, I put together a plate of leftovers for us to nibble on during the movie, which is an absolute Valentine unto itself.

All but two of the dim sum dishes exceeded all my expectations. The Pork Spare Ribs were tender and juicy, with a savory sauce made from the leftover marinade. The Crispy Duck was fantastic with its Orange Dipping Sauce. And the Shrimp Toast is now my new favorite snack food. Somehow I just had a good intuition about the recipe, and I was right. Those little treasures will definitely make an encore appearance at some future dinner. The Mini Fried Wontons were crackly and delicious, the Spring Rolls fried up crispy and golden and the Sweet and Sour Dipping Sauce was the perfect complement, the Bacon Wrapped Water Chestnuts were an interesting little canape, and my Pork Filled Buns were a baker's delight. The dough rose like a giant pillow, and the meat filled buns baked up puffy and golden brown. And when I brushed them with melted butter, they looked just like the gorgeous pictures in my dim sum cookbook.

The only disappointments were the two items wrapped in rice paper. The steamed shrimp dumplings, and the seafood wraps just weren't up to par. The steamed dumplings were soggy and fell apart when dipped in soy sauce, and the seafood wraps didn't crisp up as expected. I think I've finally learned my lesson with those rice paper wrappers. The only thing they're really good for is cold spring rolls. They just don't hold up during the cooking process.

After dinner, instead of traditional dim sum desserts like egg custard tarts and mango pudding, we had chocolate truffles and champagne. It just isn't Valentine's Day without them, so I felt no remorse in departing from my traditional dim sum menu to indulge in them with my sweetheart.

Note to Self: As romantic as it sounds, dim sum is not the best choice for an intimate homemade dinner for two. It's way too labor intensive, and the cooking process requires such unnblinking attentiveness to timing and detail that it's impossible to sit down and enjoy it at leisurely pace. A romantic dim sum meal should definitely take place in a dim sum restaurant, where a professional dim sum chef prepares everything and a waiter delivers it to your table. Lesson learned, but it was certainly a wonderful adventure in Asian cuisine.

07:57 PM PST Permalink |

Preparing the Kitchen, Assembling Cooking Utensils and Prepping Dishes Ahead

In hopes of getting a generous head start on my 'Road Home' dim sum dinner, I spent all day in the kitchen on Sunday, washing and chopping all my fresh ingredients, making marinades and generally getting acquainted with my dim sum recipes. And although I feel that I have designed a rather ambitious menu, I am confident that I can pull it off. But I didn't get nearly as far as I'd hoped.

When I began my preparations, I had envisioned having all my dumplings, spring rolls and croquettes assembled by day's end, but alas, I only got as far as preparing the fillings for them. So I will have to get started extra early tomorrow to make up for the overestimation of my prep schedule. Nonetheless, I have organized all my recipes and made notes on what's left to do to complete each one. And I have the whole day devoted to the task. My goal is to have everything in perfect order by 7:00 p.m. so that I can sit down and enjoy my Valentine dim sum dinner with Rene.

12:06 AM PST Permalink |

Shopping for Fresh Ingredients & a Tally of the Cost of My Dim Sum Dinner

I went shopping for the ingredients for my 'Road Home' dim sum dinner. As always, I got lucky at my favorite Mexican market, the one with the little in-house butcher counter. There I was able to buy shrimp, boneless skinless chicken breasts, pork spare ribs, and ground pork, all as fresh as can be and at unbelievably economical prices. The rest of my ingredients I bought at my favorite upscale grocer, where they also have a fresh meat and seafood counter. There I found scallops, tilapia fish filets, and duck legs, along with all my fresh vegetables and the wrappers for dumplings and spring rolls.

A Tally of the Cost of Dinner (in U.S.$)

The cost of the ingredients for my dim sum dinner are listed below. Keep in mind that the prices are based on buying everything new rather than using ingredients that I already had in my pantry. Of course there were lots of things left over for future meals, so the actual cost of the dinner based on the quantities of the ingredients used to make the dishes will be much lower than the grand total of stocking a pantry from scratch for preparing dim sum.

Specialty Ingredients:

White Pepper - .99
Nori - 2.49
Panko - 1.99
Rice Wine - 1.99
Rice Wine Vinegar
Wonton Wrappers - 1.69
Spring Roll Wrappers - 1.69
Sesame Oil- 1.99
Water Chestnuts - .99
Soy Sauce - 2.49
Chinese Black Mushrooms - 2.49
Oyster Sauce - 2.99
Nam Pla - 2.99
Hoisin - 3.49
Chinese Mustard - .99
Plum Wine - 5.99
TsingTao Beer - 7.04

Fresh Ingredients:

