Dim Sum - Bok Choy Roll

Every year millions of people tell themselves that they will eat more vegetables and take better care of their health for their New Years' resolution.  Well, I have more Dim Sum for the Holidays ... this time Bok Choy Rolls.   These are even a bit healthy!

Spiced, ground chicken wrapped in bok choy (Chinese cabbage, pichay in Tagalog) leaves and steamed.  Low fat, good fiber, decent protein content ... and they taste good, too. 

Yes, these make it easier to follow your resolution to eat better. 
Bok Choy Rolls are also really easy to make.

So, good for you, easy to make, and yummy.  If pizza wasn't already Nature's Most Perfect Food, these might come close. 

Oh, who am I kidding?  Burgers, bacon, lasagna, and many other delicious foods would be higher on the list than this one.  Still, they're good! 

Ingredients

• Bok choy leaves
• Ground chicken breast
  
• Crushed garlic
• Grated ginger
• Salt
• Soy sauce
• Chopped green onion
  

Procedure

I diced up some boneless, skinless chicken breast.

I ground up the chicken breast finely in Big Iron's grinder attachment.

I eyeballed the things to add ... just made it smell good.  Normally I'm very careful about how much I add ... measuring, weighing, writing down notes ... this time I was just playing around.

I wouldn't need the filling for a few days.  So, I put the filling into a zip-top bag for storage in the deep freeze.

I took the bok choy, washed it, and cut off the ends.  I sorted through and picked the best and largest leaves.  Some of them were nearly white and I didn't want that.  I wanted green.  I think our pig enjoyed the white leaves very much.

I blanched the leaves in boiling water to soften them.  About ten minutes in the pot per leaf.

After the hot bath, into cold, cold water to stop the cooking process.

For each roll, I laid out a leaf and put in approximately one tablespoon of my filling.

I folded the end of the leaf over my filling.

Sorry about the fuzzy photo.  Didn't notice again ... my lens was a bit blurry after taking a photo of the leaves in boiling water.  Note to self: camera phones don't like steam.

Anyway, just fold over the end and roll up to seal.

Here are the little rolled beauties waiting on the baking sheet for their final dip into the hot water.

Finally, I steamed the rolls for ten minutes.

Remember: Steam is hot.  Hot hurts.  Just a kitchen tip from me to you.

Seeing all these laid out and done was really great.  I had a definite sense of accomplishment seeing 40 of these ready-to-eat.

Now, the question is ... how were they?


Test Results

Primary Test Group: Delicious! Masarap!


Test Group Rotary: Completely eaten quickly.


Potential Improvements

I'd spice them more next time.  Possibly some oyster sauce or hoisin sauce.

I think next time I'll blanch the leaves longer ... maybe steam them longer.  Make the leaves softer.

Potential Variations

Like anything wrapped, this could have just about anything inside the leaves.  I think that chicken, though, is probably the best.  Its flavor is mild and compliments the bok choy leaves well.

Conclusions

These are good.  And, as I mentioned, healthy too.  Whenever I make Dim Sum, I'll definitely make these along with it.

Dim Sum - Baked Chicken Curry Hum Bao

More Christmas Dim Sum!  A soft, slightly sweet bun stuffed with chicken curry.  A delightful, delicious surprise inside an already tasty bun.

I love these.  Baked hum bao (baked buns) are the first Dim Sum that I tried.  I fell in love immediately.  Soft, sweet bun willed with delicious Chinese goodness.

This is the food that eventually led me to loving Dim Sum and Chinese food in general.  When finding good sources of these delicious culinary treasure boxes, I ran into many other Chinese delicacies.

This recipe is from a book that's currently in print, so exact ingredients and quantities are again left out.  This is from Dim Sum: The Art of Chinese Tea Lunch by Ellen Leong Blonder.  This is a great cookbook.  Definitely recommended


Procedure

I thoroughly diced some boneless, skinless chicken breast.

Then, I put the chicken into a frying pan for pre-cooking.  Baking these is like cooking pizza ... the meat needs to be cooked before going into the oven.  The bun don't spend enough time in the oven to cook the meat properly.

