Siu Mai Cook-off II

[Dejah]

And how large can I make the siu mai before it becomes impractical?  The size of a grapefruit is what I would like to aim for.  I need a man's size siu mai to satisfy a man's size hunger, damnit!

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When I was in Hawaii for the first time and saw some manapua, I thought that was scarily big!

Where do you find the paper-thin, grapefruit size siu mai wrappers?

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Home made? Come on, hzrt, you can do it!

[Gul_Dekar]

Hi everyone! Saw this cook-off thread and wanted to join.

Just steamed my 1st batch of siu mai. Here is the pic taken using my webcam:

They don't look very nice (the ones in the pic are the best looking ones already), mostly because I suck at folding stuff like this!!! Whenever I make wontons or dumplings, they look like they've been mutilated.

On the positive side though, they taste alright. Made them with 50/50 ground pork and shrimp following what was said upthread and followed a recipe from Martin Yan's Chinatown Cooking (his was using ground chicken, but I preferred the traditional filling). Happens to be the only Chinese cookery book I own.

This was fun! Gonna try the dan tart later.

Edited to add that I used readymade wonton wrappers for it.

Edited April 16, 2005 by Gul_Dekar (log)

[Dejah]

Hey! First to enter! Hurray! They look great!

I don't fold my sui mai. Hope to make mine soon, so I will post pictures of what I do to shape them. Basically it is just laying a wrapper on top of a circle formed by joining the finger tips of my thumb and index finger. Put a dollop of filling in the centre and push down gently. Add more filling until desired size, squeeze gently to form the cylinder. Flatten the bottom gently so it will sit on the steamer plate.

[SuzySushi]

Hey! First to enter! Hurray! They look great!

I don't fold my sui mai. Hope to make mine soon, so I will post pictures of what I do to shape them. Basically it is just laying a wrapper on top of a circle formed by joining the finger tips of my thumb and index finger. Put a dollop of filling in the centre and push down gently. Add more filling until desired size, squeeze gently to form the cylinder. Flatten the bottom gently so it will sit on the steamer plate.

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Sounds like a fast production method! I'm eager to see the finished products!

[SuzySushi]

I did it! One batch of siu mai made (and mostly eaten for dinner! LOL!).

I used a recipe for classic pork-and-shrimp siu mai that I've used before. I've had it so many years that I'm no longer sure where it originally came from, but I think it was from an early Eileen Yin-Fa Lo cookbook.

Picture show is here. (I didn't realize the photos would upload in reverse order, so start at the bottom. If you wish to view the steps as a slide show, click "ascending" order.)

The filling was delicious, as always, and the siu mai were easy to make. However, I used ready-made gyoza skins and would not buy that brand again -- they were too thick and doughy. (It was the only brand available at my local supermarket. Next time I'll go further afield to an Asian market where I have a choice of brands.) My husband and I each ate six of them, with a side of chilled asparagus; my 8 year old daughter and a friend of hers could only manage four each! I froze the leftovers for a future meal.

Tomorrow I'm planning to make more siu mai with my other choice of filling, eggplant in black bean sauce. If I have time, I'll go to another market for the skins. I'm also planning to make another dim sum dish with the rest of the package of ground pork: steamed pork balls with cilantro.

P.S. Inadvertently, this turned out to be a real Chinese day: earlier in the day, we were downtown and stopped at a Chinese bakery for fruit cakes (similar to moon cakes, but smaller) and a selection of dried fruits & vegetables (kumquats, lotus root, ginger, sweet potatoes)...

[Gul_Dekar]

Hmmm....I actually used square wrappers to make them. Would it be better if I use round ones?

[Chris Amirault]

With siu mai most wrappers are cut to be round. Just use a round pastry cutter with a diameter barely smaller than the square!

[Dejah]

Looks like one happy couple there with the siu mai!

I will be very interested in seeing the eggplant in black bean garlic sauce. My eggplants are slated for another cook-off...so I'll just stick with the meat fillings.

If you have lots of meat filling left over, you can always do a steamed main dish for supper. Just put the meat into a shallow dish and add sliced Chinese sausages and slivered ginger on top and steam for about 20 minutes.

[Tepee]

Gul Dekar, you're too hard on yourself. Your siu mais are just a teeny tiny bit on the generous filling side....that's why it's harder for you to shape nicely.

Suzy, your hubby and you look so cute....yummy siu mais!

Sue-On, great tip on using up the left-over filling. Thanks. By the way, where are your siu mais?

Now, I can't wait till Tuesday to do mine!

[Dejah]

Sue-On, great tip on using up the left-over filling. Thanks. By the way, where are your siu mais?

Now, I can't wait till Tuesday to do mine!

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Don't rush me!

I keep forgetting to bring the meat out from the freezer...Besides, I did something to my back and have been going for therapy. I looked in the mirror this morning and I don't look quite so lopsided, so I am going to do the "other dim sum" today.

I DO have the pork out now and will do siu mai tomorrow.

