Thai people love seafood and spices and this dish is typical of a spicy Thai seafood dish. Its a whole Squid or calamari and they're widely available in Thailand and always very fresh, usually it's fried or barbecued, but this dish is a different way of cooking it. The squid is stuffed with seasoned pork meat and steamed to cook it gently then served in a spicy soup.

Ingredients for 2 people
100 gms Pork Mince
4 Garlic Cloves
1 Teaspoon Pepper
1 Teaspoon Salt
1 Tablespoon Oyster Sauce
1 Large Whole Squid

Ingredients for Soup
1 Chicken stock cube
200 ml Water
50 gms Mixed Red and Green Chillis
1 Teaspoon Lemon Juice
1/2 Teaspoon Salt

Serve With
Sliced Thai Cabbage
Must be served warm

Preparation of Squid
1. Peel the garlic, put the pork mince and garlic together with the salt and pepper in a blender and blend it until the garlic is well mixed in.
2. Clean out the inside of the squid. Cut off the head and try to keep the body of the squid intact as a hollow tube.
3. Stuff the pork mince mix into the squid until its full.
4. Score cuts into the top of the squid - this will allow the steam to reach the meat to cook it.
5. Steam for 10 minutes.

Preparation for the Soup
6. Take a small pot pan, add water & the chicken stock cube and bring it to boil until the cube has dissolved.
7. Put the chilles in a blender and blend until they are fine pieces. If you prefer, you can cut them by hand, but they must be fine.
8. Add the chillis to the soup and remove the soup from the heat.
9. Place the steamed squid on a serving plate, squeeze the lemon juice over the top of the squid.
9. Pour the soup around the base of the squid, and place some of the chilli pulp on the top for show.

Notes
Ideally this should be served on a heated metal plate with candles heating the base of the dish.

Another Thai variant of a Chinese dish. These are pork mushroom and carrot parcels, we called them 'Dim Sum' but our Chinese friends say the correct name for this type of starter is 'Chow Mei'. Served as a starter or a snack, each parcel is approximately 3cms across.

Ingredient for Pastry
200 gms. Wheat Flour ( Enough for 40 )
2 Tablespoons Oil
1 Teaspoon Salt
1 Teaspoon Sugar
2 Eggs

Ingredient for Filling
100 gms Pork Mince
3 Shitake Mushrooms
2 Carrots
1 Spring Onion
30 gms Coriander Leaves
1 Egg
2 Teaspoons Salt
2 Tablespoons Oyster Sauce
4 Garlic Cloves
2 Tablespoon Cassava Starch (Or corn starch)

Preparation for Pastry
1. Put the salt, sugar, and flour into a bowl and mix it.
2. Beat the eggs together and mix into the flour.
3. Knead it until it forms a dough.
4. Set the dough aside for 20 minutes, it should be covered with a damp towel to prevent a skin forming.

Preparation for Filling
1. Soak the shitake mushroom for 5-10 minutes.
2. Chop shitake mushroom, carrots, spring onions, coriander leaves, and garlic,into small pieces. It is easier to blend it in a food processor.
3. Add the blended mix into the pork mince and add the egg, salt, oyster sauce and cassava starch, and mix well.

Assembly
1. Cut the dough into very small balls.
2. On a slightly oiled or floured surface, roll the dough into small circles (approximately 6cms diameter).
3. Spread the filling evenly over the dough.
4. Lift up the edges into of the dought to form the sides - this will squeeze the filling into the centre.
5. For best results pleat the edges of the pastry to form pleated sides of the parcels.

Cooking and Storing
Add this point you can freeze them on a floured tray, or cook them straight away.
To cook them, place them in a Chinese steamer and steam for 10 minutes.

Serve With
Mint
Coriander
Lettuce
Sour sauce

Suggestions
If you like hot spicy food, you can insert a piece of red or green chilli into the centre of the parcel before eating it.
Another recommended way to serve them, is drissled with fried garlic and bacon in its oil, this is shown in the photograph.

