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Steamed Pork & Shrimp Siu Mai 燒賣

3/8/2022

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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. 
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​Some tips for making delicious siu mai ingredients:
  • Ground Pork: When choosing your ground pork, find a 20% fat to 80% meat ratio--the more fatty the pork, the more juicy and tender the dumpling. Lean ground pork with 90-95% meat to fat ratio will cause you to have a dumpling with a dry and unpleasant mouthfeel.
  • Shrimp: Frozen pre-peeled and deveined shrimp saves you a lot of work! Just defrost in the refrigerator the night before you decide to make your siu mai. I like to pound 3oz of the shrimp into a paste, and then mince the remaining 5 oz. This makes a great smooth and bouncy texture for the dumpling!
  • Shiitake mushrooms: Use dried shiitake mushrooms and rehydrate them in a bowl of water for about 1-2 hours, or until softened. Fresh shiitake mushrooms are acceptable but for a more authentic and deeper mushroom flavor, the dried shiitake mushroom has more concentrated flavor and brings more umami to your siu mai dumpling. Reserve the liquid from rehydrating the shiitake mushrooms to use in your dumpling mixture instead of water or vegetable stock!
  • When making the dumpling mixture, make sure to mix until the meat begins to break into fibrous strands--This process of mixing until the pork is "起膠" or "hei gao" in Cantonese, which means that it will have a good firm, and "bouncy" texture when cooked. When a dumpling filling does not "hei gao", it will have a loose texture that results in a bad mouth-feel when you eat it. Here's a photo of what "hei gao" looks like, most noticeably in the lower right hand side of the image.
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Making siu mai is simple! After mixing all your dumpling filling ingredients, let it marinate for about 4-6 hours and then you are ready to wrap the siu mai. The siu mai are wrapped as an open faced dumpling, meaning you don't close all the edges as you would in a normal boiled or pan fried dumpling, and you see the meat filling. The dumpling is shaped in such a way that the bottom is flat and sits straight up in the steamer.
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A batch of raw siu mai dumplings topped with fish roe and green pea.
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Raw siu mai placed on a raised steam rack in a pot, water underneath

​Once your dumplings are made, you top it with your choice of either finely minced carrots or fish roe. This gives extra flavor to your dumpling with subtle sweetness (for carrot), whereas the fish roe adds a bit of saltiness with the briny ocean flavor. It is minor, but it definitely levels up the variety of flavors and textures of your siu mai and is so delicious! I also like to add a single green pea on top of each siu mai for color, and honestly it doesn't add a whole lot to the flavor, but it looks cute and is what I see at many dim sum restaurants so it make the siu mai feel more legit when eating it at home, haha!

Now that I have mastered making siu mai at home, I want to try frying them in a tempura-like batter for added crispy texture outside--I have a feeling it would be dangerously delicious! I hope you enjoy this steamed siu mai recipe as much as we do and try it out at home!
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Cooked siu mai on a plate.
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Taking a bite out of the meaty siu mai dumpling!
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Delicious if eaten with Lao Gan Ma Fried Chili Crisp
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
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Shrimp & Pork Wontons

11/13/2021

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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!
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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. ​
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With 2 pounds of shrimp, I clean and devein all of them, removing the shells, and then chop 1 pound into small chunks, and then with the remaining 1 pound of shrimp, I take the back of my knife and "pound" each individual shrimp into a paste. This results in a  wonton with a "crunchy" and smooth mouthfeel from the 2 varying textured shrimp filling.
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(You will see fibers pulling apart into strands). This process of mixing until the pork is "起膠" or "hei gao" in Cantonese, which means that it will have a good firm, and "bouncy" texture when cooked. When a dumpling filling does not "hei gao", it will have a loose texture that results in a bad mouth-feel when you eat it. Here's a photo of what "hei gao" looks like.
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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.
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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.
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It's so easy to use these for a quick meal or if we don't feel like really cooking--just pop them out of the freezer and throw them in some boiling water until they float! I've also discovered that wontons and dumplings get super crispy and delicious if you spray them with oil and put them in the air fryer at 380 degrees F for about 8 minutes, then flip and fry for 2-6 more minutes until they reach your preferred doneness. Healthy and yummy with no deep frying and making a mess in the house? Yes please!

