Dim sum with potatoes and cucumbers
10 servings
60 minutes
The recipe was shared by Li Shan, a chef at the Turandot restaurant.
1
Pour 400 ml of water into a saucepan or pot, place it on the heat, bring to a boil, turn off the heat and let it sit for 2 minutes. The starch will be dissolved in this water.
2
Pour 160 grams of wheat and potato starch into a bowl and add hot water. The mixture of starches will give the dough elasticity, stretchiness, and fluffiness.
- Wheat starch: 250 g
- Potato starch: 70 g
3
Knead the dough with a wooden spoon until everything combines into a sticky mass.
4
When everything turns into a more or less homogeneous lump, place it on a wooden board and flatten it with your palm or a pastry spatula. Pour 90 grams of wheat starch in the center, wrap it in the dough like an envelope, and continue kneading the dough by hand.
- Wheat starch: 250 g
5
When the dough becomes somewhat smooth, you need to pour 20 ml of vegetable oil on it. This is necessary to bind the ingredients more tightly together and to ensure that the dough stretches evenly without tearing.
- Vegetable oil: 50 ml
6
Continue kneading the dough until it becomes almost glossy and elastic like polymer clay or plasticine. Cover the finished dough with plastic wrap.
7
The next step is optional. You can color part of the dough to make the dim-sums look nicer. Take a piece of dough weighing 50 grams and cover the rest with plastic wrap. Place plastic wrap on the board, then the dough on top, and add 20 ml of food coloring to it. You can use factory-made food coloring or beet juice or squid ink. The dough with the coloring needs to be kneaded well to ensure it colors evenly.
- Vegetable oil: 50 ml
8
The prepared colored dough should also be wrapped in plastic to prevent it from drying out.
9
Then tear off 50 grams of the white dough and roll it into a sausage shape. After that, take the next 50 grams — and so on. It's better to roll with your hands without gloves to feel the texture better.
10
Roll the colored dough into a sausage shape as well. Then cut both sausages into portions. A total of 10 grams of dough is needed for 1 dim-sum. Flatten the pieces of dough, place the yellow on the white, slightly shifting it to the edge, and stretch the dough with a flat knife from the center to the edges.
11
The semi-transparent dough should be two colors, with the circle size being the inner part of the palm.
12
Now for the filling. Cut the cucumber lengthwise into four parts, remove the seeds: the center of the cucumber is too watery. The remaining part should be chopped into small cubes.
- Cucumbers: 30 g
13
Cut 1 raw potato into cubes like this. Small pieces are needed so the filling doesn't tear the delicate dough; large chunks may not fit in the dough. Heat 30 ml of vegetable oil in a pan, fry half an onion until golden, then discard the onion and fry the potato in the oil for 3 minutes, stirring constantly.
- Potato: 30 g
- Onion: 0.5 head
- Vegetable oil: 50 ml
14
Add soy sauce to the fried potatoes and mix.
- Chinese soy sauce: 30 ml
15
Then add cucumber, a spoonful of dry chicken broth, a small pinch of monosodium glutamate, a pinch of salt, and a spoonful of sugar. Additionally, you need to add a mixture of hot water and potato starch, literally 1 or 2 tablespoons to make the filling sticky. The proportions are: for 1 part starch use 2.5 parts hot water. Finally, add finely chopped cilantro and mix everything.
- Cucumbers: 30 g
- Dry chicken broth: 1 tablespoon
- Monosodium glutamate: pinch
- Salt: pinch
- Sugar: 1 tablespoon
- Potato starch: 70 g
- Wheat starch: 250 g
- Coriander: 20 g
16
In one dim-sum, there are 10 grams of dough and 18 grams of filling. Place the filling in the center of the circle.
17
To have the colored spot on top, start pinching the dim-sum from the white edge. Fold the circle in half and start gathering the dough into pleats from one side and sticking it to the opposite edge.
18
The dim-sum will slightly curve on one side due to being filled, while the other side will be smooth. Upon reaching the end, leave a small hole. The filling in a properly sealed dim-sum should barely peek out of the hole but not spill out. There should be a total of 10-12 pleats.
19
Vegetable dim sums are steamed very quickly, in 2.5 minutes. At home, they can be prepared in a bamboo steamer (which needs to be placed over a pot of boiling water) or in a regular one. Time is estimated visually: when the dough becomes transparent, it's ready.
20
Before serving, brush the dim-sums with vegetable oil to make them shine.
- Vegetable oil: 50 ml