This is an excellent and very tasty steamed egg omelette. It is cooked inside cups in a Chinese steamer, and when you serve it, you can either take it out of the cups (like we've done for the above photograph) or serve it inside the teacups. To remove it from the cup, place a circle of greaseproof paper in the base of the cup before cooking, this will make it easier to remove later. Then to remove it from the cup after it is cooked, run a knife around the edge and tip the cup upside down on a plate.
As a contrast, we normally eat this with a sauce made from mint coriander and chillies, however this is optional. If you are serving this as a side dish, you may prefer to omit it.

Ingredients for 2 People
3 Eggs
1 Carrot
1 Long Green Bean
1 Onion
1 Vegetable Stock Cube (you can also use Chicken Stock)
200 ml Water
1/2 Teaspoon White Pepper

Preparation
1. Boil the stock cube in the water to form a soup and leave it to cool.
2. Blend the eggs with the pepper in a food mixer.
3. Add the stock to the food mixer and blend again (with the eggs).
4. Chop the long bean, carrot, and onion into small fine pieces.
5. Add the vegetables to the egg mixture and divide evenly between the cups.
5. Steam for 20 minutes.

Ingredient For Sauce (Optional)
4 Cherry Tomatoes
2 Red Chillis
1 Tablespoon Vinegar
2 Tablespoon Oil
1 Sprig Coriander Leaves
1 Sprig Mint Leaves

Preparation for Sauce
1. Chop the cherry tomatoes, chillies, coriander, and mint, very finely.
2. Mix these with the oil and vinegar.

These are a steamed snack with vegetables and pork wrapped up in a rice paper packet and steamed. They can be served hot as a starter or cold as a snack. You can see from the photograph that we eat this with fried garlic, it is a good idea to make a batch of fried garlic to be used as a condiment. If you like spicey food drop half a chilli into each parcel as you make them - it will create a burst of hotness as you bite into it.

Ingredients for Family
200 Pork Mince
100 gms Cabbage
100 gms Carrot
100 gms Bamboo
50 gms Glass Noodle
2 Egg
4 Shitake Mushrooms
4 Garlic Cloves
1 Teaspoon Ground White Pepper
5 Tablespooons Light Soy Sauce
2 Teaspoons Salt
2 Tablespoons Oyster Sauce
4 Tablespoons Peanuts
A Little Oil
30 Sheets Rice Paper
Grease proof paper

Preparation
1. Soak the glass noodle and shitake mushroom for 10-15 minutes.
2. Take shitake mushroom and chop finely mix with the pork mince, garlic, and carrot and blend. A food processor is ideal for making this filling.
3. Chop the glass noodle, cabbage, and bamboo into small pieces and add to the mix.
4. Crush or chop the peanuts and add those. In Thailand we pound them in a Thai mortar.
5. Add the pepper, salt, soy sauce, and oyster sauce and eggs into the mix.
6. The mix of vegetables, eggs and pork will become the filling.
7. Soak the rice paper in water for 3 minutes to soften it, do not soak it too long or it will disintegrate.
8. Take a large flat plate and smear oil on it, you will assemble the parcels on this plate and the oil will prevent them sticking.
9. Prepare your steamer by covering the bottom with grease-proof paper, take a knife and cut through the slots so that the steam can go through the paper to reach the food.
10. Drop a lump of the filling into the centre of a sheet of rice paper and fold over the edges into a neat parcel.
11. Put the parcel in a the Chinese steamer, steam it for 8-10 minutes. Do not oversteam the parcel, the rice paper will become too wet if you do.

Serve With
Garlic fry
Chilli
Coriander
Lettuce
Sour sauce (Vinegar, Chillies and Soy Sauce mixed)

This is a typical handmade sweet (Kanom), with a texture similar to turkish delight and a rose scent. If you cannot obtain rose water, it is possible to use vanilla essence in water, or lemon or orange juice, making different types of sweet, but the authentic flavour is rose water.

Ingredients for Family
500 gms Cassava Root
300 gms Sugar
100 ml Rose Water
100 gms Desiccated Coconut.

Preparation
1. Peel the cassava leaving only the white flesh.
2. Grate the cassava flesh until finely shredded.
3. Mix the water with the sugar and cassava then blend it in a food processor.
4. Divide into portions for steaming, wrap each portion in aluminium foil to form parcels. You will cut these portions into smaller cubes later.
5. Steam the parcels for 25 minutes.
6. Leave to cool in the fridge.
7. Remove the foil, cut the cassava sweets into bite sized pieces.
8. Dust with the shredded coconut.

