He never had any formal training in the kitchen but NG Siew Choy is the Lord of the Dim Sums. The 34-year-old Malaysian is now dim sum chef at Taipan, The Oberoi, New Delhi. But when he took up his first job at the Orchid Hotel in Singapore in 1996, all he’d ever made in a kitchen were pancakes at home.

But a foodie to the core, Choy picked up the tricks of the trade assisting the chefs at the hotel. It’s here that he discovered his ‘fascination’ for dim sums.

“Dim sum is a Cantonese term for small individual portions of food. And I think small is pretty and romantic. And delicately made dim sums, made with various ingredients and served with colourful sauces are a culinary and visual treat,” says the chef.

India’s a different ballgame altogether for Choy who has worked in restaurants in Singapore, Indonesia and Moscow. He’s perplexed at the vegetarian versions of Oriental dishes but he is proud of his green contributions to the menu like the tofu and black fungus dumplings and the potato sui mai.

And what’s the secret of his success? It’s dancing! “It’s all white inside my head when I’m at work but once I hit the dance floor to unwind, I get a rainbow that inspires me to make all kinds of fun dim sums,” he signs off.

Tofu Dumpling

Ingredients

Filling: 15ml vegetable oil 100gm tofu 600gm bok choi 100gm black fungus 50gm vermicelli or glass noodles (soaked to soften) 50gm ginger 18gm Aromat 30gm sugar 5ml sesame oil 30gm potato starch Wrap: 1 wanton sheet

Method For the filling, cut the tofu into small dices and stir-fry in vegetable oil. Next, add ginger and sauté until it’s golden. Add all other ingredients and cook for some time. Add the glass noodles in the end. Then, pour the potato starch, mixed with water, to thicken the mixture. Finally add the sesame oil. Now, take the wanton sheet and cut it into 8cm squares. Put the mix in the centre of each and fold into squares. Steam these for four minutes.

Hargao

Ingredients

Filling: 600gm shrimps 8gm salt 12gm Aromat 20gm sugar 5ml sesame oil 2gm white pepper 12gm potato starch For the dough: 225gm wheat starch 150gm potato starch 250gm hot water

Method Mix the shrimps with salt, potato starch and white pepper nicely. Add the sugar and Aromat and mix well again. Add sesame oil. To make the dough, mix the wheat starch and potato starch. Then slowly add hot water, stirring constantly. Now knead the mixture into dough. If needed, add more potato starch. Then, break the dough into small balls and roll out into thin circular sheets. Put the mix into each of these sheets and fold carefully in the shape of scallop shells . Steam these for four minutes.