Chicken and Shrimp Dim Sum with Mentai Sauce
Mentai dim sum is a modern take on traditional Chinese-style dim sum, served with a generous drizzle of Japanese-fusion mentai sauce. The sauce itself, popularized across Asia's street food scene, is a creamy mayonnaise-based condiment with a spicy kick and a toasted, slightly smoky finish.Mentai sauce was never meant to go on dim sum. Once you try it together, that fact stops mattering. What you're left with is a soft, savory filling paired with a creamy, spicy sauce that smells like melted cheese and heat.Most mentai dim sum recipes floating around overlook one thing: filling consistency. Fresh eggs carry moisture that varies by size and freshness, so the same recipe can produce noticeably different textures batch to batch. This recipe uses Accelist Pangan Nusantara Whole Egg Powder in place of fresh eggs. The ratio is precise, there's no contamination risk, and the filling comes out the same every time, whether you're cooking for three people or thirty.
Ingredients
Method
- Dissolve the egg powder: Pour 20 g of Accelist Whole Egg Powder into a small bowl. Add 60 ml of room-temperature water and stir slowly until the mixture is completely smooth with no lumps. Set aside.
- Blend the filling: Blend the chicken fillet, shrimp, shallots, and garlic together until the texture is smooth and fully combined. No blender? Finely chop everything with a sharp knife, then pound the shallots and garlic separately in a mortar until soft.
- Build the filling mixture: Transfer the blended mixture into a large mixing bowl. Add the grated carrot, dissolved egg powder, tapioca starch, oyster sauce, fish sauce, sesame oil, salt, pepper, and sugar all at once. Use a spatula or clean hands to mix everything together until it forms one compact, cohesive mixture.
- Wrap the dim sum: Lay one dim sum wrapper flat on your palm or a clean flat surface. Place one heaping tablespoon of filling in the center of the wrapper. Fold the sides up and press the edges into pleats, either open at the top or closed tight, whichever style you prefer. Repeat until all the filling is used up.
- Steam the dim sum: Make sure the water in your steamer is fully boiling and producing steady steam before you put anything in. Line the steaming tray with banana leaf brushed lightly with oil, or use baking paper, so the dim sum doesn't stick to the bottom. Arrange each piece with about 1-2 cm of space between them so they don't fuse together as they expand. Steam on medium-high heat for 15-20 minutes until cooked through.
- Make the mentai sauce: While the dim sum steams, mix together the chili sauce, ketchup, mayonnaise, and chili powder in a bowl. Stir until the color turns a uniform bright orange and the texture is smooth. Taste it before using. Add more chili powder if you want more heat, or a bit more mayonnaise if you want it milder.
- Serve: Once the dim sum is ready, transfer to a serving plate. Spoon the mentai sauce evenly over each piece, then scatter shredded mozzarella and nori on top. For the best result, use a kitchen torch to lightly char the surface until the cheese melts and turns golden. Serve immediately while hot so the sauce and cheese stay at their best.