These parcels are made from fried pork and herbs, wrapped in a pastry made from steamed rice flour and starch and served with a sweet and sour sauce. The pastry is cooked separately from the filling and it's very different from the cooking methods you may be use to. The actual pastry mix is liquid when uncooked. In order to cook it, you need to tie a cheese cloth or clean handkerchief tightly stretched over the top of a pan of water. The pan is then put on the heat, the water boils, and the steam rises through the cloth. The liquid pastry is poured onto the cheese cloth with a ladle and the ladle used to spread the mixture over the cloth. It cooks very quickly due to the steam and can be peeled off. The aluminum pan from a Thai Steamer is perfect for this.

Ingredients for Pastry (Makes 15)
75 gms Cassava Starch (or Corn Starch)
140 gms Rice Flour
1 Teaspoon Sugar
350 ml Water

Equipment for Making Pastry
Steaming Pan
Cheese Cloth
String to Cloth With

Ingredients for Filling
100 gms Pork Mince
40 gms Coriander Leaves
40 gms Spring Onion
1 Tablespoon Chopped Garlic
2 Tablespoons Maggi Sauce (Savory seasoning sauce)
2 Tablespoons Oil

Preparation
1. Oil a frying pan, add the garlic, pork, spring onion, chopped coriander leaves and Maggi sauce.
2. Fry until the pork is cooked, and set it aside.
3. Half fill a steaming pan with water, cover with a cheese-cloth and tie the cloth so that it is tight and flat over the top of the pan. Put the pan onto heat to boil.
4. Mix the rice flour with the cassava starch, water and sugar to form the liquid pastry.
5. When the pan is boiling, ladle some of the flour mix onto the cloth and spread it around quickly using the ladle. Place a lid over the pastry and let it cook for a minute.
6. Spoon some of the filling mixture onto the centre of the pastry and fold the edges over to form a parcel around the meat. A spatula is useful to fold the pastry over. Once you've done that you can move it to a plate.

Ingredients for Sweet Sour Dipping Sauce
4 Tablespoon Sugar
30 ml Water
70ml Tamarind Water or Lemon Juice
1 Teaspoon Salt
1 Teaspoon Spring Onion
2 Teaspoon Chopped Crushed Peanuts

Preparation
1. Mix the tamarind water with the sugar, salt, and water put it on a meduim heat until the salt and sugar are dissolved.
2. Add the spring onion and peanut in and leave it to cool. It should be served warm.

Serve With
Lettuce
Fried Garlic
Chilli
Coriander
Mint

This dish has scooped out cucumber, stuffed with vegetables and mince. We eat this as a side dish with sweet chilli sauce, or together with rice to make a complete meal. The inside of the cucumber isn't wasted either; we chop that up and serve it as a side salad.

Ingredients for 2 People
1 Long Green Cucumber
50 gms Pork Mince
30 gms Shrimp
20 gms Sweet Corn
1 Teaspoons Salt
2 Teaspoons Soy Sauce or Maggi Sauce
3 Garlic Cloves
1 Teaspoons Black Pepper Corns

Preparation
1. Mince the shrimp and mix with the pork mince.
2. Pound the garlic with the black pepper corns in a Thai mortar until finely ground.
3. Mix the meat with pounded garlic and pepper.
4. Add salt, soy sauce and the corn, and mix well.
5. Chop the cucumber into 2 cm lengths and scoop out the inside. Chop the scooped out cucumber and use it as a side salad.
6. Fill the hollowed out cucumber with the stuffing.
7. Place them in a Chinese steamer and steam for 10 minutes.

Serve With
Hot Rice
Chilli Sauce or Sweet Chilli sauce

These little steamed wombats are made from pork, noodles, vegetables and baby sweet corn. If you stick the sweet corn tail out of the rear and put some green leaves at the head it looks like a little creature eating leaves, which makes it a little more fun to eat. They taste mainly of pork, but have lots of vegetables too, and are perfect for children.

