This recipe shows you how to make Chinese shumai (siu mai/ 烧卖) at home, one of the most popular Cantonese dim sum. (a step by step guide)

Shumai 烧卖 is the well-known Dim Sum along with barbecue pork bun 叉烧包 and shrimp dumpling 虾饺. The quality of these “Cantonese Big Three” Dim Sum dishes is often used as the golden rule to gauge the standard of a Dim Sum restaurant.

Shumai has remained my favorite Dim Sum through the years. My mother-in-law loved to make a large tray of Shumai at home. She used a large round metal tray to hold the Shumai instead of the bamboo steamer because she wanted to make as many Shumai as possible for everyone in the family to enjoy.  Her Cantonese Shumai is made with chop shrimp and pork, which I still remember vividly.

She never documented the recipe, so I determined the quantity and ingredients. In the end, I have developed the shumai recipe precisely what I want and shared it with you in this article.

1. Step-by-step: How to make Cantonese shumai

a. Preparing the filling

• Pork is the main ingredient for the filling. Adding some pork fat to the lean pork can make the filling more juicy and flavorful. I use pork belly, which contains a certain amount of fat, which is ideal for this purpose.
• Soak the dried Chinese mushroom in water. When the mushrooms turn soft, cut them into small dice.
• Remove the shell of the shrimp, clean, and devein. Marinate the shrimp meat with one teaspoon of salt and one teaspoon of baking soda for 5 minutes. Wash away the salt and baking soda under running water until the water runs clear. Place them in a colander to drain out as much water as possible.
• Combine the pork, mushrooms, and shrimp in a large mixing bowl. Add all the ground white pepper, Shaoxing wine, sesame oil, sugar, oyster sauce, cornflour, and salt. You may add some light soy sauce and rice wine, which are optional.
• Lift the filling and throw it back into the bowl repeatedly for five minutes. The filling texture will change from a wet and loose mixture into a sticky and firm mass, which looks like a meatloaf or burger patty.

Note:

• You may use store-bought ground pork (絞肉), but the texture and mouth-feel would be the same if you cut the meat into tiny pieces (切肉).  To do this, keep the pork belly in the freezer until half-frozen, then slice it to 2mm (1/8 inch) thick. Cut the slices into strips, the tiny dice. (For simplicity, use the food processor (pulse mode) to mince the pork and prawns. But cutting it manually is still the best way)
• Chicken powder (similar to chicken bouillon cube) is not necessarily based on my recipe testing result, which I intentionally omitted  (I know many restaurants use it!).
• Prawns in Shumai should be crunchy. Marinating the shrimp with salt and baking soda for a few minutes will make the shrimp meat more crunchy.
• Then wash the prawns under running water until the water runs clear.
• Throwing the filling repeatedly back into the bowl is the traditional method to make the shrimp and meat mixture more firm and springy.
• You can omit the shrimp to make pork dumplings.
• Some cooks like to add some green peas as part of the ingredients, which is optional.

b. Wrap the shumai

• After mixing the filling, please leave it in the refrigerator for an hour until it firms up. Then, it is easier to wrap the Shumai with chilled filling.
• Try to purchase the round wrappers. Otherwise, you can cut off the four corners of the square wonton wrapper to make it roughly a circle.
• Place 18g (2/3 oz) of filling in the middle of the wrapper. This amount is for the wrapper I use, which is 8cm (3 inches) in diameter.
• Rotate the Shumai and squeeze it at the waist. Press down the meat with a metal spoon to level it.
• If the Shumai skin’s fold protrudes out to the sides, you can use some water to seal up the fold.
• Make sure the bottom of the dumpling is flat so that it can sit steadily on the steamer basket.
• Put some fish roe on top to garnish, which is also optional.

Note:

• If you use wonton wrappers (or skins) to make Shumai, use the extra-thin dumpling wrappers and avoid using dry-out skin. Thick wonton skin will result in sub-quality Shumai with tough skin.
• Make sure to press the meat down so there is no space inside the shumai and the filling is stuck securely onto the dumpling wrapper.  Otherwise, the shumai may fall apart during steaming.

c. Steam the shumai

• Place a piece of parchment paper into the dim sum steamer.  I use non-stick baking paper, so there is no worry that the shumai will stick to the paper. Otherwise, you may apply a thin layer of oil to it.
• Place the shumai on the baking paper, with a small gap in between.
• Steam over high heat, lid on for 8 minutes.

Note:

• You can freeze the Shumai if you do not intend to steam it immediately. The frozen shumai can be steamed directly without defrosting.  However, you need to increase the steaming duration to 10 minutes.
• This shumai recipe is so good that you do not need a dipping sauce.

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Source: Shumai recipe- How to make Shumai 烧卖 in 3 simple steps