The Australian Classic
Dim Sim
Chris Girvan-Brown
The dim sim is a food icon in Australia. Fondly referred to as “dimmies,” it is a
physical reminder of our cultural past and
the integration of Chinese and Greek immigrants into Australia. When I was a kid,
every fish and chip shop had a steamer and
offered dim sims steamed or fried. We occasionally had take-out fish and chips as a
Saturday night treat, and I always enjoyed
two steamed dimmies with a glug of soy
sauce with mine, while the rest of the family
ate their dimmies deep-fried.
The deep-fried dim sims were a hit, and
it wasn’t long before every fish and chip
shop in Melbourne was ordering them.
Food rationing during World War II resulted in a basic meat and cabbage version
of dim sims which were fed to workers
making munitions and uniforms for the
war effort. Because of this, the humble
“dimmie” became a favorite in every state
in Australia, and the recipe never went
back to the pork and prawn version. Today the classic dim sim or a version of it is
available in every fish and chip shop, petrol station, and lunchbar in the country.
The dim sim was developed in Melbourne
around 1945 by Chinese chef William Wing
Young (father of Australian celebrity TV
chef Elizabeth Chong) for his restaurant,
“Wing Lee.” Wing Lee went on to become a
food manufacturing company, and the dim
sim was distributed around the country as
one of their flagship products.
As I said, dim sims are usually steamed or
deep fried, but in our barbecue-obsessed
culture, a lot of adventurous cooks have
taken to cutting them in half and grilling them in their barbecues. Dim sims
are also easy to make at home, particularly if you make smaller ones and use a
wonton wrapper instead of making the
pastry yourself. Making them yourself
also allows you to experiment with flavors beyond those available in the bland
commercial versions: You could go with
the original pork and prawn version, the
popular chicken dim sim, or even a vegetarian version.
The dim sim is an open-ended Chinese snack
inspired by the traditional meat dumpling
(siu mai ). It consists of pork or other meat,
cabbage, and flavorings, encased in a wrapper similar to a traditional dumpling used
in dim sum. However, a dim sim is larger
than its traditional cousin and the pastry
wrapper is thicker.
The origin story of fried dim sim says that
William Wing Young’s son Tom went fishing with his Greek friend Joe one day, and
they went to Joe’s Fish and Chip shop to
have lunch afterward. They decided to
cook some dim sims that Tom had with
him, but since there was no steamer in
the shop, they deep fried them instead.
I’ve included instructions below for two
versions. I prefer the silky texture of the
first one for steaming, while the second
is better for frying or cooking in the barbecue. Both these pastries use hot water
which makes the pastry denser and less
flaky when deep-fried.
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Pastry 1
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Pastry 2
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2-1/4 cups glutinous rice flour
1/4 cup potato flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1-1/2 cups hot water
2-1/2 to 3 cups flour
1/2 cup hot water
1/3 cup cold water
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
First, make the dough. Sift the flour into the bowl and pour the hot water over it.
Mix very well and add the cold water. Make the dough, adding the oil at the end if needed.
Work the dough a little until it is smooth and elastic.
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Wrap the dough in cling film and place it in the fridge to rest for 1 hour.
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“Classic” Dim Sim
• 500 grams (1.1 pound) beef blade (flat
iron steak) or chicken thigh
• 500 grams (1.1 pound) pork chop or
scotch (neck)
• 100 grams (3-1/2 ounces) pork or
chicken fat
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1/2 teaspoon Chinese five spice seasoning
1 cup loosely chopped cabbage
4 spring (green) onions, diced
Carrot
1 tablespoon soy sauce
Fresh-ground pepper
Place the meat, fat, and carrot into a food processor and pulse it until the carrot is finely diced
and the meat is a sticky mince.
Add the five spice seasoning, spring onions, soy sauce, and some ground pepper, and give one
quick pulse to amalgamate the ingredients.
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Add the finely-diced cabbage and the soy sauce.
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Cover the meat mixture with cling wrap and let it cool in the fridge for half an hour. If this
does not make it sticky enough, add a tablespoon of cornstarch and mix it through.
Roll the dough out thinly on a floured board and cut it into squares. For the large dim sim,
I make 10-centimeter (4-inch) squares.
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Take a desert spoon of the meat mix and place it in the center of the pastry square.
Fold the four corners into the center to make a parcel.
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Now make a fist and squeeze the parcel on the sides to force the
meat downward, making the classic elongated shape.
Don’t be too fussy. A dim sim is meant to have creases in the
pastry and look a bit gnarly.
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Here you can see the difference between my homemade dim sim and one I got from a pack
of frozen ones they sell in my supermarket.
There are two ways of cooking these: steaming and deep frying.
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Steaming
Temperature control is important here. I just set a cast iron wok in my Big Green Egg and
run it at around 125 degrees C (250 degrees F) for a while to get it hot. Water boils at 100
degrees C (212 degrees F), so this ensures that when I add the water, I’ll have a nice simmer
and plenty of steam.
Pour a couple of cups of water into the wok.
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For this exercise, I’m cooking two of my dim sim and one store-bought one
so we can see the difference.
Place the steamer basket in the wok, close the lid of the barbecue,
and cook for 20–25 minutes.
In the meantime, chop a little chili pepper and pour some soy sauce over it.
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Here I have removed the dim sims and cut one of each in half
so you can see the difference. I know which one I prefer!
Serve hot with the chili soy sauce.
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Deep-Frying
This uses the same setup as for steaming: I have a cast iron wok in my Big Green Egg, but I’m
running at a higher temperature, around 180 degrees C (356 degrees F). Pour your oil into the
wok carefully, so you don’t spill any on the hot coals.
Carefully slide the dim sims into the oil. I prefer to be safe and use less oil than normal for
deep frying, even if this means I need to turn the food over mid-cook.
Close the lid and cook the dim sims for 3 minutes, then turn them over and cook for another
3 minutes.
These look great—lovely and moist with a crunchy shell!
Serve with the chili soy.
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Sui Mai Ingredients
• 500 grams (1.1 pound) boneless pork
chop
• 250 grams (9 ounces prawn meat
(shrimp)
• 6 spring (green) onions, finely diced
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon sake
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1 tablespoon sesame oil
2 teaspoons oyster sauce
1/4 teaspoons white pepper
1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger
1/4 cup shitake mushrooms (optional)
2 tablespoons sugar
2 Chinese sausages, diced
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Chris Girvan-Brown (aka Urban Griller) is Australia’s BBQ
Guru. He has written numerous BBQ articles for food
magazines, instruction manuals, and cookbooks. He also
does BBQ cooking segments for local radio and has been
running BBQ cooking schools for 14 years.
UrbanGriller.com
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