Ingredients for Family
50 gms Pork Mince
20 gms Glass Noodle
6 Bady Corn
2 Tablespoons Chopped Carrot
2 Tablespoons Chopped Celery
1 Teaspoon Corn Flour
2 Tablespoons Light Soy Sauce
1/4 Teaspoons Pepper

Preparation
1. Mix the pork mince with the chopped carrot, celery and corn flour.
2. Cut the glass noodles into short lengths and add to the mixture.
3. Add the light soy sauce and pepper and mix it well.
4. Into a Chinese steamer place some cut squares of greaseproof paper, or tinfoil. The wombats will be steamed on these to prevent sticking.
5. Take a handful of the mixture and push a piece of baby corn into it.
6. Place it on the grease proof paper and steam for 10 minutes to cook.

Serve With
Fragrant Rice
Light Soy Sauce
Stock Soup

If you like food that's a bit of a challenge then this is for you. These are steamed pancakes, with a pancake mix containing sweet potato, filled with a pork, onion and beansprout filling. It's quite a challenge because the pancake is softened by the sweet potato and the fillings tend to poke holes in it, unless you are very very careful. The best way to make this dish is with a Thai steamer. Tie a clean cloth over the top of the steamer and make the pancake on the surface as shown in this photograph:

Ingredients
150 gms Rice Flour
2 Tablespoons Cassava Starch
400 ml Water
40 gms Sweet Potato
50 gms Pork Mince
2 Tablespoons Chopped Coriander
1 Tablespoon Chopped Spring Onion
1 Tablespoon Chopped Garlic
40 gms Soya Beansprouts
2 Tablespoons Light Soy Sauce
1 Teaspoon Salt
1/4 Teaspoon White Pepper
3 Tablespoons Oil

Equipment
Steam Pan
White Cloth To Fit Over Steampan
String for Tying
Ladle
Metal Spatula

Preparation
1. Steam the sweet potato to precook it.
2. Mix the pork mince with the garlic, salt, light soy sauce, spring onion, beansprouts and coriander then fry with oil until the pork is cooked.
3. Mix the flour & starch together with the water, add the sweet potato and blend until smooth. If you have a hand blender this is easier, you want the sweet potato completely blended into the mix.
4. Put water into the steaming pan, cover the lid with the cloth and tie it tightly over the top with the string. Put the pan onto to heat. Be careful not to burn the cloth, if the cloth is getting hot, you can spray water on it.
5. Ladle some of the pancake mixture onto the cloth and spread it out into a circle.
6. Put a lid over it and let it steam for a minute.
7. Spoon some of the mince mixture into the centre.
8. Using a metal spatula carefully (very carefully!) lift the edges of the pancake and fold them over the mixture.
9. Then place it on a serving plate with sweet sauce, mint and chillies.

Ingredients for Sweet Sauce
50 ml Water
4 Tablespoons Brown Sugar
1 Teaspoon Dried Flaked Chillies
3 Tablespoons Fish Sauce
1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice
2 Tablespoons Crushed or Chopped Toasted Peanuts
1 Teaspoon Chopped Coriander Leaves

Preparation
1. Boil the brown sugar with water until sugar dissolves.
2. Add the fish sauce, flaked chillies, crunshed peanut and cook for 1 minute.
3. Leave it to cool, then add the lemon juice, and chopped coriander leaves.

These delicious dumplings are made with a sweet kidney bean filling. I used bottled kidney beans for this recipe. If you use fresh remember to boil them hard for 10 minutes to break down the natural toxin in the bean. In Thailand we often use beans in desserts, usually soya beans.

Ingredients
200 gms Wheat Flour
3 Tablespoons Yeast
150 ml Water
100 gms Cooked Kidney Beans
100 gms Sugar
Grease Proof Paper

Preparation
1. Mash the kidney beans with the sugar, place in a sauce pan and cook over a low heat until the bean mash becomes thick, then leave to cool. This is your filling.
2. Sift the flour, this will add air to it.
3. In a cup, mix the yeast with a teaspoon of sugar and the water. This is to start the yeast, after a minute or so it will begin bubbling.
4. Add this yeast mix to the flour, mix it in and then knead the mix into a stiff flour dough.
5. Place in a bowl, covered with a damp cloth and leave for 30 minutes to let it rise.
6. Cut the dough into small lumps, approximately 15gms each.
7. Cut enough 3cms square pieces of grease proof paper so you have one piece per dough lump.
8. Flatten the dough in your hand, add a spoonful of filling, fold up the edges and place them seam-side down on a piece of grease proof paper.
9. Leave the mini-dumplings for a 10 minutes to rise again.
10. Steam for 5 minutes to cook.

