Handmade Shumai Dumplings, Made at Home

The Dish blend we recommend for this recipe. Dish Symphony No.3 Built on wu xiang fen (Chinese five-spice), the classic Chinese blend, with ten spices and herbs in all, including grains of paradise and peppermint, which bring a cool, grassy note and a sweet woodiness.

Would you like to eat genuinely remarkable handmade shumai at home? If so, make the shumai in this recipe and taste it for yourself.

We will not say much more than that.

There are techniques built into every stage to get the best out of it, so do follow them.

The Dish we recommend for this recipe is Symphony No.3. The first thing to say is that you will get excellent shumai even without Dish 3. But there is a step beyond that. Take your pick.

Ingredients (makes 60)

• Pork offcuts (buta-komagire): 800g
• Vegetables
• Celery: 1/2 stick (cut it in half and use the thicker end)
• Naganegi (Japanese long spring onion): 1/2
• Onion: 1/2
• Cabbage: 1/4 head
• Dried shiitake mushrooms: 6
• Hanpen (a soft white fish cake): 1
• Potato starch (katakuriko): 1 tsp
• Shumai wrappers: 60
• Combined seasonings
• Ginger: about 2 tbsp (grated)
• Cooking alcohol: 1 tbsp (shaoxing wine is our recommendation; sake also works)
• Salt: 1 tbsp
• Black sesame oil: 3 tbsp
• Sugar: 1 tbsp (kibi-zato, unrefined cane sugar, is recommended)
• Dish Symphony No.3: 1 tsp

You might also add bamboo shoots if you like them. Chop about 200g fairly coarsely so that some texture remains, and work them into the meat mixture.

Preparation

• Finely chop all the vegetables, gather them in a bowl, and dust them with 1 tsp of potato starch, working it through evenly. (This stops the vegetables releasing water and is one of the keys to a good result. 1 tsp is a guide, so adjust the amount of potato starch until the vegetables no longer stick to your hands.)
• Put 6 dried shiitake mushrooms and 100ml of water into a heatproof container and heat in the microwave at 600W for 2 minutes 30 seconds. Leave for a while, then chop finely. Keep the shiitake soaking water rather than discarding it.
• Chop 1 piece of hanpen into pieces about 1cm square.

Method

1. Lay 800g of pork offcuts out on a chopping board and cut across them at 1cm intervals, aiming to cut through the fibres. Then chop the meat by bringing the knife down against the board again and again. (It is more work than using ready-minced pork, but it is essential if you want juicy shumai where you can feel the texture of the meat. Stick with it.)
2. Put the chopped pork, the combined seasonings and the finely chopped shiitake with their soaking water into a bowl and work them well. Start by mixing with your fingers, then knead by pressing with the whole palm to break down the fibres and bring out the stickiness.
3. Add the vegetables and the hanpen and mix everything through quickly.
4. Wrap the finished shumai filling in the shumai wrappers.
   
   

   The quantities in this recipe make about 60 generously filled shumai. See this guide to wrapping shumai for reference.

5. Line a seiro (bamboo steamer) or other steamer with baking paper and arrange the shumai on top.
   
   
6. Steam over medium heat for about 10 minutes and they are done.
   
   

   Keys to steaming How you steam them makes a large difference to the result. The classic failure is steaming for too long in steam that is too fierce: the filling turns chalky white and coarse, and it does not taste good. Steaming well takes a little practice, but the key is this: Bring the water to the boil over high heat, then set the seiro or other steamer in place, start the timer, and steam in medium-heat steam for about 10 minutes If you really cannot tell whether they are cooked through, take one and taste it. How to use a seiro See this guide for reference. If you do not have a seiro or other steamer, there is a method using a frying pan instead. See this guide for reference.

A topping of finely chopped coriander is good too.