I definitely recommend eating this with the recommended spicy chili garlic dipping sauce and I hope you enjoy this wonton recipe!
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SHRIMP & PORK WONTONS
INGREDIENTS

Wonton filling:
  • 1.5 tsp salt
  • 1.5 tsp white pepper
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • 1 tbsp oyster sauce
  • 2 tbsp cornstarch
  • 1 tbsp sesame oil
  • 2 lbs shrimp, cleaned and deveined
  • 2 lbs ground pork
  • 1 tbsp grated ginger

Other:
1 package of wonton wrappers (50-60 wrappers)

Spicy Chili Garlic Dipping Sauce:
  • 3 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 1/2 tbsp grated ginger
  • 2-3 finely chopped spicy chili peppers (Thai red chili peppers or jalapeno works well)
  • 2 tbsp soy sauce
  • 2 tbsp black vinegar
  • 1 tbsp kecap manis (thick sweet soy sauce)
  • 2 tsp sugar
  • 2 tsp sesame oil
  • 1 tsp white pepper
  • 1 tsp red chili oil or prickly ash oil

DIRECTIONS:
  1. Prepare the shrimp--ensure it is cleaned by removing the veins and shells and then take half the shrimp and reserve half for later. Using the back of a large knife, smack the shrimp flat on the cutting board, creating a paste. Add the whole shrimp and the paste shrimp together.
  2. Mix all of the wonton ingredients (pork, shrimp mixture, salt, white pepper, sugar, oyster sauce, cornstarch, grated ginger and sesame oil) in a bowl. Very vigorously mix together until the pork becomes sinewy and sticky as you mix it. (Until it "hei gao").
  3. Once all mixed, start making your wontons. The easiest is to put a small dab of filling in the middle of the wonton wrappers, line the wrapper with water and then fold the wonton wrapper over the filling in half, pressing the corners together to form a triangle. You can leave it as is, or you can bring the outer 2 corners on the left and right together to "hug" your wonton.
  4. I recommend boiling 1-2 wontons to try before moving forward, to ensure that your filling is to your taste. At this point, you can add more seasoning as you see fit. Do keep in mind, if you plan on dipping the dumplings in sauce later, you will likely not need to add more seasoning.
  5. To cook the wontons, boil them for about 4-5 minutes or until they float to the surface. You can either cook your wontons right away to enjoy for your meal, or you put them onto a tray and freeze them. Once frozen, you can put all the wontons into a bag and keep them in the freezer for when you are ready to eat them. Do not break the wontons apart if they are frozen together--this will break the delicate skins. When you boil them from frozen, they will come apart on their own.
  6. Best enjoyed with a clear chicken broth or vegetable broth, with noodle, or by themselves covered in chili oil, soy sauce and peanut sauce!

I hope you enjoy this recipe, it's one of our favorites!

Until next time,
​Jenny
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Grandma's Tong Yuan Family Reunion Soup

12/23/2018

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According to my grandmother who hails from Taishan, China, Dong Zhi, or the Winter Solstice Festival, is one of the biggest holidays in China, similar to how westerners celebrate Christmas or Thanksgiving. It's not the same exact date every year, but always falls around the same time according to the Lunar solar calendar.

"Dong Zhi is bigger than the New Year" she says. Why? Because after Dong Zhi, the days are longer with more sunlight, and the flow of positive energy returns after the short, dark days of winter--Dong Zhi is also a time of year where the family gathers together and eats a very specific dish, Tong Yuan, glutinous rice balls, which symbolizes the idea of "reunion." The characters for Tong Yuan in Chinese also sounds like the phrase Tuen Yuen 團圓, which means "reunion."
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!This is a dish that is typically made in a large pot and then enjoyed by the whole family. Ingredients include glutinous rice flour, cabbage, pork (or chicken), dried shrimp, dried scallops, Chinese sausage, daikon radish and shiitake mushroom. The soup is prepared with the vegetables and meat, while the glutinous rice flour is made into a dough with cold water. Once the dough is ready, little balls are rolled out and boiled in to the soup. When the rice balls float and the daikon radish is transparent, it's time to gather round and eat!
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This dish can also be enhanced with oyster sauce and white pepper--it's a warming dish that's perfect for the cold winter weather! The glutinous rice dumplings are soft and pillowy, so it feels like eating smooth little clouds in a comforting soup. Each bite is soft and....almost bouncy!
​My grandmother never measures her ingredients, but here is an approximation of her recipe 😊

INGREDIENTS
• Glutinous rice flour (1/2 bag) + cold water
• Pork rib meat (or chicken thigh meat)
• Cabbage (1/2 head)
• Daikon (1/2 head)
• Dried Shrimp (1/4 cup)
• Dried Shiitake Mushroom (15 pieces) - rehydrated
• Dried baby scallops (1/2 cup)
• 2 Chinese sausages (cut into 1/2 pieces)
• Chicken bouillon powder (or salt) to taste
• 5 cups water

DOUGH:

To create the tong yuan dough, add cold water a little by little and knead until the dough forms and is no longer sticky. Then, pull out a small amount of dough and roll into small balls, about 1/2 inch in size. They'll grow to be about 1-1.5 inches round when boiled in the soup.

