This month’s Silver Travel Cook Club features a recipe for Prawn Dim Sum inspired by sponsor Wendy Wu Tours.
And you could win a copy of China: The Cookbook. (The definitive cookbook bible of the world’s most popular and oldest cuisine!)
Please note: this prize draw is now closed.
Featuring more than 650 recipes for delicious and authentic Chinese dishes for the home kitchen, this impressive and authoritative book showcases the culinary diversity of the world’s richest and oldest cuisines with recipes from the 33 regions and sub-regions.
China: The Cookbook by Kei Lum Chan and Diora Fong Chan celebrates popular staples such as Sweet and Sour Spare Ribs and Dim Sum, as well as lesser-known regional classics like Fujian Fried Rice and Jiangsu’s Drunken Chicken, and features additional selected recipes from star chefs from around the world.
“China: The Cookbook is a magnificent insight into the history of Chinese cuisine. I will treasure it in my collection and it will be no doubt be used as valuable reference for many years to come.” ― Ken Hom OBE, Chef, author and TV presenter
Discover China with Wendy Wu Tours
Chinese cooking is a culinary journey that parallels the experience of travelling through China’s diverse landscapes and rich cultural heritage. Just as the vast nation is home to various regions with distinct personalities, so does its cuisine. From the fiery spices of Sichuan to the delicate dim sum of Guangdong, each dish reflects the local traditions and ingredients found in that area.
Wendy Wu Tours is the UK’s leading touring specialist, offering extraordinary tours to Japan, China and the Far East, Southeast Asia, India, Sri Lanka, The Middle East, Central Asia, South America and Europe. Since founder and owner Wendy Wu sent her first tour to China in 1994, the escorted group tour operator has grown from strength to strength.
With such a heritage, it is no surprise that Wendy Wu Tours is the UK’s number one tour operator to China, with over 25 years of experience offering escorted groups and private holidays to this fascinating country.
One of our favourite Wendy Wu China tours is the delightful Pursuit of Pandas. This fully hosted 11-day trip, in partnership with Wendy Wu Tours, is exclusive to Silver Travel Advisor customers. You’ll be in the company of fellow solo travellers to share the journey and capture magical memories, and all places are offered on a single occupancy basis, so you’ll have your own room to retreat to at the end of a busy day. This tour incorporates some of China’s most famous highlights, including the wonderous Great Wall of China and the beautifully preserved Terracotta Warriors. And, of course, as the tour name suggests, this remarkable adventure concludes with meeting some of the country’s most famous furry residents at the Chengdu Panda Conservation Centre.
Recipe: Prawn Dim Sum
Ingredients:
For the dips:
- 3 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 2 red chillies, finely chopped
- 3 tbsp rice vinegar
- 1 tbsp sugar
For the prawn dim sum:
- 250g/9oz raw king prawns, peeled and de-veined
- 50g/2oz bamboo shoots, finely sliced
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 1 tbsp dry sherry or rice wine
- ¼ tsp ground white pepper
- 1 tsp caster sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 16 ready-made dim sum wrappers (available from Asian supermarkets)
Method:
- For the dips, place the soy sauce, sesame oil and one of the chopped red chillies into a clean bowl and whisk together.
- Meanwhile, place the rice vinegar, sugar and the remaining one chopped red chilli into a pan and heat until the sugar dissolves. Remove from the heat and allow to cool, then pour into a clean bowl.
- For the prawn dim sum, place the prawns into a small food processor and blend to a purée. Transfer to a bowl, add all the other ingredients, except the dim sum wrappers, and mix thoroughly.
- Place the wrappers onto a clean work surface and place a small spoonful of prawn mixture in the centre of each wrapper. Fold the wrappers over the prawn mixture to create a semi-circle. Press the edges of the wrapper together with damp fingers to seal the wrapper parcels and crimp the edges.
- Place the parcels into a bamboo steamer over a pan of simmering water and cover. Steam for 4-5 minutes, or until the prawn mixture is completely cooked through. Remove from the steamer and serve immediately.
- To serve, place the dim sum onto a serving plate with both bowls of dips alongside.
How to win a copy of China: The Cookbook
Meeting China’s famous pandas is one of life’s once in a life time experiences. Comment below to tell us about a unique wish list experience you’ve enjoyed.
A winner will be chosen at random in early September 2023.
The competition closes on 31 August 2023.
33 Responses
I had on my wish list back in the 90’s a trip to Disney in Florida as our son was 10. We all enjoyed the experience and took a small plane to the Bahamas for a weekend too.
Visiting the Great wall and Beijing as a short stop over prior to embarking a cruise- Beautiful food, genuine people and a truly wonderful experience
My best once in a lifetime experience was seeing mountain gorillas in central Africa. The hard slog to find them was well worth the effort
My husband took us to London for a long weekend to celebrate our silver wedding anniversary,he’d planned everything for us and topped it off with a trip to the theatre to see Phantom of the Opera,a musical that I had longed to see for over 20years!!