These are steamed cups designed to remind you of the ocean, with a frothing white salty sea and prawns to bring the seafood into the dish. The cups are filled with the whites of salted egg, and spring onions for flavouring.

Ingredients for 4 people
100 gms Prawns
4 Salty Eggs
2 Tablespoons Chopped Spring Onion
1 Teaspoon Lemon Juice
1/4 Teaspoon White Pepper
50 ml Chicken Stock

Preparation
1. Take the white of the salty eggs, mix them with lemon juice, white pepper and the chopped spring onions. Add the stock and mix.
2. Pour into small tin foil cups and steam in a Chinese steamer for 5 minutes.
3. Clean and shell the prawns, don't forget to cut down the back and remove the gut. Arrange the head and prawn meat as in the photograph and continue steaming for another 5 minutes.
4. Once cooked, you can cut away the tin foil cup to reveal the prawn cup.

Serve With
Thai Fragrant Rice
Salads

These rice flour parcels contain shredded fish. If you look at the back of the photograph, you can see I've cut one open. They're a little tricky to make, the pastry is sticky and a little difficult to work with, so have plenty of flour on hand to dust your hands and tools with. Once ready, eat them warm, garnished with fried garlic.

Ingredients
70 gms Hake Fish (Oily fish like mackerel also work well)
1 Teaspoon Salt
1/2 Teaspoon White Pepper
1 Tablespoon Fish Sauce
100 gms Rice Flour
50 gms Sticky Rice Flour
50 gms Corn Flour
400 ml Water
2 Tablespoons Oil

Preparation
1. Grill the fish until cooked, remove the meat from the bones and mince it finely with a fork.
2. Fry the mince in a tablespoon of oil for 1 minute, add the salt, white pepper and fish sauce.
3. Put the rice flour and sticky rice flour into a saucepan, add the water and cook over a medium heat. Keep stirring, the sauce will cook and thicken to a paste after a few minutes.
4. Add the corn flour and stir to mix it in, then leave to cool enough so that you can work with it.
5. Put a little wheat flour on a plate, take a tablespoon, coat it in the wheat flour so that it doesn't stick, and scoop out a tablespoon of the flour paste. Roll the ball of paste in the flour so that it isn't sticky, then flatten it in your hand to form a disc.
6. Spoon a teaspoon of the fish mixture into the centre and fold up and crimp the edges.
7. Oil a piece of tinfoil and place in the steamer, then steam the parcels for 8 minutes and leave to cool.
8. Serve with lots of fresh green vegetables.

Serve With
Green Lettuce
Mint Leaves
Coriander Leaves
Fried Garlic
Chillies

The best thing about this steamed dumpling is the shape, you can fill the top with the sauce and when you eat the dumpling you get a burst of sauce and pork. The shape comes from traditional pots made in Banchiaung Thailand. Below you can see the uncooked dumpling on the left and on the right, the traditional Thai pottery it is copied from.

Ingredients
250 gms Wheat Starch
250 ml Water
150 gms Pork Meat with Fat (Or Mince)
100 gms Mushrooms
1 Teaspoon Salt
2 Tablespoons Light Soy Sauce
1 Teaspoon White Pepper
10 gms Chopped Coriander Leaves
2 Garlic Cloves
2 Tablespoons Cassava Starch

Preparation
1. Mix wheat starch with the water in a saucepan, heat to boil the water and cook slowly until the flow forms a sticky thick mass. This takes 2-3 minutes.
2. Leave the flour in a big bowl to cool, when its cold separate it into 20 small balls of flour dough. Try to keep the the same size.
3. For the filling, mince the pork, chop the mushrooms, and mix together with salt, soy sauce, white pepper, crushed garlic, chopped coriander leaves, and cassava starch. You may find it easier to put the ingredients into a blender and blend them to a course mixture.
4. Take a ball of dough and flatten it in your hands into a disc.
5. Put some of the filling in the middle. Don't put too much, remember you need to leave enough pastry for the lip of the vase.
6. Fold up the pastry and pinch the kneck, form the lip of the vase too. You can see from the photograph how this should look.
7. Steam for 15 in a Chinese steamer. Once they're cooked pour a little red sauce into the top.

