Pork and Shrimp Shumai (Siu Mai) Dim Sum

Every visitor to Hong Kong or Southern China has to do a dim sum brunch at least once. This common activity with Chinese is a great way to spend time with family and friends, all while enjoying delicious food! One of the most popular dim sum dishes is this pork and shrimp shumai.

Pork and shrimp shumai is a combination of the two most popular varieties of shumai, pork, or shrimp. If you prefer one or the other than you can just stick with one meat. I love combining them like I do in my dim sum peppers but it is entirely up to you.

What Is Shumai?

Shumai, or siu mai, 烧卖, shui mei (seriously, there are a lot of ways to spell this dish) are open top steamed dumplings common at dim sum eateries. They are often filled with pork, shrimp, or a combination, and they are almost always topped with caviar.

While they look fancy and complicated, the only difficult part of making these pork and shrimp shumai was the folding technique. However I would suggest not being too particular about it and try to have fun – you will improve naturally the more you make these dumplings.

How To Make Pork and Shrimp Shumai Dim Sum

The mixture for the insides of these dumplings is quite simple. It is almost all ingredients that you have in your pantry, or stuff easy to find at the grocery store. The one difficult item to find might be the MSG, but you are not obligated to use it; I just use it for authenticity and flavor.

Ingredients

• 250 grams Pork – ground
• 250 grams Shrimp – ground (if you don’t have a meat grinder you can try to do a very fine mince with a knife/cleaver)
• 2 tbsp Light Soy Sauce
• 2 tbsp Oyster Sauce
• 1-2 tsp Sesame Oil – I personally love sesame oil, but if you are not a fan you can skip it
• 1 tbsp Sugar
• 1 tsp MSG – this is a flavor enhancer which is basically just a super salt. It isn’t bad for you, that’s just an unfounded accusation.
• 2 tbsp Green Onion – chopped
• 1/2 tsp White Pepper
• Caviar – to top. Most commonly used is crab roe, but I chose to use salmon caviar as it was more easily accessible to me.
• Oil – optional, if you do not have steamer papers then brushing oil on the bamboo slats will help prevent the dim sum dumplings from sticking
• 25-30 Wonton Wrappers – store bought works absolutely fine here. Get circular ones, if you get square ones then use a ring mold or cookie cutter to make them into circles.

Making The Pork and Shrimp Shumai Filling

It’s very easy to find ground pork at the grocery store. However ground shrimp is pretty uncommon outside of Asia. In that case you’ll either need to use a meat grinder or do some knifework.

Add all the ingredients except the caviar and oil to a bowl and mix everything together. I find using your hands is the best way to do this. You really want to mix quite a lot so the meat gets sticky and more paste-like.

Dip your wonton wrapper in water and place a heaping teaspoon of filling right in the middle. Press the filling out to the edges. Then use the back of a butter knife to pull up the sides as seen in the photo above. As you do this more and more you will get the hang of it.

Place your completed shumai on a floured surface while you work on the rest. You can start steaming them as you make them, or just wait until you are all done before starting to steam them.

Place the pork and shrimp shumai in a bamboo steamer, taking care not to let them touch. If you have a paper insert than use that so the dumplings do not stick.

Place the steamer basket on a pot of boiling water and let steam for 10 minutes. Then remove the basket (use mitts as the wood can be hot).

The meat will look kind of gray/white with a pink tinge but this is exactly what you want. Naturally there won’t be any browning since you steamed the meat as opposed to frying or baking it.

Top the pork and shrimp shumai with a bit of caviar and serve alongside some dipping sauce. My dipping sauce is simple a 50/50 mix of soy sauce and vinegar, with a dash of sesame oil and some chili flakes.