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Shumai

Course Side Dish

Ingredients
  

  • 1 yellow onion, cut into brunoise
  • 8 garlic cloves, minced
  • 3 tablespoons Chinese chives, chopped
  • 1 pound pork shoulder, ground (or you can buy ground pork, but I think grinding the pork makes a huge difference)
  • 8 ounces head-on, shell-on shrimp, peeled, deveined, heads removed (save the heads and shells for a future stock), and chopped
  • ¼ teaspoon ground white pepper
  • Salt to taste
  • 2 teaspoons cornstarch
  • 1 tablespoon sherry (or any other alcohol you have on hand that goes with shrimp)
  • 1 package round dumpling wrappers
  • vegetable oil or spray
  • Dipping sauce of your choice (I prefer hoisin)

Instructions
 

  • Sauté the onion, garlic, and chives in oil until the onions are translucent. Cool.
  • In a mixing bowl, combine the ground pork, chopped shrimp, sautéed onion/garlic/chives, white pepper, salt, cornstarch, and sherry. Mix until slightly sticky.
  • Take a little of the filling and cook off a taste. This is important. You can’t add additional seasoning once the dumpling is formed. Adjust the seasoning if necessary.
  • Place a large dollop of filling in the center of a wrapper. Do this for all the wrappers you have.
  • Dip your forefinger into a bowl of water and wet the outer edge of each wrapper. Do them one at a time.
  • Push the wrapper up the sides, leaving the filling exposed at the top.
  • Line a steamer with parchment paper circles. Grease with cooking spray or lightly oil.
  • Place the dumplings on the parchment, making sure not to touch the dumplings.
  • Steam until the filling is firm when you squeeze the sides of the dumpling.
  • Serve with your choice of dipping sauce.