Shrimp - 9.98
Scallops - 2.00
Pork Ribs-4.35
Chicken Breasts-3.57
Duck - 4.35
Bacon - 2.49
Ground Pork - 2.75
Green Onion - 1.77
Ginger Root - .54
White Bread - 2.69
Napa Cabbage - 1.02
Garlic - 1.15
Red Bell Pepper - 2.00
Green Bell Pepper - .52
Celery - 1.29
Carrots - 1.39

Basics:

Eggs - 2.19
Flour - 2.49
Cornstarch - 1.49
Vegetable Oil - 2.49
Sugar - 1.99
Brown Sugar - 1.49

Total - $96.29 (US)

12:31 AM PST Permalink |

Photographing My 'Road Home' Dim Sum Dinner

This month's 'Road Home' Dim Sum Dinner & a Movie, I will be cooking tableside. And since it's Valentine's Day, it will be just the two of us. So I will be relying on Rene to take all the photographs this time. I'm really hoping that he will get lots of 'action shots' of the procession of dim sum dishes as they come out of the steamer and the deep fryer. Sounds like great fun, and definitely a new routine for my Dinner & a Movie night.

01:09 PM PST Permalink |

What to Wear for a Dim Sum Valentine' Day Dinner

No if's, and's, or but's...since it's Valentine's Day and Chinese New Year too...definitely a sexy, bright red Cheongsam. And some nice silk pj's for my sweetheart.

12:10 AM PST Permalink |

Designing a Dim Sum Table Setting

As tableware for serving Asian dinners past, I have a pretty wide assortment of small serving dishes decorated with Asian motifs. I also have all kinds of small serving baskets, and table decorations that would be suitable to create a table setting worthy of my dim sum banquet. In honor of Chinese New Year, I will be using lots of red and might even go shopping for a few paper lanterns and good luck symbols.

I'm also considering assembling all the dishes ahead of time, and cooking everything in little batches at the table. I know it sounds rather risky and ambitious, but with an electric burner to accommodate the wok for steaming, a little electric deep fryer, and a thermal warming tray, I think I can pull it off. Especially if I set up the cooking station on a separate side table. Or...we could just eat in the kitchen. But somehow that just doesn't sound romantic enough for a Valentine Dinner. So it's dinner for two with tableside cooking.

12:06 AM PST Permalink |

Kung Hei Fat Choy!

Happy Chinese New Year! Today marks the new moon of the first lunar month of the Chinese calendar, and welcomes the Year of the Rooster. All over China, as well as in many other places throughout the world, this is a 15-day period of celebration. Chinese New Year is rich with ancient customs, including cleaning and decorating the house with colorful lanterns, streamers, garlands and lucky symbols, paying all debts, getting a haircut, buying new clothes, preparing a New Year's Eve banquet, lighting firecrackers, performing rituals to honor ancestors, giving red Hongbao envelopes full of lucky money to children, exchanging Bai Lin greetings and gifts of fruit and candy with visits to relatives, friends and neighbors, performing the Dragon and Lion dances, and finally, ending with the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the New Year.

The New Year's Eve banquet traditionally includes many symbolic foods such as Chinese dumplings shaped like ancient Chinese gold or silver ingots to symbolize wealth, whole fish to symbolize family unity, and uncut noodles to symbolize longevity. A spirited beverage called Jiu is also used to raise a toast to the New Year.

There are also many superstitions associated with the New Year. Things that should be avoided are: sweeping or dusting, using scissors or knives, crying, washing hair, exchanging greetings in bedrooms, and speaking bad or unlucky words. Considered especially lucky are: wearing red clothing, departing from home in an auspicious direction, and seeing red birds or hearing birds singing.

Much emphasis is placed upon the significance of one's actions and experiences on New Year's Day, for the Chinese people believe that whatever you do on New Year's Day, whether good or bad, will continue all year long. The traditional Chinese New Year greeting is "Kung Hei Fat Choy!" which means that you wish the recipient wealth and prosperity throughout the coming year.

12:05 AM PST Permalink |

Special Cookware

For the past few Dinner & a Movie events, I have gotten away without purchasing any special cookware. In my kitchen, I already have a well-worn wok, an electric rice cooker, a single-element electric hot plate, and a thermal warming tray. What I don't have is a deep fryer, one kitchen amenity that has long been on my wish list. In the past, my deep-fried dishes have always been hit or miss, mostly miss. I think that's because I never can get the oil deep enough to accommodate the food I'm trying to fry, and there's no consistent method of temperature control.

So, this month I think I'm going to finally splurge on an electric deep fryer. Nothing fancy, mind you, just something compact and functional. And once the dim sum dinner is done, I'm gonna take it for a spin on some French beignets made with the original mix from the Cafe du Monde in New Orleans, and a crispy, lacy, golden batch of Japanese tempura with ponzu dipping sauce. I guess you can tell there are no ravenous low-carb dieters to be found in this household :>)

Oh yes...and I'm going to need an extra bamboo steamer basket or two. The one I have is a darling little miniature version, which, by the way, I have never used. For this endeavor, I think I'm going to need the real thing.