Seeing the statue of Christ The Redeemer as one emerges from the mist/cloud in Rio was one of my top wish list visits. It did not disappoint!
Travel wish list experience was Australia, north of cairns where I saw tree kangaroos.
Awesome.
i need to get more adventures in my cooking, this would be a great start
Fabulous recipe
I visited China and learnt how to make dumplings in the streets of Beijing. It was wonderful to meet some locals and learn about their cooking methods.
Ley – packed lunch from Explore hotel eaten to the sound of busy streets.
We were fortunate to tour China before Covid. What an amazing experience and difficult to pinpoint just one experience. Delicious healthy food too, nothing like the Chinese takeaways here! Every mealtime we knew it was the last course when the Melon arrived. Some unusual ways to cook fish and all fresh ingredients. We have since tried to cook our own Chinese meals once a week and even had a Chinese Christmas instead of turkey.
As well as the food walking on the great wall was amazing. The weather was great and you could see the wall meandering into the distance. Just like the Terracotta Warriors who knows haw far the site stretch.
China is definitely a place to visit again
Releasing a turtle tangled in a fishing net on lanzoroti magical moment
On my travels to Australia, I took a trip to Uluru, it was so magical looking up to the sky at night and seeing the Milky Way.
Eating a meal at the top of the Calgary Tower while watching the fantastic scenery as we slowly moved around – magical
coincidentally exactly the same as the one you have listed –
Really Close up contact with China`s pandas at Chengdu ,just before Covid ,so cruelly
shut down all our travelling plans
My best once in a lifetime experience was driving Route 66 in a vintage Chevrolet.
Seeing a majestic manatee in the intracoastal waters of Florida. Seeing dolphins just off of the coast and feeding freshly caught fish to a huge white heron.
So many places to see & so many things to do on my wish list, slowly ticking them off!
My ABC experiences:
Adventure – safari in Kenya
Beach – chilling out in the Maldives
Culture – cruising the River Nile
A visit to south. Africa With my husband and sons visiting Cape Town journeying down the garden. Route to port Elizabeth the highlight going on. Safari. I will never forget it
Visiting French Guyana – sleeping in the Amazon Forest, shooting the rapids in the Amazon, seeing Ariane Rocket just prior to launch in the Space Station and, best of all, seeing all the different plants, birds, animals, etc. Just wonderful.
A helicopter flight over and around the live volcano in Le Reunion Island. Awesome!
We loved a visit to Hong Kong, travelled on the Star Ferry and ate in a fabulous restaurant in Kowloon. Thought it would be good as only Chinese patrons in big families. No menus so had to go by memory from our favourite Chinese at home in Middlesbrough’s. We ordered six dishes between the two of us , thought he looked strange at our selection, till it arrived on six dinner serving dish plates. Looking around families of ten were having one between them and we were only two. No worry it was brilliant and we ate the lot taking can’t remember how long. The owner was impressed that we had eaten there and finished it all. I hope they are still doing well and one day we can return. To win your cookbook may allow us to relive real Chinese home cooking.
Not perhaps unique, but one that is on a lot of bucket lists – trekking mountain gorillas in Uganda was a memorable, but exhausting experience.
As a child the world seemed enormous. In my dreams I travelled to Australia but in real life never thought I would actually get there. At seventy three I look back on those childhood dreams now realised. I’ve been to Aus and N.Z. on a number of occasions and, four years ago to Antarctica where I camped on the snow with a Welland Seal not far from the tent. Trying to top that is hard but in a few days I leave to discover the North West Passage. My dream now, to see polar bears in their natural habitat. Fingers crossed.
We went to China one year with Travelsphere holidays. The food there was nothing like we get in Chinese takeaways here in England I have to say.
To walk along the Great Wall of China .. I did this on my first visit to China in the 80’s when they had just started opening up the country
I have snorkelled on The Great Barrier Reef.
In 2019 I went to Cuba to join a small tour group travelling around western Cuba. It was a long held wish fulfilled and an amazing experience.
Sailing out of Tromso on a very cold but crystal clear night, a message went round the dining room ‘Northern Lights. There was a rush to the ouside decks. At first they looked a bit like flashlights crossing the sky. We all looked at each other and said ‘Is that it?’ Gradually the lights appeared above the mountains looking a bit like a wild fire. The skies then opened to a marvellous display . At one point it felt as if a giant jellyfish was swirling above us with tentacles hanging down.
It was a bitterly cold night – the kind of cold that sucks the heat out of you, but the cold was forgotten as we watched an amazing display open out over our heads. A truly memorable occasion.
Maldives. Just paradise.
Two weeks spent wild camping on Easter Island — decades ago before the swarms of tourists started travelling to the island. Bliss.
Haven’t managed to tick anything off yet but would love to go to New England in the Fall to see the trees x
I went to Cape Town with my son. I had a wonderful close encounter with a leopard in the western Cape (I was in the car), chatted to adorable penguins in Simonstown and passed by Chacma baboons as I walked down the street. The seafront restaurants were unbeatable and we took a boat to Marion Island to see seals and sharks.
Comments are closed.