Dimsum- Soft, Steamed Snack

I am always confused between dimsum and Momo. In Tibet they call it Momo, in China they call it Dimsum, it’s a snack made of dough, stuffed with filling and steamed. Momo are normally with wrapper open, exposing the filling and a cheaper variety sold in carts as a street food, sometimes served with garlic sauce and soup, Dimsum, on the other hand is the closely wrapped snack, served in fancy restaurants with garlic or soya sauce. There are hundreds of recipes on this, depending on your choice of filling.

It has been many days now since I have nursed a desire to make Dimsum. In India, we have many vendors where you can just go and enjoy this snack, eating at the street vendor seems an easy way out since it is readily available. But when you travel to other countries, where it is not so common, you begin to miss what you get so easily in your town.

Like I am here in Spain, spending some time with my family and found a good reason to try my hand on this recipe. Didn’t realize there is so much effort involved till I actually sat down to make it. It’s the wapper that takes most of the time, diligently rolling out each circle and filling it. But it is worth it, if the family appreciates and enjoys the end product.

To make wrapper:

1cup flour

1/2cup warm water

1tsp olive oil

Salt to taste

The dough is made by mixing flour, water, salt, and oil till it has elastic consistency.

Keep it the fridge for one hour.

To make filling

3-4 mushrooms

1carrot

Small quantity of capsicum (red, yellow, green)

2 spring onions

4-5 finely chopped n deep fried garlic

1tsp five-spice powder

salt to taste

Mix finely chopped mushroom, carrots, red, yellow and green capsicum, spring onions, fried garlic, salt and five-spice powder. keep it aside.

Remove the dough from the fridge, knead it well, cut into small pieces, and roll into wafer thin round circles.

Stuff it with filling and steam it.

Serve with soya sauce dip

For soya sauce dip:

2tbsp soya sauce,

1tsp vinegar,

1tsp sugar

1tsp olive oil

1 teaspoon finely chopped green chilies.

Five Spice powder:

1 piece star aniseed

½ tsp. cloves

1” pc. Cinnamon

½ tsp. sauf  

½ tsp. peppercorns

Powder them and use as needed.

Vegetarian Cuisine in Canary Islands

When travelling abroad, eating vegetarian food is limited to just cottage cheese, mushrooms or potatoes. Mom was vegetarian for 40 years of her life; she normally starved during flights and survived mostly on bread and butter. But things have changed now since more people opt for vegetarian cuisine and I was happy to find good variety of vegetarian dishes in a typical Spanish restaurant.

 Last week I visited a Spanish restaurant in Las Palmas. The tables overflowed outside the restaurant into the walking plaza. We occupied a table to enjoy drinks while waiting for the rest of the family to arrive. While sipping, it’s interesting to watch people on the street. Women with shopping bags, children running back and forth, old men walking leisurely and above all watching what others are eating. The table that caught my attention was the one that had hot plate on coals next to plates. The family enjoyed the drinks and salad while they waited for their marinated meat to cook on the hot plate. It seemed a good option of eating the freshly roasted meat straight from pan.

What was good about this restaurant was that it had good variety of vegetarian dishes too.

White cheese is must if you dine in any restaurant at Canary Islands. The cheese is soft, firm and a bit salty in taste.

 White cheese is added in most salads, the vegetables are fresh and succulent and tastes great with herbs sprinkled on them, The dressing is made by mixing lime juice, salt, sugar, basil leaves, parsley and olive oil.

‘Pimiento Padron’ is a Spanish delight. Big large chilies (that taste like capsicum) are boiled in salty water, dried and stir fried in olive oil.

Papa arrugada is another dish that one must try. Small round potatoes are picked with fork and boiled with rock salt (in one kg of potatoes they use 250gms of rock salt). They are cooked for 45 minutes on slow flame, removed, dipped in cold water, and then roasted in a pan till they crumble.

They are served with mojo, a special sauce served with Papa Arrugada.

