The tasty jewels of Chinese dim sum

THE FRUGAL GOURMET

THE NAME of this style of food, ‘“‘dim sum,”’’ literally means “‘little jewels that tng at the heart.’’

The Chinese, however, do not see this as snack food. is far from that.

The selection includes meat-fill- ed dumplings, steamed or deep- fried; shrimp in tiny noodle bags; round meatballs of pork or beef.

Little plates of spareribs and spicy squid will be found on the carts the waiters in dim sum res- taurants wheel around.

You'll also see beautiful one- bite pastries made of rice flour and stuffed with a hundred dif- ferent fillings.

The “*‘tug at the heari’’ is sup- posed to come from the beatty of the delicacies, but the tug that comes at iny heart stems from the pain of not being able to taste everything in the place!

You can make these tasty jewels at home with only a little practice. The shouts and cheers you will receive when you serve this food will make the time involved very much worth it.

SPARERIBS WITH BLACK BEAN AND PEPPER SAUCE (Serves 6 as a dim sum course) This dish causes traffic jams

among the dim sum carts in Hong Kong. Everyone wants an order arid the chaos is infectious. Easy to prepare, they wil! just make a dim sum party.

1 pound pork spareribs, cut into l-inck pieces (have the butcher cut them for you on his band saw) MARINADE

3 tablespoons light soy sauce

2 tablespoons Chinese rice wine or

dry sherry 1 teaspooa ginger, freshiy grated 2 tablespoons peanut oil 3 cloves garlic, chopped Fine Ys teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon fermented black beans (‘‘dow see’’), rinsed Piach of sugar 1 teaspoon garlic and red chili paste (found in Oriental markets)

Blanch the ribs in boiling water for 1 minute. Drain well.

Soak in the marinade for 20 minutes.

Heat a wok and chow (stir-fry) the ribs until lightly browned. Remove from the wok and drain the oil.

Add the fresh peanut oil, garlic and salt. Chow until the garlic browns just a bit, then add the remaining ingredients.

Return the cibs to the wok and toss in the sauce. Place in a2 steaming dish and steam: for 45 minutes to an hour, or until the ribs are very tender.

Variation: You can also avoid browning the ribs. Just add | ta- blespoon cornstarch to the marinade and continue with the dish. When steamed, the corn- starch will form a wonderful gravy on the ribs.

CHICKEN SHU-MEIE

These are casy to make and probably the most popular dim sum { know. They resemble little money bags and are offered at the Chinese New Year because they help anticipate wealth.

THE FILLING

1 pound ground chicken, finely chopped

2 tablespoons light soy sauce

2 tablespoons dry sherry

1 teaspoon freshiy grated ginger

VY, teaspoon ground white pepper

i tablespoon sesame oil

Y% teaspoon MSG (optional)

Pinck of sugar

1 tablespoon chopped green onien 1 egg white

1 tablespoon cornstzrch

T teaspoon salt

4 tablespoons medium chopped bamboo shoots or water chestnuts (optional)

2 cloves gariic, crushed

THE WRAPPER

1 package shu-mei skins or Gyoza skins, availabie at Cre supermarket

Mix together all the ingredients for the filling; mix them well.

Place about 4 tablespoon fill- ing in the centre of each noodle wrapper and bring up the corners so that’ you have a little money bag. Leave the top open so you

can see some of the meat.

For fun you might put t frozen green pea on the top of each for added color.

Steam in an oiled tamboo steamer for 15 minutes on high heat.

Note: You can also add a bit of shrimp to this dish. It adds a great deal of flavor. Try about % cup of chopped fresh shrimp.

HINT: Use lettuce circles for steaming small dumplings. Simnly cut iceberg lettuce into small cir- cles using 2 small cookie cutter. Place a litile circle of lettuce under each dumpling or shu-raei. No stick and lots of flavor.

DEEP-FRIED SHU-ME!

Prepare the recipe as above and deep-fry the dumplings in peanut oil at 360°F until golden brown and the inside is cooked to your taste.

BEEF MEATBALLS (Makes about 20 dim sum)

This is a quickie. Buy good hamburger and do something very special in almost no time at all. I love these meatballs.

