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| Not Our Dim Sum, but Singapore's Best |
Sra. Cuevas and I invited a total of six guests to attend. Nancy volunteered to make Wonton Soup, Ms. RedShoes was to bring a salad of mixed, organic greens from her garden, Geni and Larry brought nibbling food of seasoned peanuts and fava beans, and Ron, made a sorbet/iced Mandarin Orange soup.
I was delighted to organize the meal, as well as making Char Siu from scratch, uncovering recipes for scallion cakes, bao dough and two bao fillings.
Preparations
My first step was to go to our favorite carnicería in Pátzcuaro, La Sin Rival. On a Friday the week before the slated Sunday lunch, I had a long and detailed discussion with the son of the owner in regard to which cut of pork would work best. We decided on panceta, unsmoked bacon, better known as belly pork. I was emphatically assured that they would have it for me on the following Wednesday. I needed this meat several days in advance of the Sunday meal, as it must first be marinated, then roasted, and then chopped and stir fried with other ingredients for the filling.
Wednesday came, and the meat was not ready. I was told that it would be in on Thursday. Thursday came, and it was still not ready. I was tired and more than a little annoyed. I'd just come from the Pátzcuaro Mercado, where Carnicería La Norteña had had exactly what I needed. But I was reluctant to walk back to the Mercado, and sat down in the cafetería next door to La Sin Rival with dimming hope that son and father could obtain the promised cut of pork. After waiting 15 minutes, I was steaming. But then, Papá appeared on his motor bike with a bag. The pork was in the bag. My buns were saved!
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| Panceta (belly pork) and a few marinade ingredients DC photo |
This is the recipe, from NoRecipes.com I used for the cha siu, with a few personalized changes, of course.
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| Marinated pork strips are double bagged. DC photo |
On Saturday, I slow roasted the pork strips for 1 1/2 hours. They came out irresistibly savory and fragrant. I used two strips for bao filling, about a pound each, and froze two more.
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| Marinated Pork Strips Before Roasting DC photo |
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| Marinated Pork After Slow Roasting 1 1/2 hours DC photo |
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| Small samples (L), were taken for testing and quality control. DC photo |
Early Sunday morning, I chopped the char siu and made the bao filling. I gussied it up by adding some diced bamboo shoots and special condiment sauces.
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| Dicing the Char Siu. DC photo |
I also made the Chicken—Shiitake Bao filling.
DC photo
A hard working cook must eat, so I took some diced cooked chicken breast, sliced ginger, a little rice and some ready to use Kirkland Organic Chicken Broth and made Chicken Congee. Congee is a slowly cooked rice gruel, with zesty condiments added to taste by the eater.
(The congee was not part of the dim sum meal.)
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| Cook's breakfast: Chicken Congee; mezcal de pechuga to the right. DC photo |
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| Scallions are used in much of dim sum cookery. G. Certain photo |
Several cups of scallions were used in the opener course of Scallion Cakes.
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| Hot Scallion Cakes. G. Certain photo Details of the making of scallion cakes can be viewed here. |
Next came the preparation of the bao doughs, containing both yeast and baking powder, as well as powdered milk. The recipe worked very well.
Meanwhile, Nancy and Mark arrived. Nancy and her helpers set up a won ton manufactory line on our ample kitchen counter.
The first courses, after the spicy nuts and nibbles, were the beautiful, home raised salad of Ms RedShoes and Nancy's Won Ton Soup.
Sayings of Chairman Bao
When the bao doughs were risen and punched and divided, bao stuffing and forming began. It had been so many years since Doña Cuevas and I had made these, that we'd forgotten how to do the fancy pleating of the wrappers. But we did the best we could. In the end, our guests were replete with bao.
Meanwhile, Nancy and Mark arrived. Nancy and her helpers set up a won ton manufactory line on our ample kitchen counter.
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| Each won ton packet begins with a single step. This is the first. G. Certain photo |
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| Wonton wrapping, step two. G. Certain photo |
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| The ranks of the Peoples' Won Tons rally for the march! G. Certain photo |
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| Won-ton-a-mera! Soup by Nancy. G. Certain photo |
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| Ms RedShoes' Organic Salad. G. Certain photo |
When the bao doughs were risen and punched and divided, bao stuffing and forming began. It had been so many years since Doña Cuevas and I had made these, that we'd forgotten how to do the fancy pleating of the wrappers. But we did the best we could. In the end, our guests were replete with bao.
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Doña Cuevas stuffs chicken-shiitake bao |
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| Esteemed buns, chicken shiitake. Take a bao. |
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Cha Siu Bao (roast pork stuffed buns).
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| Guests get their wonton rations |
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| Carnage, post comida. G. Certain photo |
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| Ron's Sopa Fría de Mandarinas was a refreshing dessert G. Certain photo |
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| I'd made some Chinese Almond Cookies. G. Certain photo |
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| and some ginger snap cookies. G. Certain photo It was a great experience, but one unlikely to be reprised in all of its complexity. I would make perhaps one dim sum dish, but not all. Thanks to all who attended and participated.
(Promises, like bao, are often broken.)
I forgot to mention a Spicy Cucumber Salad I'd made. The recipe, in Virginia Lee's and Craig Claiborne's The Chinese Cookbook, was overly complicated, but I devised a simplified and very good version. |