SOUP:
1. First, boil a pot of water and blanch the meat for about 10 seconds. Then, rinse the chicken or pork meat under cold water and drain the blanch water. Start a new pot of water and start cooking the meat, shiitake mushrooms, dried shrimp, dried scallops and cabbage in the boiling water. Skim and remove foam and debris from the top of the soup as it cooks. Add the daikon radish last before adding the glutinous rice dumplings and cook until transparent.
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2. As the soup is cooking, roll out the dumpling balls and place into the soup to cook. Once the balls become a little translucent and begin to float, it's ready to eat!

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Some other renditions of tong yuan can be sweet and filled with sweet sesame or peanut paste, or the tong yuan can be filled with ground meat and shrimp. This is up to the traditions of each family, but we usually have it savory in our house.

Now that my grandmother has shared her recipe, I look forward to making it and passing this part of my culture and tradition down through my own family in the future too 😊 May you enjoy a warm family reunion for the Winter Solstice!
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Ginger Scallion Fish Dumplings

3/8/2018

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Dumplings are one of my absolute favorite foods—EVER. That along with noodles of course. Dumplings hold a special place in my heart and are rooted in my memories, mainly with family. To me, dumplings symbolize little pockets of fond memories, pockets of happiness. They are tiny wrapped bundles of joy gifted from maker to taster. Growing up, my grandmother would make a variety of dumplings and buns from scratch and I would always watch in awe as she kneaded flour into dough, dough into skins, and then wrapping those skins around tasty fillings of meats and vegetables.

I love any kind of dumpling, but I'll be sharing with you today a healthier option that you can make with your family! Made with vegetable dumpling skins, sole fillets, ginger and scallion, the flavors are light and reminiscent of ginger/scallion steamed fish dishes I grew up with that my family made and that we also enjoyed in Chinese restaurants. It'll be hard to stop eating them, and you won't need to feel guilty about it either because they're so healthy! Plus the dumplings are green because of the veggie wrappers, so it's practically like eating a salad with fish! Hahaha...yeah didn't sound as funny as I hoped it would...Anyhow...
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These dumplings are great in a clear seafood or chicken broth and pair well with simplistic flavors because the fish is so delicate and sweet. The corn adds sweetness and texture, while the ginger and white pepper adds a freshness to the fish--boil up some bok choy or other Chinese green, add some noodles and they could make a great meal too!

​If you're not inclined to make your own dumplings, choose offerings that are steamed and boiled over those that are fried if you visit an Asian restaurant. But making a classic Chinese dumpling isn't as hard as you think! This recipe for shui jiao 水餃, or boiled dumplings, only requires a few simple ingredients
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INGREDIENTS:
1.5 pounds gray sole fillets (flounder, swai, basa fillets also work)
1 pack green vegetable dumpling wrappers
3/4 cup sweet corn kernels (cooked)
3 tbsp water
2.5 tbsp corn starch
3 tsp light soy sauce
1.5 tsp white pepper powder
1 egg
1/2 tbsp sesame oil
2 tsp ground ginger powder
3 scallion stalks (minced finely)
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DIPPING SAUCE:
2 scallion stalks (minced finely)
2 tbsp ginger (grated finely)
3 tsp cooking oil
2 tsp soy sauce
2 tsp sugar
DIRECTIONS:
1. Dice up your fish fillets into small pieces, and chop scallions finely. In a large bowl, add fish, scallions, egg, soy sauce, white pepper powder, and corn starch and sesame oil. Slowly add water, and mix until well incorporated.

​​2. Once the filling is done, get your dumpling wrappers out. Lightly wet the edge of your wrapper with water and place 1 tbsp of fish filling in the center of your wrapper. Then, you'll want to fold the wrapper in half to enclose the filling. Press the edge with your fingers so that it's sealed tightly. Click here to see how you can fold dumplings in 5 different ways!​

​3. Cook the dumplings by boiling them or steaming them, about 7 minutes. You'll know it's cooked if it's floating in the water at the top and completely opaque (not translucent). The white meat of the fish will also be opaque and easy to fork apart.

4. While the dumplings are cooking, make your dipping sauce! Cook the cooking oil until it's hot and then add the grated ginger and scallion. If you like spicy, add in some sliced red chili peppers as well for that extra kick. Once fragrant, put the mixture into a bowl and add soy sauce and sugar, mix. You can also ladle hot seafood broth, chicken soup, or dashi soup over the dumplings before serving. Here, I used store bought dashi soup base. And that's it!
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I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we do! Because I like spicy food, I tend to add the red chili pepper and red chili oil into my dipping sauce too 😁 Enjoy as is, or add it to a meal of noodles, which also represent longevity in Chinese culture!
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