Thursday 19 June 2014

Pearl Balls - Dim Sum

Dim Sum refers to a wide variety of light Chinese snacks usually enjoyed with tea.
I'm always very 'greedy' when having dim sum brunch at the restaurant or tea house (茶楼),  I tend to 'over ordered' and 'over eaten' cause wanna try a bit of everything... be it steamed,  deep fried or baked types. That's why I prefer to enjoy dim sum at the restaurant (especially dim sum buffet) vs homemade as I would not be able to make such huge varieties.  But still, I would occasionally dish out 1 or 2 types of homemade dim sum for my family on some weekends.

I haven't made dim sum for quite sometime. Made some steamed Lo Mai Kai 糯米鸡 was last December.

As my dim sum cookbook was 'lost & found' hee hee LOL ! ... decided to try some dim sum recipes that I haven't attempted from this cookbook ...  small meaty Pearl Balls 珍珠丸子 for our afternoon tea.



Pearl Balls 珍珠丸子
Adapted from the cookbook of Judy Lew
Ingredients: makes 18
Meat mixture
450g lean ground pork
1 Chinese sausage, minced
1/4 Cup : chopped bamboo shoots, Chinese mushroom soaked, rinsed and chopped.
1 tablespoon rice wine (I used brandy)
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 tablespoon sesame oil
(I marinated meat mixture and let it stand for 30 mins)

5 water chestnuts cut into quarters
1 Cup glutinous rice (soaked in water for 1 hour and drained)

Method
1) Combine meat mixture. Surround each piece of water chestnut with meat mixture to form a 4cm ball.


2) Roll each meat ball in glutinous rice.
3) Place in a steamer and steam for 25 minutes.

I have omitted the bamboo shoots and replaced with some finely minced water chestnut.

Served with some hot Chinese tea ... these small meaty balls are really tasty ... not overly filling for our tea snack.




I am linking this post to Cook-Your-Book#13 organized by Joyce (Kitchen Flavours).

8 comments:

  1. I do agree with you, I am greedy too when eating out at dimsum restaurant! Tend to order more than we can finish! Haha!
    Your dimsum looks yummy! Homemade is definitely cheaper as it is really not cheap eating dimsum at the restaurants!
    Thanks for sharing with CYB!

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    1. Thanks Joyce. Oh yes homemade dim sum is definitely taste better & cheaper and won't over eat... good to watch my waistline too :)

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  2. Hi Karen! That reminds me that I haven't had a dim sum bash for quite a while now. Hmmm...me too love the varieties of dim sum served up at the restaurant. I want every kind from the trolley hah..hah...You are very industrious to attempt dim sum at home. I bet your pearl balls were really tasty and gone in a blink of an eye!

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    1. Hi Phong Hong, I really missed those good old days dim sum served with pushing trolley around to customers. That's where I will grab and grab ... when too full to grab ... smell smell the fragrance of passing-by trolley with stacks of dim sum also "shiok". Hardly find these nowadays in Singapore.

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  3. Hi Karen, you are very hardworking preparing this at home. Mind sharing some?

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    1. Hi Kimmy, sure ! Be prepared to "catch some meaty balls" ... >o<

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  4. Hi Karen, Those pearl balls look so delicious! I'm lazy to make this at home. Can I come over?

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Sharing some of my favourite recipes, some new baking/cooking "adventures". Please feel free to post your comments for my improvement. Would be great to connect with you and learn some of your recipes too. Thanks for 'dropping by'.