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Mass production of dim sum

Dejah

By Dejah
in China: Cooking & Baking

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Dejah

Dejah

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The start of the second dim sum item: jiaozi.

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I christened my new Cuisinart food processor5 for this event. After processing carrots, celery, and Chinese mushrooms, I would consider it well broken in. :laugh:

Thomas the chef used the Hobart as well to mix the filling for jiaozi. The texture and flavour are different from the siu mai (a recipe I used in my restaurant). he didn't have any trouble removing the attachment as the filling was "wetter".

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The work crew gathers...

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And more...

Dejah

www.hillmanweb.com

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Dejah

Dejah

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Assistant Jack is off to the walk-in freezer with another tray of jiaozi completed.

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They had to take apart the shelves in the freezer and replace them with tray racks so we could have enough room for all the trays. We will use +100 trays by the time we're finished with 18,000 dim sum items! We are really lucky to have the use of this vacant bakery - a double door reach-in freezer, a walk- in freezer, 2 double door coolers, a single door "beverage" fridge and refridgerated showcase. The last 2 are in the front of the bakery and will be used as the bar during the festival.

This was the last tray of the night - Saturday. We estimated 2000 jiaozi made. Hopefully, tomorrow and Tues will be the last days for prep.

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You can see there are different styles of pleating. The women shaped theirs like har gow, and very well made pleats. The men tended to do as the picture of the 4 jiaozi in the previous post. Others put 2 or 3 little pleats only at one end, and I did 3 pleats in the middle. When we deep fried some for lunch, we didn't notice the differences as much because the skins puffed up.

We decided to deep fry them as boiling would take too long, Besides, the siu mai are steamed. This will give more variety.

We'll have to wait now to see what tomorrow will bring!

Edited to correct number of trays

Edited by Dejah (log)

Dejah

www.hillmanweb.com

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Dejah

Dejah

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I think we've pretty much hit our target for dim sum. We ran out of wrappers at about 8250 jiaozi, and just put out the final 18 pkges to thaw for today. We might make them up, but looking at the size of each, we might just need 2 jiaozi per combo. We have around 30 lbs filling mixed up but we will freeze it in layers in case we need to make more during the festival. I must get pictures taken of the freezers today.

The first step of kooloyuk is done, and chef will cook some up for taste test roday. Unfortunately, I have to teach all day today and evening as well. :sad: But I do know the ingredients that he's putting in the sauce as I had to pick them up:

fresh ginger, star anise, cinnamon, dried round chili peppers, red dates, peanut butter?... :unsure::blink: I trust him as the filling for the jiaozi was perfect!

The volunteer schedules are all in! They will start set-up this afternoon with the Chinese gates, lanterns, cultural displays, mini-store, etc. The only concern now is the D@#* weather.

It's been blizzard conditions since yesterday afternoon - is -27C at the moment with windchill factor of -45C or so. It's to dip to windchill -54 tonight. :shock: I just might have to cancel class tonight. :wink: Long range forecast, however, said it will warm up by Thursday when the festival begins. We're luckier than most pavilions as were are inside the mall with a parkade, and no line-ups needing to wait outside. The city is providing free bus service to all the pavilions. It's definitely a city supported event. Hurray for Brandon!

Let'em come!

Dejah

www.hillmanweb.com

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I_call_the_duck

I_call_the_duck

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Dejah,

Kudos to you for undertaking this amazing project!!

I can't wait to see the rest. I hope you take photos during the event as well.

Karen C.

"Oh, suddenly life’s fun, suddenly there’s a reason to get up in the morning – it’s called bacon!" - Sookie St. James

Travelogue: Ten days in Tuscany

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hzrt8w

hzrt8w

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The first step of kooloyuk is done, and chef will cook some up for taste test roday. Unfortunately, I have to teach all day today and evening as well. :sad: But I do know the ingredients that he's putting in the sauce as I had to pick them up:

fresh ginger, star anise, cinnamon, dried round chili peppers, red dates, peanut butter?... :unsure:  :blink: I trust him as the filling for the jiaozi was perfect!

Please pause! Rewind, rewind...

Peanut butter? Really? For sweet and sour pork???

W.K. Leung ("Ah Leung") aka "hzrt8w"
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Dejah

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Just got in from our second day of WinterFest. Word had gotten around that the Chinese Pavilion was the place to be this year, and it was! The venue was packed to the rafters for two nights - clicked about 1000 Thursday night between 6pm and 10 pm, and +2000 tonight between 6 pm and 10 pm.

The secret Ku Lo Yook was very delicious! :wub: The siu mai and deep fried dumplings were a hit, as were the lo mein and BBQ pork. Everyone wanted to $8.99 combo. Line ups were incredible but patient. Our seating capacity was 350, so the line-ups were out to the street.