Ingredients for Red Sauce
2 Tablespoons Light Soy Sauce
1 Tablespoon Teryaki Powder (The red pork barbecue powder).
2 Tablespoons Oyster Sauce
1 Tablespoon Dark Soy Sauce
1 Tablespoon Sugar

Preparation
1. Mix all ingredients together, warm in a saucepan until it steams and is smooth.
2. Spoon a little into the top of each dumpling.

Classic Isan food - cheap, simple and made from easy to find ingredients with plenty of flavour. Well that's the idea, but in practice you may find difficulty getting hold of Yanang Juice (sold in tins in the asian grocer). After several rich dishes, a classical north Thai dish cleanes the taste buds.

Ingredients
500 gms Bamboo (Boiled or Tinned)
220 ml Yanang Juice
3 Tablespoons Old Fish Sauce
1 Tablespoon Fish Sauce
5 Chillies
2 Garlic Cloves
1 Lemon Grass
Banana Leaves

Preparation
1. Grate the bamboo into fine strips, add the yanang juice, old fish sauce, and fish sauce.
2. IN a Thai mortar, pound the garlic, chillies and lemon grass together to break them up. Add the bamboo and continue pounding.
3. Cut the banana leaves into 8x15 cm pieces, about 6 pieces is good enough for this recipe.
4. Spoon the bamboo into the banana leaves, fold them up into a parcel and staple or tie them.
5. Steam for 5 minutes.
6. Serve with sticky rice.

Bean curd (tofu, yellow bean curd sheet etc.) needs to be used quickly just like other ingredient, this sausage is a way of turning left over bean curd into something tasty, by using it as a meat stretcher in a sausage.

Ingredients
150 gms Pork Mince
50 gms Bean Curd Soaked
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
2 Garlic Cloves
2 Coriander Root
1 Tablespoon Chopped Spring Onion
2 Tablespoons Crushed Ice

Preparation
1. Mix all ingredients in a food processor or blender, and blend together to a fine mix. You want the ice to form small crystals, so be careful not to over-blend.
2. Spoon the mixture onto tin foil, roll up the tin foil into a sausage shape and steam for 15 minutes.
3. The ice will melt in the sausage to form a spongy texture.
4. Leave to cool.
5. Remove the foil, heat oil for deep frying and give the sausage a quick fry in hot oil. This will enhance the flavour and the texture.

You've see a fried version of this sausage before, made from crab meat. This is the pork - steamed version.

Ingredients
150 Pork Mince
2 Garlic Cloves
1 Teaspoon Salt
1 Teaspoon White Pepper
2 Coriander Root
2 Tablespoons Chopped Coriander Leaves
2 Tablespoons Cassava Starch
Bean Curd Sheets

Preparation
1. Mix the pork mince, garlic, coriander root, salt, coriander leaves, cassava starch and white pepper.
2. Soak the bean curd sheets in water for 1 minute to soften them, lay a sheet down, spoon some of the pork mixture along one edge and roll it up.
3. Tie the ends of the sausage with cotton string to keep the filling in.
4. Steam for 10 minutes to cook.

Serve With
Sweet Plum Sauce
Spicy Chilli Sauce

This is similar to a 'Dim Sum' recipe (chinese snack food). Asian countries influence each other and it's typical to find variations of Lao, Chinese, Khmer and Vietnamese food in Thailand and Thai food in the recipes of its neighbours. These ingredients will make approximately 15 dumplings. You can freeze the dumpling once its made and steam them at a future date.

Ingredient for Dough
300 gms Wheat Flour
1 1/2 Teaspoons Fresh Yeast
1 Tablespoon Sugar
1 Teaspoon Salt
2 Tablespoons Oil
240 ml Water
Grease Proof Paper

Ingredient for the Filling
Use corn starch if you can't find cassava starch. Omit the salty egg if you do not have boiled salty egg already prepared.
200 gms Pork Mince
1/2 Green Pepper
1 Onion
5 Garlic Cloves
2 Shitake Mushroom
1 Egg
1 Hard Boiled Salty egg
30 gms Coriander Leaves
1 Tablespoon Cassava Starch
2 Tablespoon Oyster sauce

Preparation for the Dough
1. Put the water, oil, sugar and salt together in a mixing bowl and mix thoroughly.
2. Add the yeast to wheat and mix, pour in the liquid from step 1.
3. Knead the mixture into a dough.
4. Cover with moist kitchen roll.
4. Leave for 30 minutes at room temperature to rise.

