Siu Mai, traditional steamed pork and shrimp dumplings are originated from the south region of China. Good homemade and freshly steamed Siu Mai are so tender, juicy, and delicious, you won’t want to get take-out Siu Mai anymore!
“Not dumplings, again?!” Some of you may say. “I know you can roll a dumpling wrapper in 30 seconds. Most of us can’t.”
That’s why this one is for you, especially.
Siu Mai are going to be the easiest dumplings you can make at home. Believe it or not.
I didn’t believe it at first. Although I’m a Chinese, ” Siu Mai are just that food you have to order in a Chinese restaurant, not to make at home,” I thought.
But after I tried to make it at home once, my mind totally changed. My standard for “good” Siu Mai now is very high. You’ll know what I mean when you try to make it once at home.
Initially, I was stuck with some round wrappers I bought from Berkeley Bowl (supermarket) that is too thin to make Jiaozi/potstickers. So I decided to use them for Siu Mai, during a dumpling-making party that I was hosting. Everybody loved them, and think they are way better than those served in a restaurant.
My kids love them so much, so I have to make them again. Since it’s much easier than my other dumpling recipes, you have to try it.
You can buy ground pork and shelled shrimps from a supermarket. We don’t need big shrimps since they are going to be chopped up, the 61-70 per lb variety is good enough. You can, of course, grind your meat, just remember not to make it too lean, 15-20% fat is a good range.
And if you’d prefer, you can buy whole shrimps, then remove shells and devein them yourself. Sometimes supermarkets don’t do a good job devein shrimps.
Some recipe asks you to soak shrimps in cold water with baking soda, to tenderize the shrimps, as they say. Come on! Shrimps are naturally tender, except when you overcook them. So soaking is just one extra and UNNECESSARY step. And in no way that I’m going to wash one more dirty bowl for that.
My method to make Siu Mai stay tender is not to grind all the shrimps. I cut half of the shrimps into 0.5-inch pieces. So you’ll have chunks of shrimps when you bite into Siu Mai, that makes a difference. For the other half of the shrimps, you can hand mince them, which I did, since there aren’t much to deal with, it’s easy to do. Or you can use a food processor (rethink it, do you want to wash it later?), a few pulses will suffice. Don’t turn shrimps into a paste.
Traditional Siu Mai uses tiny pieces of carrots to garnish at the top. But I found that adding some to the filling give the whole Siu Mai a better texture, and not too meaty. Depends on the size of the carrot you use, you may have too much or too little for this recipe. I would say, roughly one cup diced carrot for the filling and half cup for the topping/garnish. You only need to dice that half cup of carrots nicely, and rest that goes in the filling can be ugly. No one would know!
The assembly part is also much easier than the Jiaozi/potsticker.
Just put 1.5 tbsp of filling in the middle of a wrapper, then start to make small folds along the edge until it forms a little bucket. Use your thumb and index to form a ring to hold and tighten about 0.5inch below the bucket, so it will have an indent that looks like a “neck” of the bucket. Then with the other hand, use a small spoon to push down the filling so that it will fill every inch of the bucket. Don’t worry that it will open during cooking; the filling will be sticky enough to hold everything together.
Or you can imagine you are making a mini cupcake liner out of a wonton wrapper, but the sides are high and it is filled.
Check my 40 seconds youtube video “How to shape Siu Mai?”
You’ll need a steamer. These small bamboo steamers are very pretty to serve directly on the table. But if we need a lot of Siu Mai cooked at the same time I use a 13-inch wide stainless steel steamer that fits on a wok.
I love to make a big batch and freeze them, so I can pull them out for a simple dinner.
Go grab some wonton wrappers this weekend and make some Siu Mai right away!
Tag me (@simpleindeed) on Instagram if you try them. I would love to see.
Happy making!
Qi
Siu Mai (Steamed pork and shrimp dumplings)
Prep
Cook
Total
Yield 60 Siu Mai
Ingredients
For the wrappers:
- 1 package of thin round dumpling wrappers.
- You can find them in most of grocery stores in Asian food section. You can also use wonton wrappers and cut them into round with a knife or a cookie cutter.
For the filling:
- 1.5 lb (675g) ground pork
- 1 lb (450g) shrimps (shelled and deveined)
- 2 carrot, peeled and diced into tiny cubes, about 1.5 cups
- 3 garlic cloves, passed through a garlic press (about 1 tbsp)
- 2 scallions, minced
- 1 small piece of ginger, grated (about 1 tsp)
- 1 tbsp Chinese cooking wine or dry sherry
- 1 tbsp light soy sauce
- 1 tbsp oyster sauce
- 1 tsp Sesame oil
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper (or to taste)
Instructions
To make the filling:
- Divide the shimps in half, mince half of them, using a knife or a food processor. I personally prefer the texture cut with a knife.
- Cut the other half of shimps into 1/2 inch cubes. These bigger pieces of shimps retain their moisture after cooking, and it’s very nice to bite into a little chunk of shrimp.
- Set 1/4 cup of diced carrot aside for garnish.
- Mix everything else together. I find hands are best tool to get an uniform mixture.
To assemble Siu Mai:
- Put about 1.5 tbsp of the filling in the middle of a wrapper, make little folds around the wraps and fold them toward the center.
- Use your thumb and index, hold the middle of a Siu Mai like you are holding a bottle, use a spoon to push the filling down and towards the edge.
To cook Siu Mai:
- Line a steamer with parchment paper with holes. You can make you own like the photo above. Put Siu Mai in the steamer, leave 1 inch space between Siu Mai.
- Boil water in a pot, when water starts to boil, put the steamer on and steam for about 6-8 minute.
- Siu Mai are ready when the filling is not pink anymore and turned pale.
- Serve immediately.
Courses Main
Cuisine Chinese
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Maria says
These are my favorite!! I am going to follow your directions very, very carefully because yours turned out beautifully!! Mine never look that pretty;)
Qi says
Thank you, Maria! hahaha…I definitely paid more attention to this patch since they are going online!