Shumai

I had the first dim sum meal when I visited Hong Kong for the first time. It was still under British occupation. But once I entered the local dim sum restaurant, where my Hong Konger friend took me, I felt like I was in mainland China. The atmosphere was so vibrant. The waitresses passed by with carts shouting the names of the dim sum dishes they carried. All in the Chinese language. If you were shy or hesitant to stop them, you would not get any food to eat. I remember I enjoyed very much the ambiance of the restaurant along with many delicious dim sum dishes.

Dim sum is one of the traditional Chinese cuisines. It implies various kinds of steamed and fried foods. Steamed shumai is one of these dishes and my favorite dim sum dish. There are many kinds of shumai dishes available in dim sum, such as shrimp, crab, and pork shumai.

Shumai is also very popular in Japan. It regularly appears as one of side dishes in lunch and dinner tables.

My favorite shumai recipe is not the traditional Chinese dim sum. It is more like a Japanese version of homemade shumai. You can make a lot of the shumai pieces and steam them. Then, froze the pieces for later use. It can be stored in a refrigerator up to a several days.

Ingredients (For 4 servings):

Shumai filling:
1 lb ground pork
1 carrot
1 bunch of green onions
3 shitake mushrooms
1 tablespoon of soy sauce
1 tablespoon of oyster sauce
1 tablespoon of sesame oil
¼ cup cornstarch
1 tablespoon of freshly ground ginger
A pinch of salt and black pepper

1 pack of shumai skins or wanton skins

Dipping sauce:
2 tablespoons of soy sauce
1 teaspoon of rice vinegar or lemon juice

Optional: mustard

Directions:
1. Cut the carrot, green onions and shitake mushrooms into very small pieces.
2. Place the ground pork in a large bowl. Add the chopped carrot, green onions, shitake mushrooms, and the rest of the ingredients for the shumai filling. Mix them well.
3. Put one teaspoon of the filling on the center of the shumai (or wanton skin) and wrap the filling.
4. Place the shumai pieces in the steamer. In order to prevent them from sticking on the steamer, I recommend you to blush oil on the bottom or place lettuce or cabbage. Steam them for about 15 minutes.
5. Transfer them to serving plates. Serve with dipping sauce with mustard!