Okay, so yesterday I decided to try making some dim sum, inspired by that fancy Grand Millennium stuff. Never made it before, figured it couldn’t be THAT hard, right?
First, I hit up the Asian market. Spent like an hour just wandering around trying to find all the ingredients. Ended up grabbing some shrimp, pork, those weird mushroom things (shiitake, I think?), and a bunch of other stuff I thought looked promising. Also, rice flour – gotta have that for the wrappers.
Got home and immediately realized I had no idea what I was doing. Seriously. Started with the shrimp dumplings (har gow, is it?). The recipe I found online looked easy enough: chop the shrimp, mix it with some seasonings, make the dough, wrap it all up, and steam. Sounds simple, doesn’t it?
Well, chopping the shrimp was easy. The seasoning part? I kinda just winged it. Soy sauce, ginger, garlic, a little sesame oil – seemed about right. Then came the dough. Oh man, the dough. Rice flour is NOT like regular flour. It’s all sticky and weird. I ended up adding way too much water, then way too much flour trying to fix it. It was a total mess.
Eventually, I managed to get something that resembled dough. Then came the wrapping. Watched a bunch of YouTube videos on how to fold har gow wrappers. Looked so elegant and effortless in the videos. Mine looked like sad, lumpy blobs. I swear, every single dumpling looked completely different. Some were too thick, some were too thin, some had holes in them. It was a disaster.
Next up were the pork siu mai. These were a little easier, mostly because the filling was more forgiving. Ground pork, chopped shiitake mushrooms, more of that same seasoning mix. Wrapped them in wonton wrappers, which I just bought pre-made because ain’t nobody got time for homemade wonton wrappers.
Steaming time! Threw all the misshapen dumplings and siu mai into my bamboo steamer (which, by the way, I had to dig out from the back of the cupboard). Waited what felt like an eternity. The anticipation was killing me.
Finally, they were done. The har gow were…interesting. Some of them were kinda translucent, which was good. Others were still a little doughy. The filling tasted okay, though, so that was a win. The siu mai were actually pretty good! The pork filling was flavorful, and the wonton wrappers held up nicely.
- The Verdict:
- Har Gow: Epic fail in terms of looks, but passable taste.
- Siu Mai: Actually pretty decent! Would make again.
Overall, it was a fun (and messy) experience. Definitely learned a lot. Next time, I’ll probably buy pre-made har gow wrappers. And maybe watch a few more YouTube videos. But hey, at least I tried! And I had some edible (ish) dim sum for dinner. Not quite Grand Millennium level, but hey, Rome wasn’t built in a day, right?
Time to clean up this kitchen disaster. Wish me luck!