Traditional Cantonese Siu Mai 燒賣 dumplings are steamed pork dumplings that often include shrimp and mushrooms and are topped with minced carrots, green pea, or fish roe. This type of dumpling is popularly enjoyed in Dim Sum restaurants or at street food stalls. They are called siu mai because in Chinese, Siu Mai means "to sell quickly" and they usually do because they are such a tasty food that is easy to make and even easier to eat! At the dim sum restaurant, they will usually come in a bamboo steamer, whereas in a street stall, they may be served in a cup with skewers to eat, or served already on a skewer for easy travel and eating!

For me and my hubby, siu mai is a dish that we always ordered whenever we went with our families and friends to dim sum, a staple that you simply need to get in order to have a complete and satisfying dim sum experience. Other dim sum staples include cheung fun (steamed rice noodles) and har gao (crystal skin shrimp dumplings). Since the start of the COVID19 pandemic, I have been slowly learning to recreate our favorite dim sum dishes at home, from ha cheung (steamed rice noodles with shrimp) to lo bak go (steamed/pan-fried turnip cake), and now siu mai!

Try some of my other dim sum recipes:
Shrimp Cheung Fun
Chinese Turnip Cake 

The filling for siu mai is very similar to our Shrimp & Pork Wonton filling in that it involves shrimp and pork and similar seasonings, and for the wrappers you can also use wonton wrappers. However, if you are able to find siu mai wrappers at your local Asian super market, I highly recommend using those as they are even thinner than wonton wrappers and lends to a much more authentic siu mai texture. 

STEAMED SHRIMP & PORK SIU MAI

INGREDIENTS:

• ​16 oz ground pork
• 8 oz minced shrimp (peeled and deveined) - (5 oz minced, 3 oz of the shrimp pounded into shrimp paste)
• 5 rehydrated shiitake mushrooms, minced
• siu mai wrappers (or wonton wrappers)
• green peas
• masago fish roe or minced carrots
• 2 tbsp light soy sauce
• 4 tbsp oyster sauce
• 1 tsp salt
• 1.5 tbsp sugar
• 1. tsp white pepper
• 2 tsp chicken bouillon powder
• 4 tbsp cornstarch
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 4 tbsp shiitake mushroom water or vegetable stock
• 2 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp olive oil

DIRECTIONS

1. ​In a large mixing bowl, add the ground pork, shrimp paste and minced shrimp, minced rehydrated shiitake mushrooms, light soy sauce, oyster sauce, salt, sugar, white pepper, chicken bouillon powder, cornstarch, baking soda, shiitake mushroom water (you can also use water or vegetable stock), sesame oil and olive oil. Mix it until it becomes sticky and you can see the meat fibers breaking apart. Cover with cling wrap and put into the fridge, allow to marinate for 4-6 hours. 
2. To wrap the siu mai, place the square wrapper in the palm of your hand and place about 1 tbsp of filling into the center of the wrapper. Bring the edges of the wrapper upwards and cup the filling in your hand while forming a circle with your index finger and thumb, using those two fingers to hold the wrapper edges of the dumpling upwards. Continue adding filling into the "cup" you have formed until the filling reaches the top. Tap it down with a butter knife or spoon. Then place the dumpling down onto a sheet of parchment on a plate to prevent sticking, when you place it on the flat surface, push the dumpling down a little so that the bottom of the dumpling flattens to stand up straight.
3. Once all the dumplings are made, add your dumpling topping (minced carrots or fish roe. Optional: add a single green pea on top, in the center of your carrots or fish roe.)
4. At this point you can put the siu mai into the freezer and freeze until hard--then you can place them all into a ziploc bag and take them out to freeze whenever you feel like eating siu mai! Or, you can steam them freshly made. Whether you are steaming them fresh or from frozen, they only take about 12-13 minutes to steam.
5. If you don't have a steamer, you can put a rack into a pot of water and place the siu mai on a plate on top of the rack. Steam for 12-13 minutes, allow to cool for about 1-2 minutes and then enjoy!

