Dim Sum

If you've ever had an appetizer and said "I could make a meal of that", this is the post for you!  We've got names for this concept from a variety of culinary cultures...Spanish tapas, Italian antipasti, Chinese dim sum...making a meal of several small plates of varying foods. 

These recipes are adapted from the Frugal Gourmet's Three Ancient Cuisines.  In spite of being a meal composed of multiple attention-needing dishes (I don't usually plan to give significant attention to more than 1 dish in a meal), it came together pretty quickly and with a lot fewer swear words than I expected.

Steamer basket workaround

One of the beauties of dim sum is how easily the recipes lend themselves to prepping or making ahead.  I prepped all the sauces the night before (chopped/measured/combined ingredients), made the dumpling dough the night before, formed the dumplings right before dinner (but could have prepped them earlier if the dough was ready) and was able to cook everything in 15 inattentive minutes at the last minute.  All these dishes could have been prepped and frozen ahead as well, or fully cooked ahead and reheated in a steamer.

Speaking of steamers, the stacked bamboo steamer is apparently a staple in a Chinese kitchen.  I don't have one.  I do have a variety of metal steaming baskets, cooling racks, and ceramic ramekins that I assembled into a 3-tier arrangement inside of a large stock pot.  Work with what you've got!

The squid/calamari recipe originally calls for plain, cleaned squid to be stirfried with aromatics and sauce.  My grocery store only had pre-breaded calamari, so I decided to oven-bake the calamari and toss it with the sauce which I prepared using the microwave. 

Calamari, dumplings and meatballs

The dumpling filling calls for using leftover Chinese BBQ pork and a bit of napa cabbage, but you could use any combination of cooked meat and vegetable you want (or go totally vegetarian and skip the meat).  If you've got a small serving of leftover steamed veg of any type, I'd use that rather than cooking additional vegetables for the filling.  Also, if you have a premade stirfry sauce, you can use about 3 tbsp of that rather than measuring half-teaspoons of all the ingredients listed below.  Just add a bit of cornstarch if necessary to thicken the mixture.  Again, I made use of the microwave to deal with what is really a small bit of filling.

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Hula Chicken Stirfry

49g carb per serving

This recipe is originally from the Better Homes and Gardens New Junior Cookbook gifted to me, er, my son for his birthday. I made it once and the kids wolfed it down, so it's now on our do-again list.  The bonus, of course, is that it is well-suited to freezer kit organization (yay!).  The recipe below makes 2 kits, due to the popularity of the dish at my house as much as to the fact that my grocery store only carries pineapple chunks in 20 oz. cans instead of the 8 oz. can required by the OR.

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Eat it the way you found it: 2 Chickens 4 Ways

Don't they look jaunty?

It's amazing how much mileage you can get out of a modest frying chicken--breasts, legs, carcasses, giblets, fat, it all gets used.  Whole chickens were on great sale at the grocery store, so I stocked up.  I'm turning two of them (~ 4 lbs. each) into four separate meals big enough for 2 adults and 2 kids, plus leftovers.
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No-recipe Stirfry



Clockwise from top left: Carrots (accessory veg),
ginger (aromatic), kung pao sauce,
cubed tofu (protein), snow peas (main veg)

I rarely use a particular recipe any more to make stirfry (as I type this, at least three exceptions spring to mind...but I digress).  Rather, I take a mix-and-match approach to the process, relying on frozen homemade sauces in combination with a variety of fresh veg and whatever protein is on sale at the store that week.








A basic stirfry recipe follows this format:

• 8oz-16oz from Column A
• 1-2 tbsp from Column B
• 1 cup from Column C
• 2-3 cups from Column D
• 2/3-3/4 cup from Column E
• 2 tbsp of cornstarch 
• a sprinkle from Column G

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Big Batch Kung Pao Stirfry Sauce

With Orange-Sesame Stirfry Sauce, this sauce represents my arsenal of make-ahead no-recipe stirfry building blocks.  This recipe makes 3 portions of sauce that can be frozen. 