Like the spatula?  I love my silicon spatulas.  Solid, single-piece ... can take really high temperatures.  They don't get hot, either.  A very cheap luxury.  Highly recommended!

I sliced (and later diced) some carrots and onions.  The purple circles on the left are slices of a local onion.  They're quite small.  And, as you can see, the local carrots are quite large.

Diced onion, crushed garlic, and diced carrots go into the frying pan for some softening.  Oh, the smell was fantastic.

Here's the rest of the ingredients for the filling.  Some peas, curry powder (of course), salt, and a few other spices.

I tossed everything into the bowl and mixed thoroughly.

I didn't need this for a few days.  So, I put it into a zip-top bag for storage in the freezer.

I used to use tape on the bags to label them.  Now, I just use a permanent marker to write directly on the bag.  Works great.

It's now a couple days later and I'm ready to make the buns.  The dough starts out like any decent, soft, heavenly bread with some shortening and flour.  I used a pastry cutter to cut the shortening into the flour.

After cutting in the shortening, I added the rest of the ingredients to the dough ... a little sugar, salt, yeast, all the usual suspects.  I'm not a fan of kneading bread by hand, so into my mixer it went.  10 minutes of thrashing by my well-used bread hook.

Like all breads, this one needed to rise.  About an hour until the dough doubled.  Your results may vary as room temperature here is fairly warm (80F / 27C).

I rolled out the dough into a rectangle.  About twelve inches by nine inches.

I divided the dough into twenty four little pieces. I sliced it into approximately three inch square pieces.  That yielded a dozen pieces.  Then, I cut each piece in half.

I formed each piece into a small circle.  The edges of the circle I made thinner than the center.  The edges will form the bottom of the bun.  If the edges are the same thickness as the center, the filling in the finished bun will be sitting atop a large piece of dough.

For each little bun, I put a heaping spoonful of filling in the center.

I folded two edges over the filling and pinched.

I folded the other two edges over the center and pinched.

I brought the four corners into the center and pinched to seal everything.

Finally, I twisted the center to seal completely.  Sorry about the fuzzy photo.  I only noticed that it was fuzzy only long after I finished.

Twisting the bottom ensures that the contents are sealed.  It also creates some tension on the top of the bun.  This helps makes the top smoother.

I turned over each bun and placed it onto a piece of parchment on a baking sheet.

I brushed each bun with an egg wash.  Then, into the oven for about 20 minutes.

Just look at those beauties as they came out of the oven!

Here are the buns as they were packed.  Look at the golden tops, the shine.  The promise of good things to come upon biting into them.

I was so happy when these came out of the oven.  Look at the golden tops.  The bread was soft and sweet.  Just like I remembered.

Test Results

Primary Test Group:  Delicious kuya!  Marasa!

Test Group Rotary:  Eaten quickly and heartily.  Many questions about how it's made.  Requests to make again.

Potential Improvements

These turned out very well.  Unfortunately, they were a bit small.  Next time, I'll make a dozen buns from the recipe and not two dozen.

Potential Variations

The fillings for these are quite varied.  Most savory, some sweet.  One can also steam these.

Personally, I want to fill them with BBQ pork.  So very, very good.

Conclusions

I love these.  Most people love these.  I'll make them over and over.  I recommend that everyone try!

If you don't make them, at least go to your local decent Dim Sum restaurant or Chinese bakery and get some hum bao.  If you're new to eating these, start with char siu bao (Chinese BBQ pork-filled buns).  They're really the best!

Dim Sum - Rice Pearls

Christmas Day here ... outside my family is having a party.  My wife invited our workers and their families over for a Christmas Day Party.  From the laughing outside, they're having a good time.  Here, with my sore throat, I'm having not-so-great of a time ... but, I'm doing OK. 

I just plugged my phone/camera/note-taking-device into my computer for the first time in a week and realized that I had a lot of pictures in it from foods that I'd cooked.  And, I just looked at my posting history for the past couple of weeks ... dismal!

I guess that means that I'm going to have to be serious about my New Year's resolution: be more disciplined.  I'll believe it when I do it. 

Those spotty blobs you see in the picture to the right are actually rice pearls.  Sorry about the bad picture, I had to take it very quickly while serving them at the Board of Directors meeting for my local Rotary club. 

