Touching Daddy's Heart with Dim Sum (点心)

Happy Father's Day to all fathers out there!  It's your day, do nothing, just give yourself a good break, sit back, relax and enjoy all the pampering showered upon you :)

To the daddies in my life, thank you for all that you have done for us, for all the love that you have showered, for being there and most of all for just being you.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

Helped kid to prepare this chinese style dim sum breakfast for his dad today, well maybe it was more me than him doing the job :)  We decided on this knowing the Chinaman that papa is at heart.  Moreover i thought the meaning of dim sum (点心), the general name given to these little morsels can't be more apt for this special day.   To those who are not familiar, dim sum means to touch the heart :)

Pork and shrimp siew mai plus shrimp spring roll with fruits at the side served with osmanthus tea.  

These two variations are quite easily made, something that kids can participate in.  The night before, I prepared the filling for the siew mai and the shrimps for the spring roll.  After looking at a few recipes, I found that the ingredients for the siew mai filling is quite similar, most of them use a 2:1 ratio for pork  to prawn ratio.  So, I played around from there.  All we did were to wrap and steam the siew mai this morning.  As for the prawn spring rolls, the prawns were marinated for 30 minutes before wrapping and frying them.  Although they might not be the best dim sum, they did touch Daddy's heart with all the love wrapped in them :)  

Osmanthus and dried longan tea to go with the dim sum.

Recipe-Shrimp Spring Roll

Reference : Rasa Malaysia 

Ingredients

• 15 medium sized shrimps, shelled and deveined but leave the tail on
• 15 pieces spring roll wrappers (small size)
• 15 pieces coriander leave (inspired by Nasi Lemak Lover)
• 1 egg white, lightly whisked for sealing

Marinade

• 1 tbsp fresh ginger Juice
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon corn starch
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon lime juice
• ½ teaspoon white pepper

Method

1. Pat dry the shrimps with paper towels and marinate with the Marinade ingredients. 
2. Marinate for 30 minutes.
3. Lay shrimp on one corner of spring roll skin.  Fold in the other two corners to have 2 parallel sides then start rolling to wrap shrimp.
4. Before the last fold, lay a coriander leave then fold and seal edges with egg white.
5. Heat up some oil in a frying pan then deep fry until golden brown.
6. Serve hot with some chilli sauce.

Recipe-Siew Mai

Reference : The Little Teochew and Kimmy Cooking Pleasures

Ingredients

• 150g shrimp meat (shell, devein and smash with back of cleaver then mince coarsely)
• 300g minced pork
• 2 dried shitake mushrooms (soaked to soften then diced)
• Round dumpling wrappers (small size)
• Ebiko as toppings

Seasonings for filling

• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tbsp Hua Tiao wine
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tbsp tapioca flour
• 1 medium egg (lightly beaten)

Method

1. Mix shrimp meat with minced pork.  Add in seasonings, use only 1/3 part of egg.  
2. Stir in one direction until become shiny gluey paste.  Best to rest filling for at least one hour or overnight for it to be firmer.
3. Place a wrapper in palm.  Put 1 tsbp of filling in the centre.
4. Wrap up sides by gently squeezing around siew mai with forefinger and thumb.
5. Add a little more meat using a palette knife to cover the top of siew mai.
6. Seal the top with some egg wash.
7. Steam on high heat for around 8 minutes.  Do not overcook, meat will become tough. 
8. Top each Siew Mai with Ebiko and serve immediately, with chilli sauce.