Yay it’s the long weekend for us Wellington folk. I’m currently sitting in bed typing this up eating leftover dumplings from last night. Yes it’s 8am but that’s how good dumplings are!

Yum cha is one of my favourite meals. My friend Amy introduced me to it a few years back and I fell in love with it. I’m terrible at making decisions so I love getting loads of little plates to try like you do at yum cha.

I’ve never attempted to make yum cha before but one of my younger brothers is staying at the moment and mentioned he had a hankering for yum cha I thought we could do it together.

Making dumplings is a time consuming thing. You need to make the dough, make the filling, then roll out the dough, fill the dumpling and then steam. The more hands the better. Blair, my boyfriend, also cooked with us. I have to admit this took us over 3 hours. I love cooking so this time wasn’t an issue for me, I just drink wine and listen to music while dancing around in my kitchen (ignoring the disapproving stares of Blair and Patrick as they wonder if I have finally lost the plot). If you don’t share my enthusiasm I suggest making a few dishes at a time.

I used a bunch of different recipes for this.

Prawn dumplings 

http://thewoksoflife.com/2015/10/har-gow/

You could also add some chives into this if you like.

Pork siu mai: 

http://thedumplingsisters.com/2013/10/27/siu-mai-pork-and-prawn-dumplings/ 

The video in this link shows how to put the siu mai together.

Pork and peanut dumplings

This has to be one of my favourites!

http://en.christinesrecipes.com/2014/11/teochew-dumplings.html

This recipe has a different recipe for making the dumpling dough – for ease I just used the same dough as I did for the prawn dumplings above.

BBQ pork buns

To make these buns you first need char siu pork.

Char siu pork recipe – http://www.recipetineats.com/chinese-barbecue-pork-char-siu/

I have made these pork buns with plain sliced pork before though so if you don’t have time/ simply can’t be bothered with this step of the recipe – don’t worry. They will still taste amazing!

http://chewtown.com/2013/01/char-siu-bao-bbq-pork-buns/

These are all best served with some (or lots) of chilli oil and soy. I’m yet to make my own chilli oil but I think it’s relatively simple. Otherwise you can buy it from your local supermarket. If you’re in Wellington then Dumpling’d on the Terrace sells jars of it and it’s amazing.

Have an awesome and safe weekend everyone! X