Wilson Tangis the owner of the legendary dim sum spot,Nom Wah Tea Parlor, co-author ofThe Nom Wah Cookbook, and the father of two young children. Last year, he talked to Epicurious about one of his family’sgo-to inexpensive dinners. Below, he walks us through the process of making two of the restaurant’s most popular dishes. Consider this the dim sum edition ofYou Can Cook This: Yes, you can absolutely pull off a dim sum feast in your home kitchen.
Making dim sum at home can be a real family activity—even if you’re not perfect at pleating dumplings. I have a lot of fun folding dumplings with my kids. You don’t have to have the “perfect” wok and bamboo steamer setup either; at home I use a steamer basket set on top of a large skillet. It’s really something you can do without a lot of extra equipment.
Dim sum is traditionally a morning meal, but at Nom Wah we serve these dishes through dinner and into late-night snacking territory. There are a wide variety of dim sum dishes:char siubao,turnip cakes, an array of dumplings, and more.Chicken and cabbage dumplingsandshrimp rice rollsare two of the most popular dishes we serve at the restaurant. They work well for home cooks because neither one is very prep-heavy. You can make the dumpling filling in advance—or even freeze the formed dumplings weeks or months ahead. When you’re ready to eat, you can steam the dumplings, then move on to pan frying them while you steam the rice rolls. Or make just one of these dishes and serve alongside a platter ofnoodlesorsomething more substantial.