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Homemade Steamed Spareribs 排骨

This month, I decided I was going to make one of my favourite dim sum dishes, Steamed Spareribs and I was excited about the way it turned out! It was fall off the bone tender, and still juicy and delicious!

Ingredients:
1 lb spareribs
1 tbsp black bean sauce (or fermented black beans smashed)
1 tbsp tapioca starch
1 tsp white pepper
1 tbsp cooking wine
1 tsp salt
1-2 cloves minced garlic

First, start by rinsing and drying your meat. I don’t know if it is necessary, but it’s a habit that I have for pork that I bring home from the store. Once you got the meat cleaned and dried, I put it in a steam proof dish where I will get the spare ribs marinated in.

Then, I put all the ingredients together and put some plastic wrap over the spareribs and let it sit for at least an hour in the fridge.

When I’m ready to steam, I prepare my steamer and put the spareribs in and cover without the saran wrap. This will steam for about 45 minutes on medium high.

After 45 minutes or more has elapsed, the spareribs are ready! Becareful as it’s really hot, but the meat will come off the bones nicely and it will be packed with flavour!

We enjoyed ours over rice for this meal and it was pretty tasty! Of course, you can add some green onions to garnish, or put some whole fermented black beans on top! I didn’t do anything and just served and enjoyed!

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Homemade Har Gow (蝦餃)

Something a little different from the usual things I make, we made Har Gow from scratch! It tasted good but definitely doesn’t have the normal har gow look.

Ingredients: (makes about 15)
Skin:
1 1/2 Cup Wheat Starch
2 tbsp tapioca Starch
1 cup boiling water
1 tbsp oil
1 tsp salt

Filling:
800 gram of shrimp
2 tbsp tapioca starch
1 tbsp minced ginger
1 tbsp light soy sauce
salt and white pepper to taste

The first thing we do is mix together the tapioca starch and wheat starch with some salt. Once that has mixed in, I drizzled in the oil and started drizzling the boiling water.

Once the dough begins to form into a ball, pull the warm mixture out and knead until it’s putty texture. Mould the dough into a log and put plastic wrap or a wet cloth over it and let it sit for at least 30 minutes.

While the dough is resting, we can prepare the shrimp by chopping the shrimp and marinating it. I used about 800grams of shrimp for my recipe and it was the perfect amount! So, we just chopped and marinated the shrimp.

As the shrimp is marinating, we can prepare the steamer with cutting out vent holes in the parchment paper and setting it into the bamboo steamer.

Now the the dough and the shrimp is ready, we prepare the dough by cutting the log into smaller pieces. Taking a small rolling pin, roll out one of the cylinders of dough. I found an oval shape was actually easier than circular shape. However, I was not successful making the iconic ha gow shape.

Now, we stuff the har gow with about 1 tablespoon of filling, then trying your best to pinch upwards around the shrimp. My dough was a little stiffer than I would like it, so it tore easily. I just pressed down to seal right away. Then, we lined the prepared steamer with these har gows.

This was the interesting part, I wasn’t sure how long to steam these har gows that looks like dumplings. I put it on the steamer for about 10 minutes and it worked well. Everything was cooked and it tasted good too! The skin was relatively translucent, but I think it would be more clear if I got the skin thinner… however, the texture didn’t work properly for me on this try!

Overall, it was a fun meal to make and it was tricky and time consuming. Dim sum isn’t known to be easy but we enjoyed eating this delicious dim sum!

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Homemade Shumai – 烧卖

I’ve been trying to make some more homemade dim sum, and this time we’re in the kitchen making some Shu Mai, and I like using pork. You can substitute with chicken, or a mixture with shrimp as well. Today, we’re making all pork shu mai! This recipe makes about 20 shu mai, which is 2 large steamer baskets full.

Dough Ingredients:
1 cup All Purpose Flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 large egg
1/4 cup cold water

Filling Ingredients:
1/2lb ground pork
2 black shittake mushrooms
1/2 tbsp ginger
1/2 tbsp green onion (whites)
1/4 tsp seasame oil
1/2 tsp white pepper
1 tsp soy sauce
1/2 tbsp corn starch

First, we’ll make our dough for the skin of the shu mai. I’m using wonton skins. Since I earned a stand mixer, I will use it as much as possible from now on! So, in the stand mixer, I put all the dry ingredients in it and mix it briefly. Then, put the egg in and try to get it into a nice dough.

Once you start mixing it, add some cold water until it becomes a ball. Make sure the dough doesn’t get too wet. You just want a little bit sticky.

When you got your dough ball, wrap it up and let it rest in the fridge for at least 20 minutes. I got to attach the pasta maker attachment to my stand mixer and I roll out the dough to a level “5”, then we cut out circles. These wonton skins don’t last long as they don’t have preservatives in it, so expect it to be good for up to 3 days.

