Siu Mai

- Makes 34 large Siumai

The most popular Cantonese dumpling in the world - make Siu Mai from scratch with us here at Commune Kitchen Singapore. Check out our short video on Instagram on how to fold this open dumpling easily at home.

Ingredients for Siu Mai

PASTRY
167g all purpose flour
1/3 teaspoon salt
1 medium egg, mixed well
33g warm water mixed with 1-2 drops yellow food coloring or 1/4 teaspoon turmeric

FILLING
250g deshelled, deveined shrimp
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda

460g fatty minced pork (hind leg or pork belly with 25% fat)
1/4 teaspoon baking soda + 1/2 teaspoon water
10g salt

SEASONINGS
1.5 tablespoons sugar
1/2 tablespoon chicken bouillon powder
3 tablespoons water
A good sprinkle while pepper
1/2 tablespoon grated ginger, optional
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
2 tablespoons oyster sauce

6 dried shiitake mushrooms, hydrated at room temperature water for 3-4 hours

40g melted lard, at room temperature or sesame oil

1 large carrot, cut into 32-48 round slices depending on the size of your siumai
2-3 tablespoons finely diced carrot or flying fish roe, for garnish
34 pieces small shrimp, peeled and deveined - for topping

Recipe

PASTRY

Combine all the ingredients in a stand mixer or by hand. Bring them together into a ball, then knead until smooth. Pinch any cracks together, cover with cling wrap and set it aside to rest for at least 30 minutes.
After resting, split the dough into 2 balls, roll into 1-inch diameter logs and cut into each log further into 18 equal pieces.
Sprinkle the pieces of dough lightly with some flour, toss them around in flour to avoid sticking, press gently into circular discs, then set the balls aside covered with cling wrap while rolling the pastry.
Dust each piece of pastry lightly with flour, then roll into thin 8 cm circles. Use for filling below.

FILLING

Toss cleaned shrimp with a mixture of salt and baking soda. Set aside for 15 minutes, then rinse thoroughly. This is to remove the glycol protein slime on the surface - this will preserve the crunchiness of the shrimp while cooking. Dry shrimp throughly. Chop into a chunky mince - set aside.
In a bowl, mix minced pork, salt, water, minced shrimp and salt, in one direction until sticky. This is to break down the water soluble proteins in the pork to form a grid like network. To develop springiness, you can try slamming the mixture back into the bowl using your hand, about 10 times.
Add all your seasonings - stir well until the water is nicely incorporated in the mixture.
Squeeze excess water out of Shiitake mushrooms. Cut off the stalks and discard. Slice the mushrooms thinly, then dice finely. Add diced mushrooms to the pork-shrimp mixture - stir well.
Add lard or sesame oil - stir well. The oil inhibits the sticky texture and therefore is always added last. Refrigerate until ready to use.
Lay carrot slices on a bamboo steamer (you could also use parchment paper liners instead as the carrot is not eaten but is used just to prevent the siumai from sticking to the bottom of the steamer).
Grab a heaping tablespoon of filling per Siumai on rolled out pastry, folding the wrapper up around the sides of the filling. Make sure the filling comes up to the very top of your wrapper, as any extra wrapper that’s above the filling will dry out during steaming.
Place the extra shrimp and a small spoonful of roe or minced carrot on the Siumai. Be sure to lightly press the shrimp down into the filling.
Steam the Siumai for ten minutes. The water should be at a rolling boil when steaming. Serve immediately.

Freezing large batches for later
If you were planning on making a bunch of siu mai at once, you can freeze them to steam for later.

Lay out the siu mai on a tray lined with parchment paper (without the carrot slice at the bottom, extra shrimp or roe) making sure that they're not touching one another.
Put them in the freezer for 1-2 hours.
This should dry them enough so that you can place all of them in an airtight / Ziploc bag.

You can freeze Siu Mai for 1-2 months When you're ready to cook them, just let them thaw completely, place them on carrot slices, top with small shrimp and roe, before steaming as above.