12:13 AM PST Permalink |

About the Fresh Ingredients
Since dim sum is so labor intensive, I will need to have all the ingredients on hand a couple of days ahead of time so that I can do the majority of the prep work well in advance. Fortunately, none of the ingredients are so delicate that they won't last a couple of days in the fridge. I may freeze the meats just to be safe, but the rest will surely keep.
01:54 PM PST Permalink |

Designing the Menu, Beverages, My Shopping List, and Tracking Sown Exotic Ingredients

I usually divide the contents of this weblog into several separate ones. But since I'm going to be making my 'Road Home' dim sum dinner on Valentine's Day and will be heading off to the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas soon thereafter, I thought I would economize on time and space and include my comments about designing the menu, deciding on the dishes, beverages to go with, my shopping list, and tracking down exotic ingredients all in a single entry. I hope it's not too much to digest at one time. Here goes...

For my 'Road Home' Dinner & a Movie, and my first attempt at homemade dim sum, I want to make sure I include all the classic favorites. Even with my limited dim sum experience, I know which ones those are. And there's a reason why they're the classic favorites: Because they're all so beautiful and delicious, if a little labor intensive. No doubt, I will have to be very organized this time, and plan to do much of the prep work a day or two before. I'm also going to cheat a little and use commercially prepared wrappers instead of making my own from scratch. With all the tasty treasures I have in mind, I'm definitely going to take all the shortcuts I can think of.

The Dim Sum Dishes I've chosen for my 'Road Home' Dinner & a Movie are:

Pork Shu Mai
Spring Rolls
Shrimp Toast
Spare Ribs
Barbeque Pork Buns
Paper Wrapped Chicken
Crispy Duck
Wontons
Pinwheel Shrimp
Seafood in Rice Paper Wraps
Bacon Wrapped Water Chestnuts
Lettuce Wraps

Beverages To Go With

The beverages to go with my 'Road Home' Dim Sum dinner are a no-brainer: Tea, Tsing Tao Beer, and Plum Wine. The same things one might order in a dim sum restaurant, and all are available locally.

My Shopping List:

Specialty Ingredients: White Pepper, Nori, Panko, Rice Wine, Rice Wine Vinegar, Rice Paper Wrappers, Gyoza Wrappers, Wonton Wrappers, Spring Roll Wrappers, Sesame Oil, Water Chestnuts, Soy Sauce, Chinese Black Mushrooms, Oyster Sauce, Nam Pla, Hoisin, Chinese Mustard, Plum Wine, TsingTao Beer

Fresh Ingredients: Shrimp, Scallops, Pork Ribs, Chicken Breasts, Duck, Bacon, Ground Pork, Green Onion, Ginger Root, White Bread, Napa Cabbage, Garlic, Honey, Red ell Pepper, Celery, Carrots,

Basics: Eggs, Flour, Cornstarch, Vegetable Oil, Sugar, Brown Sugar

Tracking Down Exotic Ingredients:

Having already prepared nine Asian dinners for my ThingsAsian Dinner & a Movie project, my pantry is fully stocked with enough specialty ingredients to prepare most any kind of Asian meal. I've even gone through my first jar, bottle or package of some things and am already well into a second. Things like Nam Pla fish sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar, etc. In the local vicinity, there's Cost Plus and Trader Joe's, and even our supermarkets now stock a growing inventory of Asian ingredients, but often at dear prices. So, to economize, I like to stock up on those kinds of staples on my excursions to San Francisco. But when I'm too busy to play hooky for such a big outing, and can't find them here in town, I order Asian ingredients from AsianFoodGrocer.com. In the righthand column of this page, there's a link to their excellent online emporium.

12:12 AM PST Permalink |

Getting Acquainted with Dim Sum

One of my favorite sayings, the origin of which I can no longer remember, goes something like this: For one who has had the experience, no explanation is necessary. For one who has not, no explanation is possible. Words of wisdom that somehow seem to apply to dim sum. For those of you who know the joy of an afternoon spent indulging in these edible treasures in a bustling dim sum restaurant, no explanation is necessary. And for you bereft souls who have never had the pleasure, no explanation is possible. But I will try.

The term dim sum literally means 'to touch the heart', and a typical dim sum repertoire usually consists of, but is not limited to, an array of steamed and deep fried dishes, including dumplings, croquettes, spring rolls, and meat filled buns. There are also more exotic items like savory sausages, delicate seafood creations, and even chicken feet, a common dim sum standard.

