lyagushka's Full Review: Ellen Leong Blonder - Dim Sum: The Art of Chinese ...
The pleasures of a dim sum meal in a bustling Chinese restaurant are a fading memory now that I've relocated to a small town on the east coast. So finding this book in my local library got me a little excited. Dim Sum, by Ellen Leong Blonder, provides a good overview of these dishes aimed at home cooks of moderate experience and ambition.
Blonder begins her book with a few introductory sections explaining what dim sum is, how it is served in restaurants specializing in dim sum, and covering various Chinese teas commonly served with this sort of meal. Truly, tea is a given when eating dim sum in restaurants. I've always been asked what kind of tea I want with dim sum, never whether I want tea at all.
After the introduction, the recipes are grouped roughly by cooking method or main ingredient. Slim chapters are devoted to steamed dumplings, boiled and pan-fried dumplings, (filled) breads and baked dishes, rice and rice flour dishes, greens and pan-fried dishes, deep-fried and bean curd sheet dishes, meats, and sweets. Each of these chapters is fairly brief, including just four to nine recipes each. Some of them also include equipment recommendations for things like bamboo steamers and other Chinese cooking implements. A very short section on sauces and condiments finishes out the book.
Though dim sum tends to be a carnivore's delight, vegetarians will find that several of the recipes in Dim Sum include meatless variations, and the section on vegetable dim sum dishes is also nice. In my experience, only the best dim sum restaurants make an effort to offer green vegetable dim sum dishes. They are always a welcome counterbalance to the preponderance of meaty and/or fried delectables.
The hand drawn illustrations in Dim Sum are reasonably useful. Some of them seem mostly decorative. Those that show how to pleat dumpling wrappers are so-so. These show the folded wrappers in stages of preparation, but not how to hold them in your hand or actually create the pleats with your fingers. I always want a very fine level of detail when it comes to foods that need to be shaped by hand.
The few recipes I attempted from this cookbook turned out pretty well. It took a little legwork to source taro root in my area. The taro dumpling recipe was a little involved, requiring both a dough and a filling, but easy enough to follow. When these (my favorite) little morsels are deep-fried, the leavened taro paste dough turns lacy, delicate, and crisp. Mine were far from the most beautiful examples of this dim sum that I'd ever seen, but the taste was delicious. The Chinese scallion dumplings were just as involved and turned out about the same: good flavor, but they won't win any beauty contests. I especially liked it that Blonden cautions her readers about things that will not work optimally or at all, such as cooking some of the dumplings in a non-stick skillet, substituting for certain ingredients, or freezing some items. These details are the hallmarks of well-tested recipes and a thoughtful food writer. I appreciate them.
One thing I found annoying about this book is that it's not easy to look things up in the index. I first picked up the book while I was in a hurry at the library. I wanted to find out if it included a recipe for the barbecued pork buns my husband loves so much. I couldn't find one in the index, but decided to check it and look more closely when I had the time. It turns out there are recipes in Dim Sum for steamed, baked, and fried barbecued pork buns. But I had to page through the book page by page to find them. There's no listing for the pork buns under 'pork,' 'barbecue,' or 'bun.' Instead, all three are listed under Char Siu. So if you don't know the Chinese names of your preferred dim sum, you may find the index less than useful. Still, the book is a fairly small one, so if you own the book you'll quickly get used to finding what you're after.
I suspect most readers will use this book, as I did, to create one or two favored dim sum dishes on special occasions. The recipes are too labor intensive for most home cooks to prepare many different types of dim sum for any one meal. Still, the recipes do produce good results. If you enjoy dim sum and want to try making some at home, this is a great book. The recipes in Dim Sum are often involved, so I am recommending the book only for those who are reasonably confident of their skills in the kitchen. Vegetarians will be able to use fewer than half the recipes given in this book. And a few ingredients will be difficult to source outside of metropolitan areas.
I've copied out a handful of recipes and will return this book to the library after having it out for six weeks. I don't plan to buy my own copy. If Dim Sum sounds interesting to you, you might want to check it out of the library before deciding to purchase it.
In Cantonese, dim sum means touch the heart, and Ellen Blonder s charming celebration of China s famed tea lunch does just that. More than sixty caref...More at Buy.com
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