Shrimp Shumai
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I love me some dim sum times! I’ve made wontons and soup dumplings before, but this is my first crack at shumai.
Assembly wise, shumai is a little more involved than wontons, and a lot easier than soup dumplings. I’m not sure if that gives you any indication of range of difficulty, but if you have any type of half-way decent hand eye coordination you should be fine.
My biggest fear was either over or under cooking the shumai – leaving me with either a gummy shrimpy paste or raw limp shimpy grossness. Luckily, I encountered neither.
A couple FYIs:
Don’t assemble these until you’re ready to steam them. The liquid in the minced shrimp will seep through the wrapper and get all gross and inedible/uncookable. These aren’t a “prep all shumai a day ahead and cook when you’re ready” type of thing. At all.
These freeze well, but you have to steam them and cook thoroughly first, then freeze. Don’t freeze raw shumai.
I eat these with hot Chinese mustard and a combo of soy sauce + spicy vinegar.
And a tip from my good friend Debbie (@bringingbutterback): Go eat decent shumai somewhere so you know what the fuck you’re getting yourself into.
Shumai times: sesame oil, oyster sauce, shrimp, napa cabbage, sugar, corn starch, ginger, green onions, salt, eggs, wonton wrappers and lard :X
Minced shrimp mixture: pulse the 1lb of small shrimp and lard until roughly chopped, about 6-8 pulses in the food processor (or chop finely by hand). Add in cornstarch, scallions, egg white, ginger juice, sake, sugar, sesame oil, oyster sauce, soy sauce, salt and white pepper. Pulse again until thoroughly combined (or use your fingers).
Cut the large shrimp lengthwise. Remove any gross vein thingies. If your shrimp are particularly large / long, you may also have to cut crosswise.
Combine large halved shrimp with cornstarch, salt and egg white. Mix vigorously with your fingers until a white foamy paste forms.
Time to make the shumais!! I think a verbal explanation of the assembly makes this seem more complicated than it is. So here… pictures of the entire process, all for you (my camera is so dirty, y’all).
Make an “O” with your thumb and forefinger and place the wonton wrapper on top.
Place 1 tsp of the minced shrimp mixture on to the center of the wonton wrapper. Poke it down a bit so that the filling is inside of the “O” that your forefinger and thumb form.
See how my hand forms the “O” shape?
Place one of the halved shrimp on top of the minced shrimp and poke that down a bit with your fingers. Your wonton hand should be supporting the filling as you… fill. Ugh. Now I feel like I’m losing you. Keep going.
Top that halved shrimp with more minced shrimp, simultaneously pushing the filling down GENTLY and bringing the wrapper up around the filling you’ve added.
Top with one more halved shrimp (red side up so it cooks pretty) and use thumb and forefinger to form the shumai shape.
Voila magic, bitch!
Now do that fifty-leven more times. -___-
Line a steamer basket with cabbage or lettuce leaves so the wonton wrapper doesn’t stick. Space shumai apart enough so that they don’t touch (they’ll get a little wider as they cook, so take that into account). As you can see, I’m using the worlds most impossibly tiny bamboo steamer so I could only cook 8 at a time (my steamer has two levels).
BAM. Juicy plump shrimp stuffed shumai. It took everything in me not to pop them from the steamer into my mouth, or to just straight motorboat them IN the steamer. But I knew I would burn my tongue and not be able to enjoy the rest, so I crossed my arms and stared at them angrily until I could take it no longer. These were gone in 60 seconds.
I served (and by “served” i mean “put this on a plate for myself and ate in front of the TV) this with spicy Chinese mustard and a 1:1 mix of spicy vinegar and soy sauce.
Shrimp Shumai
adapted from no recipes
makes about 24 shumai in about 45 minutes
Ingredients
For whole shrimp
3/4 lb large shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 egg white
1 teaspoon cornstarch1/2 teaspoon salt
For minced shrimp
1 oz pork fat (a.k.a. lard, folks. don’t be scurred)
1 lb raw, small shelled shrimp
4 scallions white part only, minced
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1 egg white
1 tablespoon ginger juice grated and juice squeezed out
1 tablespoon sake
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons sesame oil
2 teaspoons oyster sauce
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
24 wonton wrappers
napa cabbage or lettuce, for lining steamer
Directions
For whole shrimp
Use a sharp knife to slice shrimp in half from head to tail, down the center. If your shrimp are very large, you may need to cut them in half once again crosswise. Remove the dark vein if present, then add the shrimp to a large bowl.
Add egg white, 1 teaspoon of cornstarch, and 1/2 teaspoon of salt to the halved shrimp, then use your fingers to vigorously “whisk” the shrimp together with the egg until the shrimp are evenly coated with a white froth.
For minced shrimp
If you’re using a food processor, roughly chop the pork fat, and add it to the food processor. Process until finely minced. Add the small peeled shrimp, and pulse until there are no big chunks, but not to the point where it turns into a paste. If you are doing it by hand, finely mince the fat, small shrimp separately and add to a large bowl.
Add the scallions, cornstarch, egg white, ginger juice, sake, sugar, sesame oil, oyster sauce, soy sauce, salt, and white pepper. Pulse the food processor until combined, or use your hand to “whisk” the mixture together thoroughly.
Assembling + cooking shumai
Prepare a steamer and line the bottom with napa cabbage or lettuce (this prevents the dumplings from sticking to the steamer). Bring the water to a boil.
To wrap the shumai, form an “o” with your left hand (assuming you’re right handed). Cover the “o” with a wrapper, then put a generous teaspoon of filling in the middle.
Add a half shrimp on top, pressing the dumping into the “o”.
Add another teaspoon of filling, then use the thumb of your opposite hand to press the dumping all the way into the “o” shape in your hand, using your thumb to level off the top.
Top with one more half of shrimp. Make sure the colored side of the shrimp faces up so it turns red when cooked. Make sure the top and bottom of the dumpling are flat, then repeat until you have enough dumplings to fill the steamer. Unfortunately, these can’t be prepped ahead as the liquid in the minced shrimp will absorb through the wonton wrapper. Make these as you can eat them.
Turn off the heat, then place the dumplings in the hot steamer, leaving enough space between the dumplings so they are not touching each other. Cover the steamer with a damp kitchen towel, then cover with the lid. Flip the corners of the towel back over the lid to keep them from catching on fire. The towel keeps the condensation from dripping on the dumplings.
Turn the heat back on and steam the shumai over high-heat for 8 minutes.
Serve with vinegar and Chinese mustard.
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