Now, we get the filling ready, and we mix all the filling ingredients together and make sure they’re chopped small, or minced. Let the meat marinade at least 30 minutes.

Once you got the meat ready, take about 1 tbsp of meat onto the center of the skin. Wet the edges of the skin so it can stick to each other. Pull the sides up around the dumpling leaving the top exposed. You can top the shu mai if you want, but I left mine as is because I forgot to purchase ingredients. Original idea was putting a shrimp up top… Once you got your shu mai made, you can put it in your lined steamer (steaming) or lined cookie tray (freezing).

If you’re freezing them, make sure you give them some space in between the shu mai so they don’t stick. Freeze them for about an hour before you put it in a ziploc bag. For us, we steamed ours right away and we steamed on med-high heat for 10 minutes. It was perfect!

Overall, this was quite a simple recipe, and there are tons of options for varieties, and even short cuts! You can get premade wonton wrappers, you can swap out meat, add other things or anything! This is a great base recipe! For me, this recipe made more skins than I needed, so adding stuff to the filing mixture will help even it out!

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Homemade Simple Vanilla Macarons Recipe

I’ve recently been introduced to macarons, and I loved them! The nice crispy shell texture with a soft centre make an amazing treat! Not only do the ones at the store taste good – they look amazing! So, I figured I’d try my hand at making a simple batch of Vanilla Macarons as it appears I have all the ingredients in my pantry! Of course my batch didn’t look great – but tasted wonderful!

Ingredients: Makes about 12
1/3 cup finely ground almond
3/4 cup powdered sugar
2 egg whites
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Filling
2 egg yolks
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

Let’s get started on my first batch of shells! First, we gather all our ingredients so we have everything ready and preheat the oven to 300F.

Then we grind the almonds until they’re fine and then we grind it with the powdered sugar! I figured we do this so that the ground almond is coated with the powder sugar so it doesn’t lump!

Lots of recipes call for sifting the mixture a few times. I tried and I guess my strainer is too fine… it separates the powdered sugar from the ground almonds. The end results wasn’t rough or anything but it’s got some texture as I had to omit the step. So, we go to beating the egg whites until the mixture starts becoming airy and bubbly. At which you will add the 2tbsp of sugar and continue to beat until soft peaks form. Once you got the soft peaks, beat the vanilla extract in.

From here, mix half of your egg white mixture into your almond mixture and mix until they’re incorporated. Then, fold in the rest of the egg white and put into a piping back or a ziploc bag. Then, you can cut out a corner and pipe onto a lined cookie sheet of circles. Then you let them dry for about 30 minutes (or until a hard layer is made)

Once the hard layer is formed by drying it, you can pop them in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until they move off the parchment paper easily. At this point, you can take them out and let them cool while you make the filling.

For the filling…
You can start by taking out the ingredients that you need.

Start with the egg yolks, and beat together the ingredients until it’s even and smooth.

Then, move it to the stove top and cook it until a custard texture

From here, I removed it from the heat and returned it to a bowl and let it cool to room temperature.

When it has cooled, I arrange the macaron shells so that they kind of match each other in relative shape and size. I put a dollop of the butter cream on one side and put the other side on carefully. Once they’re assembled, I put them in the fridge to set. When you’re ready to eat, take them out a few minutes ahead to take the chill off of them. They apparently last up to a week in an air-tight container in the fridge. Ours are often gone way before then!

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Homemade Eggnog

December is my a great month for me as it’s the one month I allow myself to indulge. It’s once a year certain delicious treats come around and Eggnog is definitely one of those! I use to make my own eggnog, then got too lazy and now I started to make it myself again! It’s wonderful, simple and delicious!

Ingredients: makes about 4 cups
5 large eggs (4 extra large eggs)
1/2 cup cream
2 cup milk
1/3 cup sugar
3 tbsp rum (optional)
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg

To begin, I start by separating my eggs.

Then, we whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form. Once that happens, throw about 1tbsp of sugar into the egg whites and mix again. We can put it aside until the end.

Then, we beat the egg yolks until they are fluffy and lighter in colour. Once that has happened, we can gradually pour the 1/3cup of sugar into the egg yolks and mix again.

When the egg yolks are mixed thoroughly, pour the 2 cups of milk, 1/2 cup of cream and rum into the egg yolks and mix until it’s blended.

Now we’re ready to season the eggnog mixture with the rum, nutmeg and cinnamon.

Your eggnog is pretty much done now. All we need to do is whisk in the egg whites and enjoy! You can have some as is – or you can chill it and then serve. I usually claim it lasts only 3 days.

Enjoy and Merry Christmas!