Until next time,
​Jenny

Cantonese style chow mein is characterized by a bed of crispy pan fried noodles topped with a delicious brown sauce with stirfried meat and veggies—it could be seafood, beef, chicken, etc. The brown sauce is usually a base of soy sauce and oyster sauce thickened by a cornstarch slurry.

Chow mein was often a dish we ordered when we went to a Cantonese restaurant or dim sum place and got as an "add on" dish (because for us, when we went for dim sum, we ate dim sum, and any other "entree" is really just in case you aren't full, or you want to bring it home as leftovers, haha). My dad would often order the chicken chow mein for us to eat and it is a memory I often associate with whenever I see it on the menu. I love the way the pan fried noodles would crackle and crunch when you cut into them, and how tender and moist the protein always was, regardless of whether it was chicken, beef, or pork.

The reason for this is due to the marinade used for the protein and then cooking it on high heat—this is a process called 'velveting' and it locks in all the juices, making even chicken breast tender and yummy.

Since we've been craving childhood favorites lately, and because there is truly a shortage of good, authentic Asian eats where I live, I found our local mini Asian market sold chow mein in their freezer, I decided to make this restaurant favorite at home! I air fried the noodles rather than frying the noodles pan or wok of oil so it is just mildly healthier than the restaurant version! It was so crispehhhhhh 😍

The package of chow mein noodles we got had 4 servings, so we just used half and saved the other half to make again later in the week. You can always make as much as you want, but we have a small airfryer so it wouldn't have fit all of it in one go anyway, haha. Be sure to get the thin chow mein noodles--thick noodles won't crisp up the same way.

AIR FRYER BEEF CHOW MEIN
Makes 2 servings

INGREDIENTS:
Air Fryer Chow Mein
- 1/2 package Chow mein noodles
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- salt* optional

Marinade for Beef
- 6 oz beef, sliced into bite sized pieces
- 2 tbsp water
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 tbsp oyster sauce
- 1/2 tsp sugar

Other
-1/2 onion
- 3 stalks of scallions
- 1 tbsp oyster sauce
- 1 tbsp light soy sauce
- 2 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 2 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 cup water or low sodium chicken broth

​DIRECTIONS:
1. Marinate your sliced beef in 1 tbsp cornstarch, a sprinkling of salt, black pepper, sugar, oyster sauce, and 2 tbsp water. Mix well and let marinate for 10 minutes.

2. Boil the chow mein noodles briefly, about 1-2 minutes. Then drain and run through cold water to remove any excess starch, and get rid of as much liquid as possible in the strainer. Use paper towels to dry if needed.

3. Add the olive oil and sesame oil to the chow mein in a large mixing bowl and mix well to ensure the noodles are coated. You can add a pinch of salt and mix in as well, but optional.

4. Lay the noodles flat in your air fryer rack with a piece of parchment paper underneath the noodles. Airfry at 380°F for 10 minutes. Then flip the noodles and move the noodles around so that all the crispy edges are under and the non crispy noodles are exposed. Airfry again at 380°F for 7 minutes. At this point, check to see if it is crispy throughout, and if not, mix the noodles and make sure the non crispy noodles are exposed and airfry again, 3 minutes at a time until it reaches desired crispness. The time may differ based on how dry you were able to get your noodles.

5. While the noodles are airfrying, add a little oil to your fry pan and cook your beef until seared brown on all sides. Remove from the pan and cook your onions in the remaining oil until onions are brown and translucent.

6. Make your sauce mixture with cornstarch, water (or low sodium chicken broth), oyster sauce, light soy sauce, sugar, and black pepper. Add your beef back in, add scallions, and add the sauce mixture and mix. Cook until the sauce thickens and taste—add salt if needed, but if you use chicken broth, most likely do not need extra salt. Once the sauce is thickened to your desired consistency, shut off the heat.

