Eggplant & Black Bean Siew Mai

After potstickers I think these are the easiest dim sum items to make although I find them a little tricky to make them look pretty. Mine kept slumping on the plate as if the they had all the worries of the world on their shoulders. Luckily, I ate them and put them out of their misery. Next time I make them I will chop the filling more finely to hopefully make a sturdier siew mai.

These Siew Mai are traditionally made with minced pork but I got this vegetarian version off the Vegetarian Times website which has a whole page on veggie dim sum. If you want to make this recipe gluten free I think it would be better to use rice wrappers and make these into steamed dumplings rather than the siew mai shape which requires a sturdier wrapper. They will taste just as good and will be a lot easier to eat with chop sticks. If you need this dish to be gluten free make sure that the sauces and seasonings used in the mixture are also gluten free. These dumplings, like the potstickers from earlier in the week, can be frozen after assembling and steamed from frozen.

Spring Onion (Scallions) Pancakes

These crispy pancakes are a popular dim sum dish and make a great snack/appertiser that can be made from just a small number of cupboard standby ingredients. There are versions that are made from a yeast risen dough but given the difference in time required for rising I prefer these no rise one. Although called a pancake, it is closer to a fried bread and is best served with a dipping sauce. This scaled dough recipe can be used to make other dim sum dishes by making pockets of dough stuffed with a variety of ingredients such as tofu and veggies and then fried to make a kind of chinese pasty.

These pancakes can be frozen before frying and then cooked from frozen in a frying pan which is ideal as this recipe makes 6 large pancakes.

Steamed Radish Cake

This dish is a popular dim sum offering that normally contains dried shrimp, chinese sausage or bacon. The mixture is first steamed to set it and then can be cut into slabs and fried to a golden brown crust.  I think it is best served with spring onions/scallions, sliced chills or chilli sauce and sweet soya sauce. 

Here I have added mushrooms and onion but have kept it fairly plain but if you want a more varied filling for these cakes then you could try this recipe at Just Bento. I wanted it plain and authentic as I am looking forward to making the oddly named carrot cake (chai tau kway), which is a popular hawker dish here in Singapore. Needless to say it most definitely is not related to the classic British carrot cake

Once again this is a recipe that can be frozen in slabs after the steaming process although they will need defrosting for a few hours before frying to ensure that they cook through.

Tofu & Cabbage Potstickers

Continuing on from yesterday's bao/buns is the potsticker. A dumpling that is both pan fried and steamed at the same time resulting in one crispy golden side and one gooey side. These are one of the easiest dumplings to make and were my first attempt at dim dum. 

These little dumplings can be made up to the point of cooking and then refrigerated for up to a day or frozen and cooked straight out of the freezer.

I also made some of these potstickers gluten free by using the rice paper roll sheets that I made vietnamese salad rolls with instead of the wanton wrappers. They are more fiddly to make as the rice wrapper is harder to handle and need to be cut to size using either a cookie cutter or scissors or even a pizza cutter. They also don't look quite so pretty as they are more translucent and so you can see the filling. However, they do work and hold together and taste just as good as the original. 

Vegetarian Steamed BBQ Bun

I decided that this week would be Dim Sum week with all the posts relating to a dim sum dish. All the dishes will be vegetarian and most will also have adaptation to allow them to be gluten free. There will be a range of dishes that will explore some of the most commonly found dim sum methods and components. 

I love veggie dim sum and on our last two trips to Hong Kong we have gone out of our way to eat as much vegetarian dim sum as was physically possible. Yummy! There does seem to be a heavy use of mock meats in some of these places but to be honest I prefer dim sum where vegetables are used for a lighter dish but feel free to include mock meats if you prefer.

First up is the bbq bun which is a vegetarian version of the Char Siew Bao (barbecue pork bun). It has a filling of meaty mushrooms, crunchy water chestnuts and sweet peas all in a tasty bbq sauce. 

There is no denying that making these little treats takes a bit of time. However, the majority of the time required is waiting for the dough to rise otherwise there is very little to do. The process can be cut down by using a bao premix (for which you just need to follow the directions on the packet) but as these mixes aren't always easy to find I have given the classic bao dough recipe. These buns can be made in a big batch and then frozen, making this the perfect weekend project. To reheat all you need to do is take them out of the freezer and steam them from frozen. 

Ginger Steamed Egg Custard

Some of the desserts found in Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong are unusual to European tastes as they cross what I like to call the the sweet savoury divide. By which I mean they use ingredients such as sweet potato, yam, red beans and sweetcorn which are almost always associated with savoury dishes in Europe. It took some getting used to but I have to say I am now a convert and  I won't look at a kidney bean or sweet potato in quite the same way again.One of my favourite desserts in Singapore is Steamed Egg Custard served warm with a ginger jus and I regularly have cravings for the smooth rich velvety texture and delicate flavour. I like this dish for breakfast, weird I know, but don't knock it until you have tried it. I am also looking forward to getting my hands on some rhubarb to poach and serve with this.

Chinese Style Braised Pork Belly or Vegetarian Braised Egg, Mushroom & Tofu

My partner loves to eat pig in all its forms. Be it a sausage, bacon, a ham joint, plain pork loin or even pork scratchings it all gets gobbled down. A favourite Sunday lunch of his when we were living in London would be roast pork with lots of pork crackling and all the trimmings; roast potatoes, stuffing, apple sauce, vegetables and gravy. Now that we have been in Asia awhile we noticed that pork belly is beloved here too but in the form of a dark, sweet and warming braised pork belly oozing unctuous fat and melting in the mouth. So as the saying goes- 'when in Rome....' I decided to give it a shot.

On making the braising liquid and having the delicious aromas of star anise, ginger & chilli wafting around the house I decided that it would be highly unjust if I did not get to sample this dish I had so lovingly prepared. I promptly made some more liquid and added whatever vegetarian ingredients I had to hand which turned out to be dried Shitake mushrooms, firm tofu and several eggs. Boy am I glad I did.

Below are the two recipes; the pork version and the vegetarian version (omit the egg and substitute large chunks of aubergine for a vegan version).

Soya sauce contains small amount of gluten and is therefore not suitable for gluten free. However Tamari, a japanese variety of soya sauce often doesn't contain wheat and is suitable for gluten free diets. Check the label to ensure it is wheat & gluten free.

You can make a double batch of the liquid which is the same for both dishes and then split it between two pans, one for each version to save time.