December was my turn to sponsor the food.  I brought Dim Sum.  If it didn't turn out well ... well, the food was free for them.  Grin and eat it.  Haha.

Apparently, the food wasn't bad as all but four small pieces were eaten.

This recipe is from the Smith Dim Sum book that is in print.  So, I'm not going to list the precise ingredients.

Ingredients

• Ground lean beef
• Pilit (sticky rice)
• Tapol (purple sticky rice)
• Chinese spices
  

Procedure

I took the two kinds of rice and boiled them separately for about 10 minutes to briefly pre-cook the rice.  Not completely cooked, though.

I mixed the rices together.  Not completely as I wanted the colors to have nice areas.

I mixed together the ground beef and Chinese spices.  I made little meatballs, about one tablespoon each in size.

I rolled each meatball in the rice.  Using my hands, cupped to form a crude sphere, I molded each into balls.  I put each molded rice pearl into a steamer on parchment.

Steam for about 30 minutes to cook everything thoroughly.  When you remove the rice pearls from the steamer, remember this one little fact: live steam is really, incredibly hot.  Don't ask me how I know.

Serve with some kind of sauce.  I happened to like them with a sweet chili sauce.

Test Results

Primary Test Group:  Good, tasty!

Test Group Rotary:  No direct comments.  However, all but three were eaten.

Potential Improvements

I would steam them longer.  Maybe 45 minutes to an hour.  Make the rice more tender.

Conclusions

These are good.  They make great h'oeur deurves.  If you make these, make sure you serve them with some kind of sweet sauce.  They're fantastic that way.

Sinful Pork Ribs

From what I understand, gluttony is one of the Seven Deadly Sins. I think, after tonight, I've racked up enough of that particular sin to last a few lifetimes. Know that, if I had to do it all over again, I would!

It all started innocently. I was coming home from getting a haircut when I stopped by a new meat shop in town. It's owned by a fellow member of the local Rotary Club. So, I figured it would be OK.

I walked in and scanned the place. It's the usual local meat shop ... mostly pork and chicken with some random vegetables for those who don't want to go down to the mercado to pick out the best available (pay more for lower quality just to save time? no thanks ... not for me).

The sales girl asked "how much of the pork do you want?" I simply replied "all, please". Why all? Because pork ribs are hard to find around here. I have one place in town where I can get them on a regular basis and I won't tell anyone else. Most of the local pork ribs are snatched by the restaurants before the ribs even hit the market. This might be a second place where I can get ribs. That's good.

So, I took the ribs home and go to work ...

Ingredients

• 2.5 kilograms pork ribs
• 2 cups Kuya's Kitchen Kansas City-style Barbecue Sauce
• 1 tablespoon salt
  

Procedure

I preheated the oven to 300F (150C).

Then, I prepared the meat. I took each piece and trimmed it of excess fat. I also like to cut the spinal portions from the rib portions. This is fairly easy to do if you have a sharp and sturdy chef's knife. If you don't have one, get one! Mine is 20 years old. They are absolutely worth the investment!

Don't forget to remove any silverskin! That stuff doesn't chew well, doesn't let through any flavors, or anything good. It's just an impediment to your eating pleasure. Remove it with extreme prejudice.

Here is the final product. From left to right, I have one rib piece, one spine piece, and a bit of extra that I will use later to grind into ground pork for making sausage.

Here are my basting utensils and supplies. Notice the lovely bottle of Kuya's Kitchen Kansas City-style Barbecue Sauce. Oh, what a grand bottle and such a fancy, fancy label upon it, too!

I laid out all the prepared and cleaned ribs onto a half-sized baking sheet. Oh, look at all those lovely ribs sitting there waiting to be seasoned, sauced, cooked, and eaten!

I sprinkled approximately a tablespoon of salt onto these and let them sit for an hour.

After sitting for an hour, I poured some of my barbecue sauce on the ribs and used the brush to get the sauce everywhere.

After brushing all the ribs with sauce, I transferred the ribs to a 9" x 13" roasting pan. Why I didn't just put the ribs in there in the first place? Honestly, I don't know. Perhaps my mother dropped me on my head too many times as a baby. In any case, next time I'll just put the ribs directly into the roasting pan.

