February 25, 2024 – Dim Sum

Sunday, February 25, 2024
VBC Meeting #132: Dim Sum
Hosts of the Month: Lauren and Billy
Location: Ponder, TX

With the Lunar New Year falling in February, Lauren was in the mood for vegan dim sum, so hence the theme. We even decorated with some Chinese New Year decorations from the past.

This is what we made:

If you inspect the table of food, we supplemented what people brought with some potstickers from the frozen section of an Asian grocery market–because how can you have Lunar New Year and dim sum without dumplings!?

Drew: Dim Sum Skewers

Drew marinated tofu in a sauce made with olive oil, soy sauce, sriracha, lime juice, garlic, and onion powder. He felt like the tofu’s post-marination wetness would lead it to crumble if immediately stabbed, so he baked it for twenty minutes on its own to firm it up. Then he skewered it with zucchini, red bell peppers, and red onion for another baking.

Billy: Garden Turnip Cakes; Fried Red Bean Balls

Having made turnip cakes for Vegan Bake Club before, Billy opted to make a variation containing extra vegetables. He mixed up a batter with store-bought turnip cake powder (mostly rice flour and potato starch), soy milk, shredded back porch chard, turnips, carrot, sugar, chopped veggie sausage, white pepper, and salt. After steaming the mixture in a loaf pan for about an hour, he refrigerated it then cut it into slices for pan frying. He topped the garden turnip cakes with back porch green onions and served veggie oyster sauce on the side.

For the red bean ball dim sum item (also previously made), Billy loosely followed a Woks of Life recipe, but not having enough glutinous rice flour for the dough, he augmented it with tapioca flour that may have made the dough a bit tougher than normal. He wrapped the dough around balls of canned red bean paste, then rolled the balls in sesame seeds, and deep fried them.

Lauren: Hong Kong Egg Tarts

Thinking of how her sister had been a fan of the popular dim sum egg tart dessert, Lauren looked at a recipe for non-vegan egg tarts, and adapted it with the use of Just Egg. She made a crust with flour, salt, vegan butter, and cold water (following the non-vegan recipe closely). She filled it with a mixture comprised of 3/4 cup of Just Egg, 1/2 cup water, 1/2 cup coconut cream, 1/2 cup sugar, 2 tablespoons of flour, and vanilla.

Mehgann: Mango Custard

Mehgann made a mango custard dessert using frozen mango that she thawed and blended with ice. She boiled two cans of coconut milk with a tablespoon of agave, then lowered the temperature and whisked in agar agar for five minutes to thicken it. She then added the mango ice mixture which made little solid coconut milk bits throughout the custard.

Slynn: Lotus Seed Bao

Slynn and Ramon went to the Asian market, 99 Ranch, and got refrigerated taro-flavored lotus seed paste. Slynn used this to make the Sweet Lotus Bao recipe in The Veggie Chinese Takeout Cookbook. She made the dough with all-purpose flour, yeast, salt, baking powder, sugar, vegetable oil, and soy milk. After forming buns by wrapping dough around small scoops of lotus seed paste she cooked the buns in a bamboo steamer.