Making Dim Sum at Home

[Dejah]

And if you must make them one day ahead of time, you may be better off cooking them first, then refrigerate them overnight.  Before serving, just steam them again.

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Sorry, Ah Leung, but I'd have to disagree with you on cook, refridgerate overnight, then re-steam process.

From my experience, especially when we ran the Chinese New Year dim sum buffet for +250 people, I found that it is better to make the dim sum, freeze individually, then steam from frozen state just before serving for the best results.

With char siu baos made with baking powder dough, I steamed them then froze them, even a week ahead. I'd bring them out the night before the event, thaw in the walk-in cooler over-night, then re-steam just before serving. We had three 28" woks with the biggest bamboo steamers stacked 3 high going for the full duration of the brunch run so there was freshly steamed items filling the buffet table all the time. The grill was for potstickers, using covers from large chafers for the steaming part.

[hzrt8w]

[...]From my experience, especially when we ran the Chinese New Year dim sum buffet for +250 people, I found that it is better to make the dim sum, freeze individually, then steam from frozen state just before serving for the best results.

[...]

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Can't argue with Dejah Dai Ga Jeah, a restaurant owner veteran.

But that's what one of the restaurants I used to work at do. The dim sums (which were cooked) that they could not sell, they put in the refrigerator overnight. The next morning, those were among the first batch to be served to patrons. Yes, going to that dim sum restaurant early would risk eating overnight dim sums...

Edited April 15, 2006 by hzrt8w (log)

[Dejah]

[...]From my experience, especially when we ran the Chinese New Year dim sum buffet for +250 people, I found that it is better to make the dim sum, freeze individually, then steam from frozen state just before serving for the best results.

[...]

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But that's what one of the restaurants I used to work at do. The dim sums (which were cooked) that they could not sell, they put in the refrigerator overnight. The next morning, those were among the first batch to be served to patrons.

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I can see the reason for refridgerating overnight in that case. For some items like siu mai, the "effect" may not be as noticeable, but for something like har gow, potstickers, you'd certainly know they were "leftovers". The texture of the dough changes.

Let us know how your party went, zaskar!

[TdeV]

Staff note: This post and responses to it have been split from From Sonoma County to San Francisco, Spring, 2024, to maintain topic focus.

 

 

On 4/1/2024 at 1:14 AM, KennethT said:

This is my death row turnip cake.... deep fried, topped with fried dried shrimp with a spicy sambal dipping sauce...

 

Looks delicious. Might you have a recipe for this?

 

On 4/1/2024 at 4:24 PM, liuzhou said:

Are your 'turnip cakes'made with turnip? In most of dim sum places here, what is sold as turnip cakes are actually daikon radish cakes. I've never seen a turnip in China.

 

Might you have a recipe for dikon radish cakes?

[liuzhou]

4 hours ago, TdeV said:

 

Looks delicious. Might you have a recipe for this?

 

 

Might you have a recipe for dikon radish cakes?

 

Dim Sum items like these are seldom made at home. However the internets have several recipes of varying appeal. A search for 'lo bak go', the Cantonese name should point you in the right direction. I'd avoid the Woks of Life recipe, though. When a recipe writer says he doesn't know what he is cooking, it hardly inspires confidence!

 

 

Edited April 2 by liuzhou (log)

[KennethT]

9 hours ago, TdeV said:

 

Looks delicious. Might you have a recipe for this?

 

 

Might you have a recipe for dikon radish cakes?

No - while one can make kuih (SE Asian snacks) at home, it's a lot of work so almost never done.

[Duvel]

15 hours ago, TdeV said:

Staff note: This post and responses to it have been split from From Sonoma County to San Francisco, Spring, 2024, to maintain topic focus.

 

 

 

Looks delicious. Might you have a recipe for this?

 

 

Might you have a recipe for dikon radish cakes?

If you like to have a recipe for this interation, send me a PM 😉

[liuzhou]

What a bizarre topic. 95% of the historic contributions here have absolutely nothing to do with making dim sum at home (there are more posts about Chinese banking systems).

 

I understand the lack of home cooking of dim sum posts, though. Few people ever do it. In fact S: 点心; T: 點心, (Mandarin - diǎn xin; Cantonese - dim sum), however delicious, is merely an aside at a social event, 飲茶 (Mand: yǐn chá; Cant: yum cha), drinking tea or 早茶 (Mand: zǎo chá; Cant: jou cha), morning tea.

 

These places can be cacophonous early in the morning. Conviviality and conversation is the point. Food, not so much.

 

The food served, the dim sum, often doesn’t lend itself to home cooking and for many items, considerable skill and experience is needed. The best dim sum chefs are highly regarded in the same way as the best sushi or ramen chefs are in Japan.

 

Despite that, there are many recipes on the internet. Some read OK; most don’t; and some are just sadly clueless.

 

 

Edited April 3 by liuzhou (log)

[weinoo]

I think, despite objections that dim sum are rarely made at home, one might find some nice recipes, tips, helpful suggestions, etc. in:

 

 

I have one or two books by Eileen, and they're quite good. Amazon link...(eG-friendly Amazon.com link).

 

I mean, don't we bake bread? Make complicated pastries? Stuff pastas? Cure meats? Make pickles? Etc.

[Duvel]

13 minutes ago, weinoo said:

think, despite objections that dim sum are rarely made at home, one might find some nice recipes, tips, helpful suggestions, etc. in:

I think a huge part of eGullet is that fact that we deal with things that are rarely made at home (or at least by very few people 🤭) …

[liuzhou]

I am not suggesting that anyone shouldn't make dim sum at home; merely that few do, as can be seen by the entries in this near-20 year old topic with extremely few examples.

[rotuts]

@weinoo

 

I agree .  

 

Eileen's books are top notch.

[Senior Sea Kayaker]

I've made the daikon cake using a recipe from Andrea Nguyen.

I'd had and liked it and as this was my first experience growing daikon and ended up with about 13 Kg. of daikon I had to get creative (one can only eat so many pickles) 🙃

Turned out well.