I’ve been trying to make some more homemade dim sum, and this time we’re in the kitchen making some Shu Mai, and I like using pork. You can substitute with chicken, or a mixture with shrimp as well. Today, we’re making all pork shu mai! This recipe makes about 20 shu mai, which is 2 large steamer baskets full.
Dough Ingredients:
1 cup All Purpose Flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 large egg
1/4 cup cold water
Filling Ingredients:
1/2lb ground pork
2 black shittake mushrooms
1/2 tbsp ginger
1/2 tbsp green onion (whites)
1/4 tsp seasame oil
1/2 tsp white pepper
1 tsp soy sauce
1/2 tbsp corn starch
First, we’ll make our dough for the skin of the shu mai. I’m using wonton skins. Since I earned a stand mixer, I will use it as much as possible from now on! So, in the stand mixer, I put all the dry ingredients in it and mix it briefly. Then, put the egg in and try to get it into a nice dough.
Once you start mixing it, add some cold water until it becomes a ball. Make sure the dough doesn’t get too wet. You just want a little bit sticky.
When you got your dough ball, wrap it up and let it rest in the fridge for at least 20 minutes. I got to attach the pasta maker attachment to my stand mixer and I roll out the dough to a level “5”, then we cut out circles. These wonton skins don’t last long as they don’t have preservatives in it, so expect it to be good for up to 3 days.
Now, we get the filling ready, and we mix all the filling ingredients together and make sure they’re chopped small, or minced. Let the meat marinade at least 30 minutes.
Once you got the meat ready, take about 1 tbsp of meat onto the center of the skin. Wet the edges of the skin so it can stick to each other. Pull the sides up around the dumpling leaving the top exposed. You can top the shu mai if you want, but I left mine as is because I forgot to purchase ingredients. Original idea was putting a shrimp up top… Once you got your shu mai made, you can put it in your lined steamer (steaming) or lined cookie tray (freezing).
If you’re freezing them, make sure you give them some space in between the shu mai so they don’t stick. Freeze them for about an hour before you put it in a ziploc bag. For us, we steamed ours right away and we steamed on med-high heat for 10 minutes. It was perfect!
Overall, this was quite a simple recipe, and there are tons of options for varieties, and even short cuts! You can get premade wonton wrappers, you can swap out meat, add other things or anything! This is a great base recipe! For me, this recipe made more skins than I needed, so adding stuff to the filing mixture will help even it out!
