Chicken Dim Sum, Coconut Buns, Cucumber Pickle and Hoi Sin Sauce

Meal 14 - Feb 6th - Chicken Dim Sum, Coconut Buns, Cucumber Pickle and Hoi Sin Sauce

If it wasn't for the fact that I have pledged to cook every single recipe in the 15 Minute Meals book, I would most likely have skipped over this one. Not just because I imagined making buns from scratch would be a bit of a faff, or because, surprise surprise, I don't have a bamboo steamer kicking around in my cupboard. But mainly because I detest mushrooms with a passion. With the exception of a few weeks in hospital when I was seven (the medication must have interfered with my taste buds) I have hated and done whatever I can to avoid them for my entire life. Even when my mother would craftily chop them up really small in a spaghetti bolognese, I would still sift through my plate and extract the offending vegetables. Unfortunately, since I will be sticking as closely as possible to the recipes (and yes, I'm aware there are many more mushroom dishes to go...) avoiding them was not an option, and upon getting home, Lolz happily informed me she had sourced not one, not two but THREE different varieties of mustrooms to terrify my tastebuds.

Anyway, I went for my now almost ritualistic pre-15 minute meal run and, having obtained a steamer, got to work. The dough was made and chicken prepared without too much drama  and was all transferred to the steamer.

Once it was all cooked and garnished and plated up it was possibly the most fancy looking dish I have prepared so far. Unfortunately taste wise it was a bit hit and miss. The chicken, having marinated in hoi sin sauce was very nice. The mushrooms were, well, mushrooms, although I can report that shiitake and oyster were marginally more palatable than the horrific closed cup. The garnishes were all good. Unfortunately though, the buns were a bit of a disaster. This may admittedly be partly the chef's (i.e my) fault - I may have overworked the dough or over or undercooked it (although I did follow the rather vague instructions in the recipe to a tee).  But most of all they were just a bit bland and tasted more of flour than anything else. I may experiment more in the future, but to be honest what wrong with some noodles on the side?!

Lolz gave the dish 7/10. Difficulty rating 6/10 - those buns may need a bit more practice.