Some of the translations for "dim sum" are "heart's delight," "touch your heart," and "a little bit of heart." Dim sum includes an amazing assortment of small dishes and snacks that are enjoyed in restaurants and occasionally in homes. For the uninitiated, we highly recommend a trip to a dim sum restaurant, where customers are surrounded by bustling waiters and waitresses pushing carts full of morsels from which customers select whatever suits their fancy: char siu bao (buns filled with barbecue pork), ha gow and siu mai (stuffed savory dumplings), egg rolls, pot stickers, bite-sized portions of pork spareribs, stuffed bell peppers, lek doi (Chinese doughnuts), curried meat pastries, chicken in foil, dry-fried prawns, deep-fried taro root turnovers, beef meatballs on spinach beds, shrimp toast, and don tot (custard tarts) are only a sampling of what is offered. The dim sum are served with a variety of savory, sweet, spicy, or hot dips. (See the Sweets chapter on page 173 for additional recipes.) Few people take time now to make dim sum, but women in our family used to gather to socialize and make hundreds of those treats at a time. We hope you'll try making them with your friends, too. Ha Gow makes about 28 ha gow In dim sum restaurants, ha gow are single bites filled with shrimp and some bamboo shoots. The ha gow we used to make also included pork, water chestnuts, and black mushrooms and couldn't be eaten politely in just one bite. filling 2--3 black mushrooms 4 ounces pork shoulder (not too lean), cut into 1-inch cubes 5 ounces shrimp, peeled and deveined 2--3 fresh or canned water chestnuts, peeled if fresh, and sliced 2 ounces bamboo shoots, sliced 1/4 teaspoon sugar 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/8 teaspoon white pepper Few drops of sesame oil 1 teaspoon vegetable or peanut oil 1 teaspoon cornstarch mixed with 1 tablespoon water dough 2 cups wheat starch 1 1/2 cups boiling water condiments 2 teaspoons Coleman's Hot Mustard mixed with 1 teaspoon water (optional), soy sauce, chili oil Put the mushrooms in a small bowl with hot water to cover. Let stand 30 to 45 minutes to soften. Cut off and discard the hard stems. Rinse the caps, squeeze them dry, and cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Put the pork, shrimp, water chestnuts, black mushrooms, bamboo shoots, sugar, salt, pepper, and sesame oil in a food processor and chop coarsely (or chop the ingredients finely with a Chinese cleaver). Place a wok or skillet over high heat and heat the oil. Add the pork mixture and stir-fry 4 to 5 minutes, breaking up the mixture with a spatula. Stir in the cornstarch mixture and cook 1 minute longer, until the liquid has thickened. Set the filling aside and let cool. Oil two or three 9-inch round cake pans. Set a rack in a pot and add water to a depth of 1 1/2 to 2 inches. (If you are using a steamer, fill the lower tier of the steamer with water.) Put the wheat starch in a bowl. Bring 1 1/2 cups of water to a boil, then pour it over the wheat starch, stirring with chopsticks or a fork until the dough becomes too thick to stir. Allow the dough to cool just long enough to handle, then knead it with your hands in the bowl. (Be careful handling the hot dough, but don't wait too long-you will get a better result if the dough doesn't cool too much before you knead it.) Turn the dough out onto a board lightly dusted with wheat starch. Knead 1 minute, until the wheat starch is well incorporated. (Overkneading will make the dough too chewy, while underkneading will make a dough more prone to cracking or splitting open while cooking.) Divide the dough into quarters and shape each into a 1 1/2-inch diameter roll. Keep the unused portion in a bowl or on the board, covered with a damp cloth. Cut the first roll into 7 equal segments. Form one segment into a ball. Roll out into a circle about 3 1/2 inches in diameter. (If you want your ha gow to be uniform, use a 3 1/2-inch-diameter cookie cutter, open-ended can, or drinking glass. A 6-ounce tuna can works well. Scraps may be kneaded together and rerolled.) Pinch 6 or 7 pleats around half the circumference of the circle, creating a pocket. The pleated side should resemble the toe of a baby slipper. Spoon a heaping teaspoon of filling into the pocket, being careful to keep it from touching the edge of the dough. Firmly pinch the pleated side to the unpleated side to seal in the filling. Place the finished ha gow in the oiled pans 3/4 to 1 inch apart. (They will expand when they cook, so don't try to fit more than 8 to a pan.) Bring the water in the pot or steamer to a boil. Lower a pan onto the rack (or upper tiers of the steamer), cover, and steam 8 minutes over high heat. The dough will look raw and white when you open the pot but will become translucent as soon as it cools a little. Keep warm while you cook the remaining batches, adding water to the pan as needed. Serve hot, with small dishes of condiments for dipping. Excerpted from Every Grain of Rice: A Taste of Our Chinese Childhood in America by Annabel Low, Ellen Leong Blonder All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
