Steam Heat

My obsession with 99 Ranch has been documented on this site before. I teach once a week out in Kearny Mesa, and usually have an hour to kill between work and school – the perfect browsing window. Last week’s purchase was a bamboo steaming basket. I have wonderful early memories of steaming plates of dim sum dumplings, and had to find a way to satisfy the craving. The latest obsession has begun – dumpling time!

As fate would have it, this month’s Cooking Light magazine has a feature article on steaming, and included a few recipes that I ripped out and tried right away.

First stop, pork buns (Char Siu Bao). I only had whole wheat flour, so that was the only substitution I made. They weren’t quite as sweet as those from my childhood, and I may need to experiment some more. I fully planned to freeze half of them, but they disappeared too quickly.

I did better with my next experiment – shrimp and mushroom sui mei (I’ve always seen it written shu mai, but there you go).  Yum, y’all.  I only had shiitakes, and steamed them atop some taro leaves instead of napa cabbage, but followed the rest of the recipe exactly.

These turned out exactly right – chewy, bite-sized pouches of chopped mushroom and shrimp.  Chris and I gobbled these up so quickly that I may think of doubling the recipe next time.  The steamfest has begun!

Also, not to get your hopes up, but I’m currently experimenting with my second batch of homemade fudgesicles.  Yeah, it’s gonna be a good summer!