A guide to dim sum

A guide to dim sum | H is for Home

Dim sum isn’t just a tasty dish, but a social experience. The small bite-size morsels of food can be enjoyed together, as a meal to share, and there are many different delicious fillings and variations of dim sum to try. As a consequence, whilst dim sum is clearly exceptionally popular in Asia, it’s rapidly gaining a global fan base as well, with more and more people consuming this in the UK when going out for a meal with family or friends. Here’s our ultimate guide to the famous dish…

Dim sum etiquette – what you need to know before going to a dim sum restaurant

If you’ve never experienced dim sum before, you may be at a loss when it comes to the proper etiquette. These handy tips will ensure you appear to be a dim sum pro…

  • Begin with tea – When you walk into a truly traditional dim sum restaurant, you’ll certainly be given a pot of tea as soon as you sit down. House tea will always be served, however some restaurants will have a variation of different flavours for you to try. Once the pot is empty, you should leave the lid ajar or turn it upside down in order to let the waiter know that you want a refill. If someone fills your glass, you should tap the table to say thank you.
  • Share – As mentioned, dim sum is also a social experience, which is why it’s advisable to share. You can order a selection of small plates and enjoy them all together.
  • How to order – Ordering has never been easier, as the server with the dim sum cart will come to you. The server will have a few different dishes for you to try. If you don’t see the dim sum dish you were hoping for, don’t be afraid to ask. The majority of restaurants will bring you a fresh one from the kitchen.
  • Utensils – Most people use chopsticks to eat their dim sum – this is the traditional option. You should follow basic chopstick etiquette; i.e. never leave them sticking straight up from the bowl when not in use and don’t spear your food with them. However, if you’re not comfortable with using chopsticks, you certainly don’t have to sit there and struggle. Ask for a knife & fork if you need them.

Dim sum selection

Different dim sum dishes

Let’s take a look at the general options you can choose from when ordering dim sum dishes from any establishment…

  • Fung Zao – Fried steamed chicken feet
  • Pei Guen – Tofu skin roll, fried
  • Cheong Fan – Rolled rice noodles
  • Cha Siu Bao – Buns stuffed with barbecue pork, steamed
  • Siu Mai – Open-topped teamed shrimp or pork dumplings
  • Zhaliang – Fried noodle wrapped crullers
  • Pai Gwut – Steamed ribs
  • Chiu-Chao Fan Guo – Dumpling with shrimp, pork and peanuts – steamed
  • Har Gau – Steamed shrimp dumplings
  • Haam Siu Gau – Deep-fried glutinous rice dumplings with pork
  • Wu Gok – Purple taro dumplings with a savoury pork filling

Chicken feet dish

Chicken feet, a dim sum classic

If you’re new to dim sum, eating chicken feet may not sound an appetising prospect. However, it’s one of the most traditional Chinese dishes. You’ll find it served in almost all Chinese restaurants. It’s actually one of the tastiest dim sum dishes around. Plus, there’s nothing quite as satisfying as turning an ingredient that doesn’t appear appetising into a dish that many coo over.

x-ray of a hand

Are there any benefits in eating chicken feet?

  • Good joint health – Chicken feet promote good joint movement, whilst helping to minimise joint pain and arthritis. This is because they contain essential nutrients such as cartilage, collagen, calcium and protein.
  • Source of collagen – There are many benefits to be gained from collagen. Not only will your skin look younger and healthier, but it can assist the body to metabolise fats, which is why it’s good for weight loss. It also improves the blood supply by strengthening blood vessels.

Dish of chicken feet in marinade

How to cook chicken feet

There are lots of ways to prepare chicken feet, including healthy options like using an air fryer. Now we’ll talk you through a classic dim sum dish – braised chicken feet. Begin by preparing the chicken feet. Get rid of any blemishes and remove the claws using a sharp knife. Ensure the feet are thoroughly clean by rubbing them with a substantial amount of kosher salt. This will remove any loose skin or surface impurities. Simply rinse in water afterwards to get rid of any excess salt.

Next, deep fry the chicken feet in batches. Once submerged in hot oil, they can spit quite a lot, which is why you need to dry the chicken thoroughly beforehand. In addition, it’s always a good idea to keep the lid on the cooking pot. Fry the feet until they’re brown. Once removed, you’ll need to make a brine for the feet to go in. There are different methods to making brine – the easiest is to pour hot water over the aromatics you’ve used; anything such as chillis, ginger, peppercorns and bay leaves. Once you’ve put the chicken into the brine, immediately add some cold water to cool it down. A splash of wine is never a bad addition either.