The 9,000 siu mai, and 9,000 jiaozi will be just enough(600 lbs ground pork). We had prepare 600 lbs BBQ pork 1300 lbs of pork for s's'sour, and cut and deep fried another 4casesx20 kg more for s'sn'sour early this afternoon.

We have many pictures, but just no time to process and post at this time. Will do so next week.

The pavilion opens tomorrow at 1 pm until 11 pm. I will have to pick up vegetables for lo mein, then it's off to the pavilion again. Tsingtao beer is the big seller. It is much more popular than the Yanjing.

Dejah

www.hillmanweb.com

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Dejah

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Last night was our big night: 7000 people went through our pavilion from noon until 11 pm when we closed shop. People filled all the seats as well as standing from one end of the mall to the other. As it was a business day, there was no limit on capacity. We only had to control the liquor so it doesn't move out of our licensed area.

We didn't plan on serving food until 1 pm official opening time, but people wanted, so we cooked. Luckily, chef Thomas had already been working since 9:30 preparing. The serving committee was not expected until 12:30, so we pulled on our hairnets and rolled up our sleeves.

We are processing hundreds of pictures, and will post on the website as they are ready. If there are any specifically food related ones, I'll post again here.

Our association's website is: www.westmanchinese.com

My hubby is our token non-Chinese member as he's our webmaster, one of two photographers, and stage technician during the pavilion. :wink:

Food wise, we have leftovers. I looked in the walk-in freezer, and we have about 1000 each of siu mai and jiaozi leftover, a 44 lb box of ground pork, and 4 cases of uncut pork butt, and BBQ pork was down to the last 10 lbs. These will be used for our Chinese Students Association Spring Festival event on Feb. 23. They postponed it until then as New Years was so close to this event. Their capacity is 250 only so we will definitely have enough food for that. The chefs for that event will be headed by Chef Thomas again, and the pavilion committee chairs will assist with whatever the students need. We will have a party for all the volunteers after that.

We didn't anticipate so many Tsingtao drinkers - duh! :wacko: 50 cases of Tsingtao, 10 cases of Yanjing (not a favourite), and six cases Great Wall Cabernet was really low by Friday. We had to fill the gap with Labatts Blue.

The entertainment was incredible - both local talent and imported from Winnipeg and China. They were all impressive, but outstanding were the Magic face Changing and the young lady with the twirling plates from China, and the dancing lions from WuShu Manitoba. The lions were manned by performers as young as age 9! You could feel the excitment from the moment they arrive in the mall - two hours before their first perfomance. I think I was the most excited as I hadn't seen on up close since 1958!

From all reports, and from our books, the first Chinese Pavilion for the 5th Annual Lieutenant Governor's Winterfest was a resounding success! Will we do it again? We'll think about that. :laugh:

Dejah

www.hillmanweb.com

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Dejah

Dejah

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Congratulations!

P.S. Still waiting to hear how that s/s pork w/ peanut butter was made.

A quick clarification!

The peanut butter was not for the ku lo yuk; it was for dan dan mein! Chef made the sauce for the noodles but again, I couldn't stick in the kitchen long enough to watch him make it. He stopped making it and we just had lo mein once he understood the nut allergy issue.

Dejah

www.hillmanweb.com

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hzrt8w

hzrt8w

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The peanut butter was not for the ku lo yuk; it was for dan dan mein!

Aw, I'm disappointed! :raz:

Me too. I thought we might have discovered a new recipe that would rock the Canadian world...

Maybe there is nothing new under the sun for Chinese recipes. :wink::laugh:

W.K. Leung ("Ah Leung") aka "hzrt8w"
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Dejah

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Both hubby and I are hectic with our university students writing midterm exams, so we won't have time to process and post the many pictures from the other photographer: David Xu. He is one of our 400 new Chinese in Brandon, and he did a great job roaming around the three days plus chairing the sanitation department.

He's got the pictures up on a site, so have a look. Food is pictured on "Chinese Pavilion 10".

http://david-xu-ca.spaces.live.com/default.aspx

Photo 15 is the group slicing up the char siu.

Photo 3 and #94 is David himself.

# 56 is my s-i-l and myself - lovely hairnets

#61 is my big brother

#62 is my DH - our sound tech and webmaster

#92 and 92 are our head Chef Thomas and one of his assistants - Bob

#95 - 99 is the group of performers, volunteers at the end of Sat night singing My China Heart. It was very moving.

The rest of the "albums" show crowds, performers, etc.

There is a Spring Festival event in Winnipeg at the Forks on the 17th. Several Chinese performing groups are participating. We may go in as a committee to scout out talent for next year (Can't believe I'm actually talking about 2009!). The acts from China, Magic Face and the young lady doing the spinning plates, were hits, as well as the lions from Winnipeg. They hope to have a dragon for next year.

Dejah

www.hillmanweb.com

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