According to convention, dim sum is usually, although not exclusively, served at lunch; and in a traditional dim sum establishment, there is no menu. Each type of dim sum is prepared in large batches in the kitchen, and then loaded onto rolling carts in stacked bamboo baskets. The dim sum waiter then rolls the cart into the dining room past all the tables, lifting the lids of the steamer baskets for the customers to peek inside to see if it looks appetizing enough to partake. Although there are no fixed rules, the order in which dim sum is traditionally eaten is the lighter steamed items first, followed by specialties such as paper wrapped chicken, spare ribs, sausages, meatballs and chicken feet, and finally the more filling deep fried dishes. And for dessert, delicate egg custards, and mango pudding are two favorites.

When you've tried enough of the dishes that you can't possibly eat another bite...well...maybe just a teensy bit more...the waiter counts the plates and beverage containers on your table and tallies up the bill. In his Asia cookbook, Martin Yan tells an amusing anecdote of a time in his youth when he and his buddies went for dim sum, and thought it would be clever to hide half their dishes under the table to economize on the bill. But it's an old trick, and the waiter was not that easily fooled. Moreover, to their horror, when the waiter looked under the table for their missing dishes, there were also lots of others left behind by the previous party, and they ended up paying the tab for those as well.

As a cuisine, dim sum originated in the province of Canton during the Sung Dynasty (960-1279 A.D.), where the royal chefs created these tiny edible works of art to delight the emperor and members of his imperial court at tea time. This delightful new pleasure soon spread beyond the palace walls, and by the time that trade along the Silk Road had reached its peak, the route was dotted with cozy tea houses that served dim sum to weary travelers. Before long, dim sum houses spread to the villages, where field workers and tradesmen could enjoy a light afternoon repast after a hard day's work. Today, dim sum restaurants are ubiquitous in every metropolis in China, and are frequented by people of every nationality in the Chinatown sectors of cosmopolitan cities throughout the world.

01:02 AM PST Permalink |

My Cookbooks

For my 'Road Home' Dinner & a Movie, I will be using recipes from both the Internet and my cookbooks, including selections from Corinne Trang's Essentials of Asian Cuisine and Martin Yan's Asia. And no doubt, I will be spending a few fascinating hours poring through countless recipes on websites such as Wok Wiz, Asian Online Recipes, and About.com. Of course, as always, I will synthesize, modify and adapt them to make them my own.

12:04 AM PST Permalink |

Looking for Dim Sum Recipes

Today I combed the Internet looking for dim sum recipes and found a bountiful yield. With so many different choices, I could have stopped there, but I also thumbed through my cookbooks and found even more. Corinne Trang's Essentials of Asian Cuisine contained several, as did Martin Yan's Asia, and even the Joy of Cooking had a few. So, that was the easy part. Now the hard part will be choosing from among the multitudes and not getting too carried away.

12:12 AM PST Permalink |

My Dim Sum Experience

The first time I had dim sum was years ago in San Francisco's Chinatown. I've forgotten the name of the restaurant, if ever I knew it, but I still know where to find it. It's upstairs, with huge windows overlooking Chinatown's main thoroughfare. My first dim sum experience was a delight, with all those tasty little treasures brought right to your table on rolling carts, steaming hot from the kitchen in stacked bamboo baskets. That day, we tried everything that rolled by, including an order of chicken feet! I had no idea they were standard fare, and I watched in horror as my intrepid dining companion deconstructed them joint by joint, gnawing the scant morsels of meat from each knuckle. But as I pictured that chicken walking around in a poopy barnyard, I just couldn't bring myself to eat them. Nonetheless, to this day, that order of chicken feet remains one of my most amusing dining anecdotes.

Fast-forward ten years or so, to the time I introduced Rene to his first taste of dim sum in that very same restaurant. This time we tried everything that rolled by EXCEPT the chicken feet. Although Rene was far less horrified than I at the notion of eating them. Having grown up in Mexico, where every scrap of food is put to use without waste, he thought it quite natural that the feet of the chicken would be considered perfectly edible as well.

Since that time, I've only eaten commercially packaged dim sum that I found in the freezer section of my local supermarket. For about $12, you can buy a box of 40 assorted pieces, including spring rolls, dumplings, meat-filled buns, and croquettes. When my son Will was first enrolled in Tae Kwon Do, I used to pick up a box of frozen dim sum as a special dinner treat on Friday evenings after his class. But I haven't seen them for sale lately, and have missed them terribly.

So, for my 'Road Home' Dinner & a Movie, I'm going to try my hand at the ambitious task of making dim sum from scratch.

01:58 AM PST Permalink |

Welcome to Dinner & a Movie for the Month of February

It's February, the month in which we celebrate both the Chinese New Year, and Romantic Love, and what better way than with Chinese dim sum, a name that literally means 'to touch the heart', and a lovely little Chinese film called The Road Home, directed by Zhang Yimou and starring Zhang Ziyi and Sun Honglei.

12:15 AM PST Permalink |