Shui Mai (all variant spellings, elsewhere)

Dimsum, the Chinese heart's delight of the culinary kingdom are a labor of love. Not including the time to purchase the ingredients, it took me 3 hours to prepare, mix, assemble, and cook the delights. I haven't made these for over 10 years, but they truly are worth the time and effort, once-in-a-while.

If you have a large family and the help has dexterous fingers, the job is much easier.

16 ozs. ground pork
16 ozs. chopped shrimp
16 ozs. baby bok choy
2 scallions, mostly the white part, smashed
2 packages of dumpling wrappers
1/2 tsp. pepper
2 tsp. sesame oil
2 tsp. dark soy
2 tsp. light soy
2 tsp. Shaoxing wine
1 egg

Condiments:

Diluted Red Vinegar
Chile Sauce

I found a pound of shrimp, pre-cooked, but unpeeled. The next time I make this dish, I will but the 32-40 size shrimp, uncooked. As the shrimp must be peeled, you can do this task, while the water for blanching the  baby bok choy heats.

Break the egg in a mixing bowl and beat to mix with the remaining ingredients. Reserve, while the rest of the ingredients are prepped.

Cut the stem ends of the bok choy off. Save them for soup or stir-fry. Discard any leaves that are yellow¹. In a pot of boiling water, add the leaves. Return the pot to a simmer and keep a careful eye on the leaves. When the green color darkens, immediately remove the pot to the sink and run cold water on the leaves to stop the cooking. When the bok choy is the same temperature as the running water, remove them to a strainer or colander. Press the leaves between your hand, squeezing out excess liquid. If all the shrimp's shells are removed, you can proceed to remove the sand vein, by slicing along the top and removing the black line (vein) that is visible. If you cannot remove all of it, that's not a problem. When the shrimp are cleaned, using a Chinese cleaver chop the shrimp into a mince. Put it into a large mixing bowl. Cut the top from the scallions using one to two inches of the green. Smash the scallions and then mince them and add them to the bowl.

Next mince the well drained baby bok choy. Add it to the shrimp. Add the ground pork and mix all these ingredients. I wear nitrile (latex) gloves to do this. Don't overwork this mixture, the pork fat will warm from the heat of your hands. So mix only 30 to 60 seconds. Next add the egg mixture and mix again, this time for 90 seconds.

For the making of the dimsum I find a place to sit. With the shrimp and pork mixture, a small bowl of water, the wrappers and a paper towel, the making proceeds like this:

Fold Diagonally

If your fingers and thumb are moist, dry them on the paper towel. Take one wrapper and put the top edge facing way from you. This makes the wrapper look like a star not a square. With your index finger dipped in water, moisten the perimeter of the wrapper, the width of your finger. Next put one teaspoon of mix in the center. Fold the wrapper to make it look like a triangle as pictured above. (I'm left handed, so your wonton will point to the left, not the right, like mine.) Fold one end over the other. Click to enlarge the picture, below, to see what the wonton is folded like.

Place the wonton on a tray. I have my tray lined with foil, but if you have a plate you can use it. The wontons will stick where they have been moistened so they must be kept somewhat separate. 

When about 76 wontons are made, you can either freeze them. For freezing, they must be kept separate. The wrappers will tear if they are frozen together. On a plate or tray, place the wontons in the freezer, turning them at 30 minutes. After another 30 minutes turn again. If they are frozen, then can be put in a freezer bag and kept. I cannot say how long, but I would (educated) guess at 30 days.

If you are going to make them immediately, bring 4 quarts of water to a boil. Add the wontons, when the pot returns to a boil, add ½ cup of water. The pot ceases to simmer. When the pot again simmers, the wontons are ready to serve. This method of adding more water makes the proper cooking time much easier. There is no exact cooking time! Yay!

¹ If you are a careful shopper, you will buy the package of bok choy that have no yellow leaves. If the bok choy has been in your refrigerator and the tops of the leaves have yellowed, trim that away.

Chinese Char Siu Barbecue

After studying a number of recipes for the barbecued pork dish Char Siu (my preferred spelling), I decided to try to make some. 

So, welcome to my politically correct, Chinese Cultural Revolution approved recipe.

