Yum Cha at 46

I have yet to find any yum cha (Chinese tea drinking) restaurant in Cambridge that do dim sum for brunch. Being rather an international place, I sometimes find it difficult to find authentic Chinese Asian cuisine here. Of course according to one of my "Ang Moh" friend, the best for value Chinese restaurant is none other than Jin Ling which is next to Corn Exchange in Cambridge city centre. I agree on the portion but as in the quality ( just so so). Thank goodness London is just an hour away by train, which to me primarily has much greater varieties, and secondly they cater to my South East Asian tastebud at a reasonable price. I always try to avoid "eat all you can" Chinese buffet as the foods there are really crap.
Having said that, I'm not that desperate enough to head down to Chinatown in London yet. Being able to prepare some authentic dim sum myself, I'm gonna made Loh Mai Kai [Glutinous Rice with chicken] and Guo Tie [potsticker] before the Saturday morning cycle ride. As usual, my cycle buddy has been chosen to be my homemade dim sum cuisine guinea pig. Homely invitation to : Yum Cha@46

Guo Tie ( Pot Sticker)

Guo Tie (Pot Sticker)

Ingredients
(Good for making 12 pieces of guo tie, 2 persons)

Guo Tie Skin

• 50 gm of flour
• 25 ml water
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp cooking oil

Fillings

• 150 gm minced pork
• 1 tbsp shaoxing wine or dry sherry
• 2 tbsp light soya sauce
• 1 1/2 tbsp sesame oil
• 50 gm spring onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 tbsp ginger juice (optional)

1. Prepare the filling. Put the minced pork in a bowl, add soya sauce, shaoxing wine, sesame oil, ginger juice and spring onion. Use a spoon to mix well and let it to marinate for at least 2 hours.
2. Prepare the skin, in amixing bowl pour in the flour, salt, then add water and oil. Knead well for about 5 minutes until it doesn't stick to your finger. If it's too dry, wet your hand with some water and knead, if it's too wet, dust your hand with flour and knead. Let it to rest for 15mins.
3. Roll the dough into long cylinder, divide into 12 little pieces of dough. Using a rolling pin , roll each pieces to form round skin of 3 inches in diameter, not too thick and not too thin.
4. On each skin, place a tbsp of fillings. Wrap and stick the edges, if you fancy you can plait it, if you're lazy like me I chose the former.
5. On a pan, lightly grease thinly with vegetable oil(roughly abot 1/2tbsp), on medium heat. Once heated place the guo tie into the pan(depending how big your pan is, mine able to accomodate 15 pieces at one go), brown on both side by turning them over. Once browned, pour some water(about 100ml) into the pan to let it steam cook, cover with lid, and lower the fire. Cook for 5mins until the liquid is dry, using a spatula try to lighly scrape the guo tie from the pan.
   
6. Serve with black vinegar (Chinkiang vinegar) and some ginger shread.

The skin is so easy to make, no need to run down to Chinese store to get gyoza wrapper. I prefer to do everything by scratch.

Note: If you want to keep it to cook later, make sure you dust enough flour to the guo tie else it will stick to the container and the skin will break. I prefer to make it and cook it immediately.

Loh Mai Kai

Loh Mai Kai (Glutinuos Rice with chicken)

Ingredients
(Good for making 4 little bowl, for 4 persons)

• 250g glutinous rice
• 2 cups water
• 100g chicken meat
• 50g lean pork meat
• 1 Chinese sausage (lap cheong), thinly sliced
• 10g black Chinese mushrooms, soaked and cut into thin slices
• 5 shallots, sliced
  

Seasoning (A):

• 1 tsp light soy sauce
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp oyster sauce(optional)
• 1 tsp ginger juice
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp Shaoxing wine
• 1/2 tsp dark soy sauce
• 1 tsp oil
• 1 tsp cornflour
  

Seasoning (B):

• 1 1/2 tsp light soy sauce
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 Tbsp oil
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp dark soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp Chinese five spice powder(I tend to use 1 tbsp, more fragant)
  

Method

Wash glutinous rice, then soak it for two to three hours. Steam it for 30 minutes.

Cut chicken and pork meat into slices. Marinate with seasoning (A) for about one to two hours.

Heat oil in a wok and saute shallots till fragrant. Add mushroom slices and stir fry quickly then dish up. Add cooked glutinous rice and seasoning (B) and water. Stir fry well for five minutes.

Grease four medium-size rice bowls. Add some fried shallots and mushroom slices, a few slices of Chinese sausages and seasoned chicken and pork slices. Fill up with glutinous rice and press down with a ladle.

Steam for 30-40 minutes. Turn over the rice bowl onto a plate and serve Loh Mai Kai with chilli sauce.

P/S: This recipes I downloaded from Kuali. I tried and it's really good.

By the way, we finished everything that's served on the table..... a sign of budding chef in the making :-) .

Yummy.... please, please don't drool over the nice pictures of my food. :-)