Leave the chicken feet to marinate for a few hours or overnight. After this, braise the feet until they’re tender. You can actually use the brine to form the base of your braise. After around two hours, the chicken should be tender and ready to enjoy. Why not make a sauce to accompany it?

All in all, there’s no denying that dim sum offers a great taste experience!

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We’re going Stir Crazy!

Plate of spicy spring onion salsa verde with kale and konjac noodles made using a recipe from 'Stir Crazy' by Ching-He Huang | H is for Home

This Thursday, instead of our usual Cakes & Bakes offering, we’re sharing a cookbook review.

Cover of 'Stir Crazy' cook book by Ching-He Huang | H is for Home

It’s Stir Crazy by Emmy-nominated TV chef, Ching-He Huang. Born in Taiwan and raised in South Africa and the U.K., Ching shares 100 healthy stir fry recipes in her recently-published book.

In addition to the recipes, Ching sheds light on helpful wok-cooking methods. She reveals some of her ‘stir-fry hacks’ and explains the order in which ingredients should be cooked off and why. And, if you’re on a special diet – she’s got you covered – each recipe helpfully sets out the nutritional information of the dish.

As a veggie, I was thrilled to see that there are 80 pages of purely vegetarian and vegan recipes. Furthermore, in the meat and fish sections, she give lots of helpful tips as to how to convert them to veggie dishes, if so desired.

'Stir Crazy' cook book by Ching-He Huang with selection of noodles from Yutaka | H is for Home

Not only is this a book review, it’s also a food review; along with Stir Crazy, we’ve been sent a selection of  dried and ready-to-eat noodles from Yutaka to try.

'Stir Crazy' cook book by Ching-He Huang with selection of noodles from Yutaka | H is for Home

The only way to properly review a cookbook AND noodles is to try out one of the recipes using some of the ingredients sent. I chose Ching’s simple spicy spring onion salsa verde with kale and noodles. However, instead of using egg noodles as her recipe called for, I used the pack of the gluten free and organic konjac noodles (called shirataki in Japan).

In addition to being gluten free, the root vegetable Konjac is vegan, low in calories, low in fat and high in fibre. It’s extremely low in carbs, so if you’re following a ketogenic diet this is a fantastic product to include in your meals.

Nutritional information for Yutaka konjac noodles | H is for Home Yutaka konjac noodles tossed in toasted sesame oil | H is for Home

My usual trinity of flavours for wok cooking are chilli, garlic and ginger. However, This recipe didn’t use garlic but a couple of spring onions. The smell of the flavours combining when they were being fried off together were divine.

Chopped ginger and sliced red chilli and spring onion | H is for Home

If I hadn’t been stopping after each stage to take photos, this recipe could have been rustled up in under half an hour. Quick, healthy – and most important of all – tasty!

There are so many other recipes in the book that I want to give a go – Kung Po tofu, vegetable chop suey, egg foo yung, aubergines in a spicy peanut sauce, spicy coriander chickpea fried rice… are you drooling yet?!

Frying chopped ginger and sliced red chilli and spring onion in a large wok | H is for Home Frying spicy spring onion salsa verde with kale and konjac noodles in a large wok | H is for Home

All this talk of stir fries is making me hungry – here’s the recipe…

Spicy spring onion salsa verde with kale and noodles
Serves 2
Prep Time
12 min
Cook Time
5 min
Total Time
17 min
Prep Time
12 min
Cook Time
5 min
Total Time
17 min
Ingredients
  1. 200g pack Yutaka konjac noodles
  2. 2tsp toasted sesame oil
  3. 120g curly kale, sliced
  4. 2tbsp rapeseed oil
  5. pinch of sea salt flakes
  6. knob of fresh root ginger, peeled an grated
  7. 1 red chilli, de-seeded and finely sliced at an angle
  8. pinch of dried chilli flakes
  9. 2 spring onions, finely chopped
  10. 50ml cold vegetable stock
  11. 1tbsp low-sodium light soy sauceSpicy spring onion salsa verde with kale and noodles ingredients
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Instructions
  1. Drain the liquid from the konjac noodles using a sieve and rinse under a cold tap
  2. Put the noodles into a bowl, drizzle over the 2tsp toasted sesame oil and toss. Set aside
  3. Pour 1 litre of water into a pan and bring to the boil. Add the kale and blanch for 3-5 seconds, then drain and set aside
  4. Heat a wok over a high heat until smoking and add the rapeseed oil
  5. Add the salt and let it dissolve in the hot oil
  6. Add the ginger, fresh chilli, dried chilli and spring onions in quick succession to explode their flavours in the wok
  7. Add the vegetable stock and stir-fry on a medium heat for 30 seconds
  8. Add the kale and noodles and toss all the ingredients together to warm through
  9. Season with the light soy sauce and give it one final toss, then transfer to serving plates and eat immediately
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Adapted from Stir Crazy
Adapted from Stir Crazy
H is for Home Harbinger https://hisforhomeblog.com/