My first thought was that recipes (in English) call for pork shoulder. The pork shoulder was too much a westernized idea. The Chinese would use firmer meat for this dish and that meant using pork belly. For some strange reason, here in the States, when a recipe (usually old ones) calls for pork belly they use either: uncured bacon or green bacon to signify raw pork belly. Whether those two expressions are "of commerce" or whether they were the only way the cookbook authors could think to describe pork belly that is uncured, un-smoked and raw is not within the scope of this article. Both always and confusingly using the word 'bacon', where 'pork belly' is more effectively descriptive. (e.g., scallions versus green onions versus spring onions)

I also saw a recipe that called for Moutai liquor as one of the ingredients. I must back track a little here. My favorite place in Chinatown is Sam Woo Barbecue. While shopping yesterday, I saw a San Woo Barbecue - not the same. Sam Woo's is pretty well known, and while I don't like a lot on their menu, the barbecued pork is delightful. And I'm certain they use the Moutai in their bbq, but I cannot prove that beyond a shadow of a doubt. They also have lop cheung . . .  a story for another day. 

I had to find the Moutai and guessed that the Wing Hop Fung supermarket would be my source for this stuff. They are at least 12 Chinese aunties working at any one time there and none speak English. So, when I incorrectly asked for Mai Tai, I was told they had none, Then, speaking with the only English speaking woman in the place, I asked for rose liquor. She pointed to the shelf where all the liquors are and corrected my pronounciation. I walked over to find that the words were all in Chinese. Another auntie walked by and I asked (this time pronouncing it correctly) MOW (rhymes with wow) TOY. She showed me a bottle. And at only $130 (US dollars) it looked like a bargain . . . Fortunately, they had a $10 and a $15 dollar bottle of it and that's more appropriate for cooking. Mind you, this is for a 375 mL bottle (half a fifth).

Like WOW!

So with all the ingredients in hand I made up the sauce-marinade.  Divided the sauce and kept half for dipping or using on the rice.

Ingredients:

1 ¾ lb pork belly
6 cloves garlic as mush
3 tablespoons cooked oil (see below for explanation)

Char Siu Sauce:
4 ½ tablespoons maltose
4 ½ tablespoons honey
4 ½ tablespoons hoisin sauce
4 ½ tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoon Moutai (贵州茅台酒)
9 dashes white pepper
9 drops red food coloring (Optional)
1 ½ teaspoon five-spice powder
1 ½ teaspoon sesame oil
[ Added November 23, 2015 — In continued research into this Chinese specialty dish, I have read another recipe that add the following:
1 tbs yellow bean paste
1 tbs red fermented tofu (hot or not, your choice)
1 tbs oyster sauce
the foregoing three ingredients are for 1 1/2 pounds of pork, adjust accordingly, please.]

I have never been able to buy pork belly in 16 ounce pieces. Almost without exception the slab I can buy in the markets is between 1 3/4 and 2 1/4 pounds. So I had to adjust the recipe accordingly. Also, my pal does not like to eat rice without a sauce and as many people like extra sauce for their pork and rice, I decided to triple the quantity. So the above list is how I made it. After adding the sauce ingredients and boiling them up three times, I removed the sauce pan from the heat. After a few minutes, the entire kitchen became fragrant with the Moutai. At 52% alcohol (or 104 proof) the stuff packs a wallop. It would have packed a wallop in my wallet if I'ld had any while in Chinatown. The $130 bottle of Moutai is about 80 years old. The minimum age is 15 years. The red food coloring, while optional is a real help and culturally, red is the symbol of good luck (lunch?) in Chinese.

I cut the belly into four pieces, trying to make the pieces as evenly shaped as possible. In the photograph, you can see that two slices are much bigger. That is how the belly comes. Thicker at one end.

Marinating

Above, pork having marinated overnight.

While the sauce was cooling I mushed the garlic, sliced the pork and rubbed the garlic onto the fatty side of the meat. After the sauce cools, add it to the meat. I used a stainless steel bowl. After adding the sauce I added the cooked oil. The cooked oil is a trick I learned about many years ago. When deep frying, allow the hot oil to cool (overnight?), and strain it into a jar or bottle. Cap tightly. The cooked oil has a delicious flavor. It may not be good for cooking again, but as part of the marinade it matters and I'm not throwing food out.

When ready, cook your rice. Even though I often add chicken bouillon powder to the boiling water, this time I left it plain.

Preheat your barbecue grill for 10 to 15 minutes and wipe the excess sauce/marinade off the meat into your bowl as you will baste the meat with the leftover sauce the meat sat in. Cook the meat for 7 ½ minutes on each side, flipping the meat once. Start with the fatty side up. As the heat warms it, the fat will melt and bath the meat to help keep it moist.