[SuzySushi]

Looks like one happy couple there with the siu mai!

I will be very interested in seeing the eggplant in black bean garlic sauce. My eggplants are slated for another cook-off...so I'll just stick with the meat fillings.

If you have lots of meat filling left over, you can always do a steamed main dish for supper. Just put the meat into a shallow dish and add sliced Chinese sausages and slivered ginger on top and steam for about 20 minutes.

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Thanks!

It wasn't the meat filling I had left over; just extra pork. Good idea, though!

[SuzySushi]

We just finished eating the second batch of siu mai: Eggplant Siu Mai (filled with eggplant in black bean sauce.

My comments are the same as for yesterday's classic pork & shrimp siu mai: the filling was delicious, but the brand of wrappers I used (sold as gyoza wrappers at my local supermarket) was too thick. Next time I'll go to an Asian market where there's a choice of brands.

We ate these with steamed pork & cilantro balls, made from the extra ground pork leftover after making yesterday's filling. They were very simply seasoned with a dash of dry sherry, sesame oil, and a pinch of sugar. I'd make these again any time. Even my daughter (she who will not eat green vegetables) gobbled them up and requested more!

Ooops... forgot to post the link to the photos.

Edited April 18, 2005 by SuzySushi (log)

[sheetz]

I made the glutinous rice shu mai from Martin Yan's recipe. First off, I don't have pics cause I don't own a digital camera (sorry ) but they weren't half bad at all. I copped out and used premade gyoza wrappers instead of homemade ones. The wrappers didn't seem very big, but my shu mai turned out huge! The recipe is supposed to make 60, but I only ended up with two dozen. Maybe it's because of my wrapping technique. Anyways, with a few substitutions these would be good for vegetarians. Now, onto those dreaded dan tarts!

[Tepee]

Ran out of time....so, my siu mai dinner wasn't perfect. Didn't make a proper chilli sauce, DH bought the wrong ginger, so we had old ginger instead. Siu mai is 50/50 pork/prawns.

We ate our siu mai with turnip cake (lo bak ko), which I made earlier in the day.

When I make this, if it turns out nice and soft, we eat it as it is. However, this time I was a bit heavy-handed on the rice flour, and it turned out harder than desired...so I turned it into char kueh, by frying it with lots of garlic, shallots and dark soya sauce. Hubby's had sambal added to it.

Feeling a bit full now..........

Edited April 22, 2005 by Tepee (log)

[Dejah]

Lovely siu mai dinner, Tepee. What is the "red" on top of the siu mai? What did you use for binding?

I see asparagus is in season in Malaysia too...or is it always in season? I have been eating it with everything.

The lobak goh, what recipe did you use as reference. If I know anything about you from your posts, I'd say you never follow ONE recipe! I often put too much lieu in my goh.

[Tepee]

Thanks, Sue-On. LOL, I do think asparagus is always in season here...sometimes there are only scrawny ones, sometimes nice and thick.

The red on top of the siu mai is red bell pepper. Was out of cilantro. For binding, one teaspoon cornflour and one egg.

The lobak goh is just your basic one, with lup cheong, dried shrimps, shallots. Not much in mine compared to yours (I remember it well! ).

[SuzySushi]

Very nice, Tepee!

[Pan]

Nice photos, Tepee!

What's on top of the asparagus? Butter?

[Tepee]

Michael, you had to ask! If I had the time, I would have attempted to make hollandaise sauce, but I didn't ..... so it's just Heinz mayonnaise.

[sheetz]

Tepee, your pics your soooo yummy!

[Shiewie]

Oh yum - that looks really good TP!

[jackal10]

My meagre effort. Recipe from "Dim Sum" by Ellen Leong Blonder:

I cheated and used sausagemeat instead of ground pork, since that what was in the fridge. I also whizzed the lot in the food processer instead of hand chopping.

For the topping, which I believe originally was fish eggs, later substituted with the cheaper chopped carrot, I used smoked cods's roe (tara). It was not that succesful, as it whitened in cooking.

I must also work on my wrappers more. These, just flour and water were OK, but a bit thick and chewy. I guess I should not have used bread flour, and add some tapioca flour.

Edited April 25, 2005 by jackal10 (log)

[Tepee]

Congratulations, Jack! You get points for being the only one (so far) who did the wrappers from scratch in this cook-off. Very creative in your filling...homecooking is after all about finding what's available in the kitchen and turning it into a gastronomical delight.

Just don't use bread flour the next time!

[chengb02]

Only really seen them in Shanghai where they are commonly sold on the streets. Haven't seen them in the North/Beijing

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I don't know my Chinese geography as well as I should, but I sorta considered everything north of Fuzhou as being "northern"

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haha, interesting! I consider everything from Shanghai down as "south."

[ellencho]

Jeez louise, how could I have missed this thread? And wow everyone's siu mai is making me drool. I used to do a 2:1 ratio of pork to shrimp, but perhaps when I make my siu mai next week I'll try the 1:1 ratio that you folks have been using.