Gimme Five! Carbon steel woks

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selection of 5 large carbon steel woks via H is for Home

As you probably know by now, we love to cook at home. Indian, Italian and French dishes rub shoulders with traditional English classics. One of our favourites is Chinese; we currently have two large woks – one for veg and the other for fish and meat. Nothing beats a wok if you’re making a mixed stir fry or an egg fried rice. However, making the latter in our current woks is a horrendous experience, the rice sticks to the inside very badly.

We’ve had enough… we’re after a couple of decent carbon steel woks that makes cooking fried rice a pleasure, not a pain! We use them so often, we know exactly what we want – carbon steel rather than aluminium or Teflon-coated, a long handle so we can toss properly, a hanging hook to store it out of the way and finally, the higher the sides and larger the size the better.

  1. Typhoon® carbon steel signature wok, ∅36cm: £24.99, Lakeland
  2. John Lewis wok set, ∅35cm: £35, John Lewis
  3. Swift carbon steel wok, ∅34cm: £16.46, Divertimenti
  4. Ken Hom Tao Plus carbon steel wok, ∅36cm: £29.99, Argos
  5. Flat-based carbon steel wok, ∅36cm & wooden handled wok shovel: £17.50 eBay

Jiucai you bing

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Sliced jiucai you bing or scallion pancake with chilli, garlic, ginger sweet dipping sauce | @hisforhome

Shrove Tuesday falls on 17th February this year and Chinese New Year (it’s the year of the goat which is my sign) follows on the 19th. To celebrate both days, I’ve tried my hand at jiucai you bing. Jiucai you bing is also known as scallion pancakes (scallions is ‘American’ for spring onions).

dough resting in a glass bowl

Apparently they’re eaten in China at breakfast time and are a widely available street food. They’re more like flatbread than what we’d usually recognise as pancakes. In fact, what they’re more similar to is Indian paratha.

Rolled out jiucai you bing dough

I don’t think I’ve ever come across these for sale in UK Chinese restaurants or supermarkets but after looking online they seem to be quite popular in the States.

Jiucai you bing dough filled, rolled and sliced

This was my first attempt at making them and they went down so well I think I’ll be giving them a go again very soon.

Jiucai you bing dough rolled, twisted and flattened

They’d make a great starter paired with a little bowl of soy sauce, peanut sauce or chilli, garlic ginger sweet dipping sauce.

Sliced jiucai you bing

Jiucai you bing

Chinese spring onion pancakes
Course Side Dish
Cuisine Chinese

Ingredients
  

  • 500 g/18oz plain flour plus extra for rolling out
  • 1 tbsp baking powder
  • 2 tbsp sesame oil
  • ½ bunch thinly sliced spring onions about 6 stems
  • 2 tsp chilli flakes
  • ½ tsp cracked peppercorns
  • 1 tbsp sea salt
  • vegetable oil for frying

Instructions
 

  • In the bowl of a food mixer, combine the flour, baking powder and sea salt. Make a well in the centre
  • Add 315ml/11fl oz water into the well and, using the dough hook attachment, mix until the dough comes away from the sides and forms a ball (less than a minute)
  • Cover the bowl with cling film and allow the dough to rest at room temperature for about an hour
  • Turn out on to a lightly floured surface, divide into halves, putting one back into the bowl and recovering with cling film
  • Roll the first ball of dough out into a rectangle ½cm thick
  • Brush the rolled out dough with 1tbsp sesame oil
  • Sprinkle 1tsp chilli flakes, ¼tsp cracked peppercorns and half the sliced spring onions
  • Roll up the dough tightly along the long side into a cigar shape and cut into 3 equal pieces
  • One by one, gently stretch each piece before rolling it into a spiral and tucking one end under
  • Flatten each spiral into a disc of about 1cm thickness
  • Repeat stages 5-10 with the second half of the dough
  • Put a heavy bottomed frying pan or skillet over a medium flame and add vegetable oil
  • Once hot, fry the pancakes for 5-8 minutes on each side until browned
  • Serve hot with soy sauce and/or sweet chilli, garlic, ginger dipping sauce
Jiucai you bing / scallion pancakes ingredients
Keyword flat bread, flatbread, pancakes