After the 15 minute total cooking time, cover the cooked meat and allow it to rest 10 minutes. Whence cut it into bit size cubes and serve over white rice. Extra sauce optional.

Cook's Note: some recipes cut the pork into mouthfuls before cooking. This is done by threading the meat cubes on skewers. It would cook the meat a little faster and is certainly more of a traditional way of serving this dish, the skewers being placed on top a mound of rice. I would like my bbq as bites to see on top of the rice. Minced scallions on top. There is no wrong way.

Jinhua Ham - the Chinese style of Virginia (Smithfield) Ham

A Brief Treatise on Chinese dry-cured Ham.

Recipe to follow.

Currently the American government will not allow Chinese Jinhua Ham (金华火腿) to be imported into the United States. What the cook must do is substitute Smithfield Ham or buy a small piece of Chinese style jinhua ham from a Brooklyn New York maker.


Misnomered Cured Ham it is manufactured by Prime Food Processing Corp. There address is:

Prime Food Processing Corp.
300 Vandervoort Ave. Brooklyn, NY 11211
(718) 963-2323


USDA Est. 19099
(this is the registry number given by the USDA)


So, readers, if you want as authentic an ingredient as possible, call these folks and ask where it's sold in your location.  I purchased this in Chinatown in Los Angeles California at: 

Wing Hop Fung (They sell over the internet.)

727 N. Broadway Suite #102
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Store Hours: 9 a.m - 6 p.m.
Open 7 days a week
Tel: (213) 626-7200
Fax: (213) 626-4744

End of Brief Treatise on Chinese dry cured Ham.

I used skinless, boneless chicken breasts as that is what I had on hand. This photo is from: hungerhunger (a daily obsession)

Wedding Party Banquet Dish

4 chicken breasts, boneless - small about 4 to 6 ounces each
10 dried Shiitake mushrooms, soaked and halved
8 ozs. Chinese jinhua ham
3 Tbs julienne ginger
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 t white pepper
1 1/2 Tbs cornstartch
1 Tbs xio xing wine (also spelled shao shing, shao hing)
1 1/4 Tbs light soy sauce
1/4 tsp sugar
2 tsp sesame oil
2 Tbs mushroom soaking water
16 ozs. Choy Sum (also Choi Sum, Tsoi Sum)


In a colander wash the choy sum, and allow it to drain while preparing all else. Soak the mushrooms in 1 1/4 cups of warm water. After 15 minutes, remove the mushrooms, de-stem and cut in half. There should be about 1 cup of soaking water. Reserve 2 Tbs. of the soaking water and use the remainder for the steamer. While the mushrooms are soaking, cut the ginger and reserve. Mix all the liquid ingredients with the salt, pepper and sugar. Stir and set aside. Open the package of ham, if using that pictured above. Slice the ham into pieces about 1/2 to 3/4 inch tall and 1 to 1 1/2 inch wide. Count the number of pieces of ham. Set aside. Make the same number of slits in the breasts as you have ham slices. Slit the breast cross-wise, but not all the way through. That's why I say "slit" not slice. Decorously put the choy sum on the platter. Place the ham slices in the chicken slits. Next, decorate the breasts with the shitake halves. Place the prepared breasts on top of the choy sum. Pour the liquid over each breast, using a finger to paint it all over the chicken, don't bother painting the ham slices as well. Sprinkle the ginger over the breasts, decorously. The ham slices should stick out over the surface of the ham. It's very structural when completed. Cover the plate snugly with aluminum foil.


Prep the wok with a steamer rack.  Add the remainder of the mushroom soaking water and 1 cup of water. Put the plate on the steamer rack. Cover the wok with a snug fitting lid. Put the heat on high for 10 minutes or a few minutes longer until you can hear the steamer water dancing. Lower to the lowest possible simmer.


Steam 30 minutes. When the time is up, carefully remove the plate so as to not spill the sauce, which will be poured over each breast. Meanwhile, make the rice when the steamer is steaming. The meal can sit in the wok a few minutes longer, if the rice isn't cooked after 30 minutes. Put the rice on a plate, and some steamed choy sum and put the steamed breast-ham over. Pour a fourth of the soaking liquid on each breast. Serve with soy sauce and sesame oil as table condiments.

Soon to be Ham