1 pound lean ground heeft

1 tablespoon dark soy sauce

1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine or dry sherry

Ys teaspoon ginger, freshly grated 1 teaspoon sugar

2 green onions, chopped

lege, beaten

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1 teespoon sesame oil

2 cloves garlic, crusked

1 teaspoon soybean condiment (‘mein see’’)

2 teaspoons finely grated orange peel

Y% teaspoon MSG (optional)

1 buach spinach or mustard greens, fresh, for garnish

Mix all ingredients together with the exception of the garnish.

You need to whip this dish io make it smooth, so } suggest a good electric mixer. Otherwise, do it by hand and beat the blazes out of this stuff. .

Roll into small meatballs about 1 inches in diameter. Press some of the greens into a steaming bowl and top with the meatballs.

Steam the meatballs in several dishes, steaming each, or all together, for chat matter, for about 15 minutes. It is best to use your bamboo steaming racks for these dishes.

HINT: To keep meatballs from sticking to your hands, simply moisten your hands in between each moulding of a_ meatball.

NEWS photo Nei! Lucente

DiM SUM: You can make these tasty jeweis at home with only a

litile practice.

Works great! CHINESE BOILED DUMPLINGS (Makes about 36 dumplings}

These are fun to prepare. I always eat too many when I make them, and so does everyone else at the table. DOUGH 242 cups unsifted flour Y2 teaspoon salt

1 cup boiling water 1 tablespoon lard, cut up into lit- tle pieces

Mix the flour and salt. Add the boiling eter and stir with chopsticks. Add the lard.

Knead all and iet rest on a plastic counter under a bow! for 20 minutes.

See Boiled page 63

Rolled cookies make baking fun occasion for all

inequisitive

THERE’S NO doubt that the wafting aroma of cook- ies baking draws people to the kitchen.

In every ethnic tradition, cook- ies form a part of festive occa- sions. But rolled cookies in par- ticular provide the kind of ‘hands-on’ mixing and cutting that makes baking a fun event for cooks of all ages.

Recipes for rolled cookies usually start with well-creamed shortening.

Avoid diet margarines, as most contain too much water to hold air and dry ingredients when bak- ed.

Use butter or margarine at room temperature and beat vigor- ously until light and fluffy.

As air is incorporated, the shorteaing lightens in color. The more air, the lighter the final tcx-

ture of the cookie.

You may wonder why some cookie recipes contain cream of tartar, This acid salt combines with baking soda to produce car- bon dioxide which raises cookies.

But cream of tartar also makes the dough slightly acidic, which keeps it pale in color and reacts with the gluten in flour to create a “melt in your mouth” texture.

The cast way to ensure that flour, leaveners and spices are adequately inixed is to sift them together.

‘Then beet the dry ingredienis into the vell-creamed margarine, sugar and eggs, just until the dough is mixed.

Some cookies spread when bak- ed. Jt doesn’t matter much in a drop cookie, but one that is rolled and cut loses its special identity.

And a blurry gingerbread man isn't nearly as much fun to deco- rate.

Bake a test cookie and if this is a problem; work a small amount of extra flour into the remaining dough. But don’! overdo it. Too much flour makes cookies tough.

Allowing cookie sheets to cool between batches also helps prevent spreading.

Refrigerating the dough for half an hour makes it easier to roll as all che flour particles have time to take up moisture evenly.

It can be kept refrigerated for up to three days or it can be made well ahead and frozen. In either case, allow the dough to warm slightly before rolling so it doesn’t crumble,

Flour the rolling surfaces just enough to keep the dough from sticking.

Cu: cookies close together to avoid extra rolling. The more times the dough is rolled, the tougher the cookies become.

Cookies continue to bake after

they're taken from the oven. If you like soft cookies, remove them before they start to brown.

If you prefer them crisp, roll more thinly and cook until they’re lightly colored.

Cool the cookies slightly, then remove to cooling racks. Don’t stack them; they'll retain their shape best if cooled in a single layer.

If you wish to thread cookies with fine ribbon to hang on the Christmas tree or gather into rib- boned bunches to give as gifts, use a skewer to make a little hole in the top while they’re on the cooki. sheets and still hot.

Waich for special cookie cutters to add to the fun. Musical notes make great gifts for the piano teacher, soccer balls for the coach.

We just buught a dog-bone cut- ter, so even the retriever puppy will get a home-made treat this Christmas!