7. Once airfried chow mein noodles reach the desired crispness, put onto a large plate and spoon the beef and onions sauce on top. Garnish with more scallions if desired and enjoy!

Until next time,
Jenny

So I haven't posted in foreverrrrrr to this blog because a LOT has happened in the past year, other than the COVID19 pandemic, of course. Earlier this year we moved to Illinois because my hubby got a new job and everything changed after that. We quit our jobs, he started his new job, we sold our house in New Jersey, bought a new house in Illinois and moved over here within the span of a couple months. Looking back on it now, I don't even know how we managed such a feat, but it certainly helped that his new company paid for all of the expenses and moving company. It's crazy how much stuff we'd accumulated over the short span of a few years, and so I got rid of a TON of stuff and still managed to move with a giant truckload! We've been living in Illinois since May now, and I have just started to get back into the groove of things, in terms of doing things that I wanted to do, for myself.

Since moving out here, we realized our town does not have many good Asian food options, and we did try some of the offerings around, though none of it memorable. I craved all the things we usually had easy access to in NJ and NYC, and being out here all alone really made me miss real, authentic foods from my culture. If we wanted anything remotely good, we'd have to drive about 2 hours to Chicago to find something. There is a town about an hour from us with slightly more authentic Chinese food, but it's still just so-so. So now, I end up making a lot of the foods we crave. Within the first 2 months or so, I made hundreds and hundreds of assorted dumplings and wontons, one of our favorite foods, which brings me to today's recipe post!

Wontons (雲吞) are a favorite in our family and a type of dumpling that I have fond memories of. These dumplings are a favorite of my father's and his favorite were from a very specific no frills restaurant that he would frequent in Hong Kong that served up "Ping Pong ball sized" wontons filled to the brim with fresh shrimp mixed with a touch of pork and served in a delicious clear broth. Cheap, fast, and delicious was the name of the game when it came to food in Hong Kong--especially street food or casual food. Nowadays, we always reminisce about how delicious the ping pong ball wontons were from Hong Kong whenever we have wontons or make them at home!

Traditional wontons are dumplings that are typically filled with pork, shrimp, or a combination of both. In Hong Kong and China, wonton soup often includes 大地鱼 or bian yu, also known as dried sole or flounder that adds a real hit of umami when the wontons are submerged in it. Some dried flounder powder is sometimes added to the wonton filling as well. It's been pretty hard to find this dried flounder powder in the USA, but with some online googling, I'm sure you can find it if you truly want an authentic wonton experience. For this recipe, we don't use dried flounder powder, but it still tastes great and goes wonderfully with noodle soup or on its own.

In my recipe, we use shrimp and pork, some Chinese staple seasonings and sauces, and ginger. The trick to a shrimp-ilicious wonton is to mix  a combination of chopped chunk shrimp and pounded shrimp paste with some ground pork. ​

Once your filling is ready, you'll spoon some onto some thin wonton wrappers which you can find at most Asian markets, and now increasingly can be found in the refrigerated sections of non-Asian supermarkets. I usually find them where they keep their tofu selections, which is also where they keep egg roll wrappers if you need to find some! I like to fold my wontons in half, then bring the ends together to "hug" the wonton.

I love to wrap a whole bunch of wontons and dumplings in one sitting so that I can store them in the freezer. After you are done wrapping them, place each finished dumplings onto a flat pan lined with parchment paper. After they are frozen, you can throw them into a freezer gallon bag to save space in the freezer.

This is pan fried turnip cake, or 香煎蘿蔔糕, a delicious turnip cake that is first steamed with daikon radish, Chinese sausage, shiitake mushrooms, dried shrimp and scallions that is pan fried until crispy and golden brown.

Chinese turnip cake always makes me think of busy dim sum Sundays with family and friends and is such a nostalgic dish. Like my shrimp cheung fun recipe, this was born out of a craving during the COVID19A quarantine and wanting some luo bak go and not being able to go out for dim sum!

