Sui Mai - Chinese Steamed Dumpling 燒賣
Today we’re going to make the traditional sui mai 燒賣 as served in the dim sum teahouses: savory juicy morsels of pork and shrimp wrapped in a delicate skin and topped with that classic bit of orange roe.
- Prep time
- 20 min
- Cook time
- 15 min
- Yield
- 32 servings
- Difficulty
- HARD
Ingredients
Quantities are shown as originally provided.
- 32 sheets yellow siu mai dough skins 燒賣皮
- 2 tbsp flying fish roe 飛魚籽
- 12 oz ground pork, 338g
- 1 tsp salt
- 4 tsp cold water
- 1 3/4 tbsp potato starch
- 2 1/2 tbsp crushed ice cubes, 38g
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1/8 tsp white pepper
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 1/2 tsp dried flounder fish powder 大地魚粉
- 13 oz fresh shrimp, 375g
- 3 medium sized Chinese dried shitake mushrooms 冬菇
- 5 1/2 oz fresh shrimp, 154g
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 1/4 tsp potato starch
- 1/8 tsp sesame oil
- 1 1/4 tsp sugar
Instructions
- 1
Make the Bottom Filling: Soak dried mushrooms in warm water for several hours until soft. Slice off and discard the stem. Finely dice the mushroom caps.
- 2
Peel shell and remove intestine of shrimp if any. Separate to two piles, one 13 oz (375g) pile and one 5 1/2 oz (154g) pile. Reserve the smaller pile for the top filling. Take the larger 13 oz pile and chop each shrimp into 1/2 inch long pieces.
- 3
Add salt and cold water and potato starch to minced pork. Stir slowly in one direction only until thick paste is formed. You can also use a mixer to do this, just keep the setting at lowest speed to minimize heat from mixing process.
- 4
Once a rough paste is formed, add in ice cubes and continue stirring until ice melted and incorporated with the paste. The meat and the fat should be incorporated into one thick, sticky cohesive paste.
- 5
Add in diced mushroom, sugar, white pepper, sesame oil and dried fish powder and stir until evenly mixed. Fold in chopped shrimp.
- 6
Make the Top Filling: Take the 5 1/2 oz (154g) pile of shrimp and add it to a food processor along with the salt and the potato starch. Blitz at high speed until a thick very sticky paste is formed. Add in sesame oil, sugar and blitz a couple secs to mix.
- 7
Wrap the Siu Mai: Scoop 1 rounded tbsp of bottom filling onto the middle of one sui mai wrapper. Place 1 tsp top filling over bottom filling. The amounts might have to be adjusted to the size of your wrapper. The ratio of bottom filling to top filling should be 4:1.
- 8
Bring the wrapper up around the sui mai filling, forming a round cylinder shape while leaving the top open. Press down on the filling with a slim spatula as you shape the sui mai to make sure there are no air pockets and that the top filling covers the bottom filling completely. Importantly, be sure to seal the sui mai by making sure the sticky top filling is pressed firmly to the wrapper all around. Make sure the sui mai is balanced on a flat bottom.
- 9
Repeat for the rest of the fillings and wrapper. To finish, scoop a bit of roe into the center of each sui mai, pressing lightly down on the roe to secure.
- 10
At this point you can freeze any sui mai you want for future sui mai snack attacks. Just set future sui mai onto a tray and stick in freezer until they are hard enough to hold its own shape. At this point the sui mai can be tossed into a ziplock bag to finish the freeze.
- 11
For immediate eating of sui mai, prepare a steamer lined with parchment paper. Place sui mai into steamer so they do not touch. Steam over low heat for 15 mins. Eat sui mai when hot and delicious. Enjoy!