Cooking Utensils

Appears in
Dim Sum

By Chan Chen Hei

Published 2005

  • About
  1. Pastry cutter This is similar to a pizza cutter. It is generally used for cutting and trimming rolled-out dough to size.

  2. Dough scraper This handy piece of plastic is used for scraping dough off a work surface. It is also used to cut dough into small pieces.

  3. Pastry brus This brush is used for greasing baking tins and pans, and also for glazing the top of pastries with beaten egg for a shiny, golden finish.

  4. Rolling pin, slim This slim, wooden rolling pin is used to roll out small portions of dough into thin skins or wrappers. Wood is the preferred material as it traps a fine layer of flour, making the rolling out of dough easier.

  5. Rolling pin, large A heavy rolling pin is generally used to roll out large blocks of dough to get sheets of regular thickness.

  6. Palette spatula This wooden tool is useful for scraping up small portions of dumpling filling and pressing it into the hand cupping the dumpling skin. If unavailable, a teaspoon works as well.

  7. Round cutters These come in various sizes and are used to cut out rounds of dough or pastry.

  8. Har Gau Cleaver (har gau tou) This broad cleaver is specially made for flattening out dim sum doughs into thin, round skins. The edge of this thin-bladed cleaver is blunt, which makes it safer to use. It can be found at shops selling Chinese utensils. Ask for har gau tou (“tou” meaning “knife”). To use, grease a broad side of the cleaver then press it, greased side down, onto the dough. Turn the blade in a clockwise direction to flatten dough into a half circle then turn the blade in an anti-clockwise direction to get a thin, round skin.

  9. Old-fashioned scale This small weighing instrument is still widely used in restaurants. It is usually used to measure tiny quantities of ingredients such as baking powder, yeast and sugar. It is sensitive to quantities as small as 1 tsin which is around 3.8 g.