Instructions for Making Dim Sum

These are the instructions we used to create a Dumpling Party at VYO Camp back in the mid-to-late 1990s. If you want slightly more authentic recipes (although these all taste quite good), check out Five Spice Cafe.

Game Plan 

1. Start the water boiling on the stove
2. Blanch the cabbage
3. Prepare the fillings
4. Prepare dipping sauces
5. Set up filling stations
6. Set up the wok
7. Conduct a trial run
8. Make, cook, and eat dumplings

Ingredients 

• 1 head of Chinese/Napa cabbage 
• bunch of scallions 
• 1 pound of ground beef or pork 
• 1 pound of tofu 
• 4 packs of wonton wrappers (usually near the tofu) 
• can of water chestnuts 
• 4 cans of pop & fresh buttermilk biscuits 

Optional Ingredients 

• assortment of mushrooms (about the volume of 1/2 a basket ball) 
• 1/2 pound of seafood (shrimp, scallops, fake crab) 
• lemon juice 
• more wonton wrappers 

Instructions 

Instructions for the pork/beef/tofu filling 

1. Boil a pot of water, use it to blanch the cabbage (2-3 minutes)
2. Run the cabbage under cold water to cool it down
3. Chop up the cabbage (slice it in both directions)
4. Chop up 3 scallions (1/8" pieces)
5. Chop up the water chestnuts
6. In a bowl, combine the following ingredients
   • The scallion bits
   • 1/2 of the cabbage *
   • 1/2 of the water chestnuts *
   • 1 pound of meat/tofu
   • add 1 tablespoon of garlic
   • add 1 tablespoon of ginger
   • splash in some soy sauce
   • splash in some sesame oil* use the remainder with the other filling
7. Mix everything up real well

Instructions for the mushroom filling 

1. Get a bowl full of different mushrooms
2. Chop them up into bite sized pieces
3. Heat up a fry pan over medium heat
4. Toss the following in the fry pan:
   • the chopped up mushrooms
   • 1 teaspoon of garlic
   • 1/4 cup of soy sauce
   • 1/4 cup of rice wine
5. Sauté the mushrooms until they've shrunk

Instructions for the seafood filling 

1. Chop up the seafood into very small pieces
2. Sprinkle it generously with lemon juice
3. Add 2 teaspoons of ginger
4. Mix everything up really well

Instructions for the Dipping Sauces 

1. In a small bowl, combine in equal amounts:
   • Soy sauce
   • Rice wine
   • Rice vinegar
2. Add 1 teaspoon of each of the following: 
   • Fresh Ground Garlic 
   • Sesame Oil 
   • Fresh Ground Ginger Root
3. To make a sauce spicy, add: 
   • 1 teaspoon of hot oil
   • 1 teaspoon of crushed red pepper

Filling Stations 

1. Set up a filling station with the following:
   • bowl of filling
   • two finger bowls filled with water
   • teaspoons for scooping out the filling
   • plates for working on and storing the finished dumplings
2. Set up a sweet bun filling station with:
   • a plate filled with sugar
   • plates for working on and storing the finished dumplings

Filling instructions 

Triangular Dumplings 

1. Get out a wonton wrapper
2. Moisten two adjacent edges of the wonton wrapper
3. Use a teaspoon to scoop in a small amount of filling
4. Fold the wonton wrapper into a triangle
5. Use your fingers to press the sides together; the wet dough should act like glue

Round Dumplings 

1. Get out a wonton wrapper
2. Moisten all four edges of the wonton wrapper
3. Use a teaspoon to scoop in a small amount of filling
4. Compress all of the edges together at once; squeeze them together and twist

Steamed Buns 

1. Take a disk of the pop and fresh dough
2. Use your thumb to flatten and spread it out
3. Use a teaspoon to scoop in a small amount of filling
4. Use your fingers to pull in the edges of the dough and encourage them to seal the ball shut
5. Place the ball onto a plate with the sealed edges on the bottom

Sweet Buns 

1. Take a disk of the pop and fresh dough
2. Roll it around in the sugar

Cooking Instructions 

Steamed Dumplings 

1. Fill a small bowl with peanut oil. You will use this oil along with a paper towel to "oil" the steamers before you add each batch of dumplings.
2. Oil the steamer
   • dip a paper towel in the peanut oil
   • rub the paper towel over the horizontal struts inside the steamer
   • you are doing this to keep the dumplings from sticking to the steamer
3. Fill up a steamer with dumplings; make sure that the dumplings have room to expand (especially the buns) and are not touching each other
4. Set a pot of water on the stove and bring it to a roaring boil
5. Place the steamer filled with dumpling on top of the pot
6. Steam the dumplings for 8 to 12 minutes  8 minutes for the veggie filling  10 minutes for the beef/seafood filling  12 minutes if the filling contains pork 
7. DO NOT REMOVE THE TOP TO "CHECK" WHILE THE DUMPLINGS ARE COOKING.
8. Use a hot pad to remove the steamers from the top of the pot
9. You can steam dumplings or filled buns; do not steam sweet buns.

Pot Stickers and Sweet Buns 

1. Turn the wok on high
2. Pour a tablespoon of oil into the wok; let the oil heat up
3. Place 4 to 6 dumplings in the oil in the wok
4. Cook the dumplings until they turn brown and crisp on the bottom
5. Pour a 1/4 cup of water into the wok and immediately cover it
6. Once the noise dies down, the water will have evaporated, and the dumplings will be ready to eat
7. You can turn dumplings or sweet buns into pot stickers sticky buns. Do not make filled buns into pot stickers.