Dim sum for dinner anyone?

I love dim sum! Chinese eat them for breakfast. I ate a lot every morning when I was in Hongkong. Consider it one of the best breakfast items. But today, just about 6pm when I arrived home, I was told that we were not eating out this time. Panic rushed through us (me and the my 2 helper assistants in the kitchen) coz we didn't have any main ingredient to cook with. All there was in the ref were some veggies and left over stuff. No meat, fish, seafood or chicken. Not even rice. NONE!It was a good thing that my sister hasn't come home yet and mom just left for the spa but they expect to see food on the table when they arrive. "Think think think" I said to myself. "What can I cook with veggies?" I didn't want the ordinary baked vegetables or buttered vegetables. "C'mon a little creativity please" said my mind. Then it hit me- I could try making some dim sum!(siu mai specifically). But the problem was there wasn't any wrapper for the dim sum (and I have never attempted making dim sum wrappers before!).

This wrapper thing did not change my mind about making dim sum. In fact it motivated me to continue. I always found it exciting to do stuff I haven't done. So the challenge was to make the dough for the wrapper, prepare the stuffing and cook. Easy right? Hell no!

I found this old 1970's book on Chinese cuisine and followed a recipe on dim sum wrappers. Making the dough was fun but tiring (I just came from 2 hours of basketball, give me a break!). There was flour everywhere on the table and we mixed, kneaded, rolled and shaped the wrapper. It took us about 30 minutes to finish the dough. As for the stuffing, remember when I said I found some veggies? Eggplants, carrots, squash, cabbage etc. you name it! Peel, slice and dice lol I then pre-cooked them with some spices I found on the rack. Stuffing and shaping the siu mai was easier than making the dough although i had some difficulty on the shaping. Cooking was the easiest procedure, only a few minutes on the steamer and the siu mai was ready.

My first ever hand made siu mai! Far from perfect but I think I get a passing grade. As for my mom and sis, they were surprise that I found time doing all the stuff. It seemed all was well until mom checked the kitchen - it was a total mess (signal number 3 typhoon just hit! haha) but I think the food was good enough for her not to give me a homily this time.