This is such an easy recipe—it's one of those one pot recipes where you throw everything togeher and let it cook. There's only a little prep work involved where you have to shred the daikon radish and stir fry the ingredients before mixing all of it in a bowl. To steam the turnip cake, I used a 12x3 metal circle pan that fit my wok, but you can honestly use whatever you have on hand and you can separate the batches depending on the size of your pan and steamer. Steam for an hour, let cool completely and it's ready to eat! Or, my favorite way is to cut it up and pan fry with some oil for a great crispy outside and soft turnip cake inside. I typically like to cover it and leave in the fridge overnight for it to settle and then crisp it up for breakfast or dim sum brunch the next day!

​I'm so happy that we can now enjoy this dish at home and I hope you enjoy it too!

Recipe Serves 8

INGREDIENTS

• 2 daikon radish, about 10-12 inch long each, shredded
• 200 grams of rice flour
• 50 grams corn starch
• 2 cups water
• 4 Chinese sweet lap cheong (cured Chinese sausage), diced
• 4 scallions, diced
• 1/8 cup dried shrimp, finely minced
• 4 large shiitake mushrooms or 8 small shiitake mushrooms (use dried shrooms and rehydrate them before dicing)
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 3 tsp oyster sauce
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp chicken powder (or salt)
• 1 tsp white pepper

DIRECTIONS:

1. Skin the daikon radish and shred it with a large toothed grater. If you don't have, you can use a fruit peeler to shave the radish down into strips, then roughly chop into shredded pieces.
2. Place all the shredded radish into a large pan and cook until no more excess liquid is produced and the radish is cooked through/translucent. You can taste it to make sure it is softened.
3. Heat a separate pan on medium heat and cook the diced Chinese sausage, releasing its oils. As it cooks, add the minced shrimp, shiitake mushrooms and scallions and mix thoroughly.
4. Once the meat mixture is cooked through, add it to the daikon radish. Add the oyster sauce, chicken powder, sesame oil and sugar and mix well.
5. In a large mixing bowl, add the rice flour, cornstarch and 2 cups of water. Mix well until lumps are gone. Then, add the daikon mixture into the mixing bowl and stir until well incorporated.
6. Use a large steam pan (I used a 12x3 circular pan) and pour the entire mixture into the pan. Steam on medium heat for 1 hour. After 1 hour, remove the turnip cake from the steamer and allow to cool completely.
7. Enjoy as is or slixe into desired thickness and pan fry with oil until both sides are crispy and golden.

​Enjoy!

Until next time,
Jenny

So while being at home during this pandemic, we've been craving dim sum like crazy. Dim Sum is a Cantonese tradition of breakfast or brunch food, and might be compared to Spanish tapas where all the dishes are small dishes meant to be shared. "Dim Sum" literally translates to 'dim' - to touch, and 'sum' - heart" or "to touch the heart" or "order to your heart's content". Traditionally, dim sum places involve restaurant staff, usually elderly Chinese Aunties, pushing hot steaming carts with steamers piled high and calling out what they have in their carts. (various dumplings, bao buns, mini steamed dishes of cheung fun noodles, siu mai, pork ribs and more.) You'll often hear classics like, "Ha gow! (shrimp dumplings) Siu mai! (pork dumplings), Fung Zhao! (braised chicken feet)" 

Waiters will walk around with trays of freshly fried foods or fresh out of the kitchen dishes like salt and pepper shrimp, calamari, fried bacon wontons, fried taro nests, stir fried clams and dear lord my mouth is watering!! Going for dim sum is an experience--it's loud, crowded, full of families and kids running around, adults gossiping and chatting, plenty of laughter and mountains of good food to stuff your face with. 

One of my favorite dishes is the Cheung Fun (Steamed Rice Noodle) with Shrimp, also known as "Ha Cheung" in Cantonese. After some research and trying out quite a few recipes from different sources, I finally found a recipe for shrimp cheung fun that tastes like restaurant quality cheung fun!​