I poured about two cups of the barbecue sauce all over the ribs. I sealed the pan with aluminum foil. Then, put the pan into the oven for two-and-a-half hours. Yes, 150 minutes! Seems like a long time. Trust me!

Here are the ribs after their 2.5 hour stint in the hot box. Wow, look at them. Yes, I removed the aluminum foil.

At this point, I turned the temperature up to 350F (175C). I also basted them heavily with their own juices.
Then, back into the oven for another 20 minutes. You could eat these already, but don't! Let a nice thick juicy layer of sauce form on the ribs. You'll be happy you did.

Here they are. Nearly three hours of cooking and they are magnificent!

Let the ribs sit for about 10 minutes. This will let the juices distribute nicely in the meat.

I used some tongs to pile these up onto a plate to serve. The only problem I had was that the meat was so tender that the ribs tended to break apart.

Test Results

Primary Test Group: We've already eaten, kuya ... but, we'll have a bite. *chomp* *chomp* *chomp* Good kuya! *chomp* *chomp* *chomp*

I suspect they liked it. Here's what they left of the 2.5 kilograms of ribs:

And, here's one of the ravenous beasts my sous chef attempting to gnaw on the bones!

Test Group C: Small sample going out. Update to come soon.

Potential Improvements

More ribs.

Potential Variations

More ribs.

Try cooking in the smoker with coconut sawdust to make the smoke.

Maybe a little extra flavor like cooking them with onions on top or try cooking them with potatoes.

Conclusions

Definitely needed more ribs.

Absolute winner. I had a hard time cutting the ribs apart they were so tender. The meat was just falling everywhere.

I'm so proud right now ...

Char Siu Showdown!

I want to be able to make good Dim Sum.  Really good, if possible.  I miss it.  And, I'm sure folks around here would like it.  I know my sous chef (pictured to the right) does!

For a while now, I've used a char siu (Chinese BBQ) sauce from a jar I buy at the store.  While it is somewhat OK, it's not great.  It doesn't taste authentic.

And, of course, I want to make the char siu pork from scratch.  Just like everything else.

So, I started snagging recipes from the web.  When I was done, I had eight different recipes I was going to try.  This was going to be a big cooking session.  I felt it was worth it to ensure that I found the right recipe, quickly.

While I was preparing to do the cooking, I noticed that four of the eight recipes were the same.  Just different multiples of ingredients.  So, I cut my list in half.  I adjusted each recipe to produce approximately the same amount of marinade.

With recipes in hand, I set out to test!  Mixing the marinades was easy .. just a little tedious as I didn't want to get things wrong.  I was very careful in ensuring that everything went into the correct bowls.  Four bowls of dark red yummy liquid ...

 

I used pork tenderloin for the meat. I know this isn't exactly authentic. But, it's readily available here. Other cuts, not so much. I like reliability.

  

For each recipe, I poured the marinade into a zip-lock bag ... followed by a few cuts of the pork tenderloin.  I put all the bags, in a stew pot for the color safety of the rest of my fridge's goodies, in my chest fridge over night.

  

Mmm, look at those hunks of meat on the rack ready to go into the oven!  Oh, I can taste it already!

  

  

While cooking, I had an idea.  All of the recipes called for pure roasting and basting.  No other methods.  While I'm sure that's the way that they do it in restaurants, I wanted to try something else.

So, I took one piece of pork from Recipe G and created Recipe H.  I cooked it in its own marinade for 30 minutes.  Then, took it out and roasted it for 15 minutes.

  

Recipe H looked pretty good coming out.  I had high hopes for it.

  

Here's all the cooked pork, lined up, labeled and ready to test.

 

Test Results

Recipes G and H won.  These were both from the chair siu recipe from Tigers & Strawberries by Barbara Fisher.

Interestingly, the recipe that used garlic was a big hit with many of the Filipinos.  It was sweeter than the others.  I think that's the main reason.

Conclusions

Now onto step 2: test cooking methods.  I'm looking at roasting, baking it in its marinade then roasting, and smoking.

I'll let you know ...