Preparation for the Filling
1. Pound the garlic and peppercorn together in a mortar.
2. If the shitake mushrooms are dried, soak them in water for 5-10 minutes.
3. Chop the shitaka mushroom, green pepper, onion and coriander, into fine pieces, add the pork mince, the pounded ingredients from stage 1, the oyster sauce, egg, chopped boiled salty egg, and mix.
4. Dissolve the cassava starch with 2 tablespoon of water and add into the mixture.

Assembly
1. Cut the dough into 30 gm pieces.
2. Cut the grease proof paper into squares.
3. Roll each piece of dough flat. You can add a little oil to the rolling pin if the dough sticks.
4. Put a teaspoon of the filling in the middle and fold the dough over to form a parcel.
5. Press the edges together and tuck the seam under the parcel to form a small 'bun' shape.
6. Place each dumpling onto a square of greese proof paper.
7. Steam for 8-10 minutes in a Chinese steamer.

Serving
Serve it hot or cold. For extra flavour you can create a dipping sauce of light soy sauce, chopped chillis and vinegar.

A little silliness today, these are mince filled dumplings made to look like vegetables, front left is an aubergine, front right a beetroot, at the top is a tomato and a cauliflower. Only simple shapes can be made, since the dough won't hold complex patterning.

Ingredients for 7 Pieces
50 gms Pork Mince (better to mince your own)
2 Garlic Cloves
1/2 Teaspoon Pepper
1 Coriander Root
1 Tablespoon Oil
100 gms Yellow Bean ( Soaked for 8 hours or more)
1 Tablespoon Chopped Chives
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1 Tablespoon Sugar

Ingredients For Dough
150 Sticky Rice Flour
1 Teaspoon Palm Sugar
75 ml Warm water
1 Tablespoon Oil
Food Colouring

Preparation
1. Steam the soaked yellow beans for 10-15 minutes until cooked. Add salt and sugar. Pound them in a Thai mortar to break up the beans and set aside.
2. Pound the pepper, garlic and coriander root in a Thai mortar. Mix with the pork and fry in a little oil until cooked.
3. Mix in the yellow bean and roll into 7-8 balls.
4. To make the dough, mix the sticky rice flour, palm sugar, warm water, and mix until smooth. Add the oil and mix with your finger until it's smooth. Split the mixture into balls, 1 for each ball of filling.
5. This is where the art comes in, you can colour parts of the dough to make the vegetable designs.
6. Flatten each ball of dough, place a ball of filling in the center, fold up the dough to enclose the filling, roll the ball around in your hands to smooth it off.
7. Place the ball on lightly greased greaseproof paper squares, and steam for 10 minutes until the outer dough is cooked.

A very non-traditional dim sum recipe. This one is made from pork and shrimp stuffing and topped off with small pieces of salmon. I find it's easier to form it into shape if it's made in these tiny little pots, but you can also form it by hand. Remember to grease the pots, or you won't be able to remove the dim sum at the end.
In the audio I had difficulty with the word 'pleated'.

Ingredients
60 gms Shrimp
220 gms Pork Mince with Fat
5 Garlic Cloves
4 Coriander Roots
1/2 Teaspoon White Pepper
3 Tablespoon Light Soya Sauce
2 Tablespoon Oyster Sauce
1 Tablespoon Corn Flour
2 Tablespoon Wheat Flour
30 ml Water
Slices of Salmon
Dim Sum Pastry

Preparation
1. Mix all the ingredients together, except for the salmon and pastry.
2. Blend to a smooth mixture.
3. Grease the small dishes.
4. Spoon the ingredients into the pastry, fold up the edges and place in small dishes like the ones in the photograph.
5. Lay 3 tiny slices of salmon on top.
6. Steam for 10 minutes.
7. Serve with Dim-Sum dipping sauce.