Kung Pao is typically finished with a sprinkling of peanuts (or cashews, when I'm serving peanut-free folks), so you can also freeze a cup of peanuts/cashews in a vacuseal bag for each frozen portion of sauce to ensure you have some on hand when you make the stirfry; a good idea at my house since nuts are prime snacking targets and I can't always guarantee that I'll have some for cooking purposes.

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Orange Sesame Stirfry Sauce

This is one of my two go-to stirfry sauces (the other is for Kung Pao, more on that later).  You can make up a large batch of this and freeze it in single-recipe portions for last-minute meals...just add a protein, and some veg, 2 tbsp of cornstarch, and voilà! Instant take-out. 
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Stay-In Take-Out: Spicy Orange Beef & Broccoli edition

I just got the Argo Cornstarch product cookbook in the mail (free with $2 S&H), and I am drooling over the many stirfry recipes.  But I am genetically incapable of leaving well-enough alone, so I already have tweaks to report.

The original recipe calls for just 12 oz of beef.  I'm sure it's very authentically Asian to use less protein and more veg, but I live in the Midwest and there's no grocery store in a 100-mile radius that sells meat in such piddly quantities.  So I'm using 1.25 lbs of flank steak.  I could have bought a full 1.5 pounds and split it to make dinner tonight and freeze a kit of the same recipe, but I didn't want to commit a kit to a totally untried recipe.  Next time! 

The original recipe also calls for using the zest of an orange to marinate the beef in and plain ol' water for sauce.  Why not be less wasteful and more flavorful and squeeze the juice to use instead of the water?  So zest AND juice the orange for this recipe, unless you're using some of your frozen stash of citrus zest.

Tips: I don't peel ginger before grating any more.  It's bothersome, the peel is very thin and really doesn't cause problems and I'm a lazy cook.  Grate away!  Also freeze the beef for about an hour before slicing.  It's easier to cut thinly when it's got a little more backbone.  If you plan to freeze a meal kit for this dish, you can include frozen broccoli rather than needing to get fresh broccoli when you're ready to cook, but the veg won't be nearly as crisp.

And now, I present the Improved Argo Spicy Orange Beef & Broccoli...

Spicy Orange Beef & Broccoli (makes 4 servings)

1 lb (or so) flank steak OR sirloin steak, cut thinly across the grain
grated peel of 1 orange (or 2 tsp frozen zest)
1 tbsp grated fresh ginger
1 tbsp cornstarch
--------
3 tbsp sherry
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp beef bouillon granules
1 tbsp sugar
1/4-1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
1/2 cup orange juice (or water)
2 tbsp cornstarch
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2 tbsp vegetable oil
3 cups broccoli florets

Rice, pasta, or shredded lettuce for serving

If prepping ahead to cook the same day or the following day or for freezing, combine the steak with the orange zest and ginger.  For same-day/next-day prep, combine the sherry, soy sauce, bouillon granules, sugar, crushed red pepper, orange juice and cornstarch and whisk. 

Showing the grain on the flank steak (right-slant) and the perpindicular angular of cutting (left slant)

For freezing, omit the cornstarch from the sauce mixture.  Put the marinated beef, sauce and frozen broccoli (if using) into a large vacu-seal or zip-top bag and freeze.  Make sure to have cornstarch in the pantry when you're ready to cook.

When ready to cook, toss 1 tbsp cornstarch with the zest-ginger-beef mix and set aside.  Add 2 tbsp cornstarch to sauce mixture if preparing from a frozen kit and whisk well.

Heat oil in wok or skillet over medium-high heat.  Add beef and stirfry for 2 minutes until nearly cooked through.  Add broccoli and stirfry 3 minutes or just until tender.  Whisk sauce mixture well and add to pan.  Stirring constantly, bring to a boil.  Cook 1 minute, until thickened.

Serve over rice, pasta or shredded lettuce. Pin It