Recipe for mojo

Ingredients:

1cup olive oil

20 cloves garlic

4 slices of bread

1tsp cumin powder

1 large red capsicum

10 dried red chilies

1tsp grape vinegar

2tsp salt

Method:

1.   Fry garlic with skin in good quantity of olive oil, till skin separates, remove the garlic and keep aside

2.   In the same oil, fry small pieces of bread till they brown, remove and keep aside.

3.   Transfer the garlic and fried bread in the mixer.

4.   Add cumin powder, salt, red capsicum, dried red chilies and little water

5.   Grind to a smooth paste

6.   Add grape flavor vinegar

7.   Add the reserved olive oil that was used for frying garlic and bread.

8.   Mix it well and serve with potatoes.

For main course, one normally eats Paella in Spanish restaurants. I think this restaurant had many vegetarian clients because it even served vegetarian Paella. There was wide variety of Paella dishes. We ordered veg, the moist one, which looked more like khichdi, but the taste was good, quite similar to the non-veg type with lots of vegetables and the special thick grains of rice that is used in this dish.

Great lunch at Gambrinus at Las Palmas, that’s where we spend one afternoon for vegetarian meal.

Venezuelan Cuisine in Canarias

Whenever I come to Canarias, first thing I pick up from the shelf in the supermarket is fresh white cheese. It resembles somewhat like our paneer in India but the flavor is soft with sour touch. It is firm, fresh and slightly salty. This type of white cheese is cured for only 7-35 days.

Canary Islands are proud to be best cheese award winner. 

Its’ success is mainly due to its climatic conditions as well as 3 different breeds of goat. All cheeses are homemade or based on antique cheese making traditions. They vary from very fresh and soft cheese to cured and strong flavored cheese.

I normally eat it in a sandwich with salad leaves and tomatoes, 

or stuff it in cachapas, (a Venezuelan corn pancake) with avocado and chili sauce. The cachapas have the sweetish taste and it marries the soft sour taste of cheese.

Cachapas is the favorite meal for Canarias who enjoy Venezuela cuisine. You get the corn flour in packets, there are many different brands, but I find this brand quite tasty. (This corn flour is not same like the one we use in chinese cooking for thickening the sauce). This flour is different, it contains precooked corn leaves, sugar, wheat flour, precooked corn flour, milk serum, salt and sweet corn aroma. When the pancakes are roasted on girdle, they emit the sweet aroma of corn.

The pancakes are made from this flour by adding ¾ cup of water to 1cup of this flour. Some people add egg too to add that extra flavor.

For vegetarians just white cheese is good enough. But for non-veg person, these cachapas can be stuffed with any number of savory toppings like shredded meat/fish/vegetables or any other fillings. Adding avocado dip makes it more interesting and of course, some chili sauce too.

Some even eat it with fresh mangoes right off from the tree.

Beer Tales

I don’t like beer. 

Actually speaking, I don’t like any drinks, neither hard nor soft, but I do take it sometimes when I am in the company of friends and don’t wish to be fussed over.

I have never developed a taste for beer. 

Last year when I was advised to take a can of beer everyday to flush out the kidney stones, I took it as a medicine but could never relish it. I found it very bitter and I had lost my appetite. After having 5 cans for 5 days, I gave up and have never sipped it again

Until today

I was in the supermarket and the girl stood in front of me, offering me a new brand of beer that contains lime.

I was impressed with the Tee shirt that she wore, with the message in Spanish “TRY.. A different combination” it also had a graphic of ‘beer + lime’ over the message. A company that wants to promote their product goes to the extend of personalizing the teeshirt of a sales girl. Impressive!

She was a sweet girl who went around the supermarket, offering a tiny glass for taste. What was even more surprising was that many people politely refused to taste. It was free yet only those, who were curious about its taste, accepted her offer. I have always been offended with people who grab every product for tasting even when they don't like it.

I accepted little for tasting. It tasted very good with lime overpowering the bitter taste of beer. Sweet and sour, it made good combination. I was tempted to buy a bottle…but no.. like I said earlier….I don’t like beer.