Vegan Dim Sum & Veggie Fried Rice

Day 100

Wow, one hundred days already! Where does the time go? I know I haven't been diligent in posting every single night, but man, some nights just aren't worth sharing. Last night, for instance: We had lunch in early afternoon, then I made some fries a bit later. We planned to make supper eventually and we just never did. So lazy! I ate a rice cake before bed to stave off the hunger I caused myself. So, yep, bed without supper as punishment for being too lazy to bother making supper.

Tonight, however, Laura was back in the kitchen slaving. She really did make stuff that takes effort, too. Lots of chopping, various things to cook.

Vegan Dim Sum & Veggie Fried Rice

Vegan Dim Sum

We made these awesome steamed buns on Day 24 way back in November. I laid out the recipe and process quite well on that page, so if you want to see how they're made, please click here, because tonight's focus will be on the rice dish. I did follow her around to take pics for you to enjoy!

Mushrooms were on sale today at Sobeys so I grabbed 4 packages, which was the main inspiration to make the dim sum tonight...although I'm pretty sure Laura has been craving it since November. Mushrooms are the main ingredient for the dim sum filling.

Mushroom sale

Dim sum filling, cooking

Dim sum dough...weighed for even-ness and...OCD.

75 g of dough

See? All the same size.

16 Dim sum x 75 g

16 dim sum, ready to steam

Veggie Fried Rice

Ingredients

2 eggs, beaten

4 tbsp sesame oil

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 carrot, grated

1 lb of mushrooms, sliced

4 cups cold cooked rice 

6 scallions, sliced

Can of water chestnuts, sliced

1/4 cup soy sauce

Directions

Some of these steps combine multiple actions, but this is how I chose to break them up for organization's sake.

Step 1: Boil some rice. White rice, unfortunately, works best.

Boiled white rice

Step 2: Set aside to cool. It MUST be cool before it can be fried or it will be all gummy and not good. We wanted to work with it the same day, so after it had cooled about an hour and a half we covered it and set it outside in the snow to cool faster.

Rice cooling on the deck

View from indoors, of rice cooling

I checked on the rice once or twice to make sure no animals had discovered it, but Laura said she couldn't deny a hungry animal some boring white rice.

Step 3: Peeling, chopping and more chopping. In the pic below from left and going clockwise: Chopped green onions (white part), minced garlic, chopped green onions (green part), bowl of sliced mushrooms, shredded carrot, and sliced water chestnuts (because I was dumb and bought whole ones).

Chopped stuff

Step 4: Scramble egg in wok or large nonstick pan, remove to plate. Add 2 tbsp sesame oil, onion and garlic. Saute until fragrant, add mushrooms and a sprinkle of salt. Cover and cook for 5 minutes. Remove cover and cook until liquid is mostly gone. Add carrot. Transfer to plate.

Sautéed veggies

Step 5: Add 2 tbsp sesame oil to hot pan and add cold rice, stir to break up chunks. Add veggie and egg mixture along with the water chestnuts and stir well. Heat through adding soy sauce to taste, a tablespoon at a time, stir often. Add scallions at end, stir and serve.

Sesame oil

Rice with eggs, veggies & water chestnuts added

Done!

So, all in all, it took awhile to make, but sooo worth it. We had to cook some egg rolls while we were waiting, about two hours before it was done to tide us over. But we were so ready to eat this by the time it was done. 

Dim sum & fried rice

Reviews/Comments

I rate this a 10. So much work but so worth it. Many thanks, Laura, for supper and lunch tomorrow!

Laura: It's a 10 every time I make these. They're (dim sum) the best thing I've ever eaten.