Dan Dan Noodles

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Shumai

Everyone loves dumplings, that’s just an undisputed fact. Not everyone feels confident making them from scratch though. These Cantonese Shumai are little juicy bundles of delight, they are a dim sum favorite for a reason after all, but they are also an excellent way to dive into dumpling making for the first time. There’s no complicated pleating, or fancy crimping, or exploding seams to worry about. They still look elaborately impressive, and the savory filling is umami perfection! Combining the classic flavors of pork and shrimp with some simple seasonings, these Shumai are so delicious, you’ll come back for them again and again.

Whether you’ve eaten ravioli, tortellini, wontons, gyoza, or potstickers, you’ve had a version of dumplings. Luckily for home cooks, Shumai are the dumping equivalent of a free form tart. They are virtually impossible to screw up and any less than perfect shapes only add to the charm. Plus, you get a mouthful of the best part, the amazing filling. Nothing is worse than biting into a dumpling and wondering what happened to the filling. Shumai will never disappoint you because they are jam packed. The open top means you can cram a generous amount without worrying about how you’re going to seal it closed. So let’s get your freezer stocked with some of these lovelies.

Making the Shumai Filling

Shumai are stuffed with a divine mixture of rich and juicy pork, savory shrimp, earthy dried shiitake mushrooms and some of my favorite flavor bombs like Shaoxing wine, white pepper, toasted sesame oil, and oyster sauce. Hopefully these items are already part of your pantry. If not, you can always substitute with some good (if slightly different) results. You can use other dried or fresh mushrooms for the shiitake. Dried shiitakes are best for intense authentic flavor, but some fresh shiitakes or portobellos would work fine too.

Don’t have any Shaoxing cooking wine? Try some dry sherry (my first choice), sake, or even mirin instead. If you don’t have any oyster sauce, a little fish sauce or even more soy sauce would work. And if you’re out of toasted sesame oil, my heart breaks for you as nothing can match the deep toasty flavor, but a little neutral oil can still boost the juiciness of your dumplings.

I start by submerging the dried mushrooms in boiling water until softened:

While I’m waiting for them to soften, I start making the pork mixture. Just a quick note on ground pork. When you go to the grocery store you are looking for a fatty grind, the kind you would use for making sausages. Please don’t buy lean ground pork. You will sacrifice flavor, juiciness, and happiness. A dry dumpling is a sad dumpling ;)

Mixing the pork until it is a fine paste is essential to get the right springy texture that is characteristic of Shumai. Once you add the flavorings, you’re going to want to mix and slap the mixture. At first the meat will break apart but as you continue to work it, it will get sticky and pasty. This takes about two minutes so keep kneading and mixing.

Mix it all thoroughly together and then the filling is ready.

Make the Shumai

To make the most traditional shumai, I seek out a Hong Kong style wonton wrapper. They are quite thin and have the yellow color shumai are famous for, but if you can’t find them, any wonton wrapper will work. I used the square wrappers because they are the easiest to find in my area but round would work even better. Take out a small stack of wrappers from the pack and keep the rest covered so they don’t dry out. Have a small dish of water ready to adhere the corners of the wrapper to the dumpling.

Start by putting a generous tablespoon of filling into the center of a wrapper, and then use one hand to cup and hold it upright (I put my fingers together to form an “O” ) while you use the other hand to gently push the filling down with a spoon or butter knife. Gently smooth the surface of the dumpling and then fold the corners of the dumpling down (if you are using square wrappers) and stick it to the side of the dumpling using a little water as glue.

Place the Shumai on the counter and continue shaping it so you have a nice compact mini cylinder. Finally, put the completed shumai on a tray and proceed with filling and shaping more Shumai until you have used up all of the pork mixture. You will yield approximately 30 pieces. Freeze any unused wrappers in an airtight container for future use.

Once your dumplings are completed, they are usually garnished with a little orange caviar for color. This is not necessary but a nice touch if you have it. Pro tip: Order 1 piece of Masago or Tobiko caviar from a Japanese restaurant sashimi style. You only need a small amount on each dumpling and this way you won’t have to deal with using out a full container of caviar. Alternatively, finely diced carrot can also be used to garnish the Shumai. Or go minimalist and don’t bother. The Shumai will still taste great.

Cooking the Shumai

Steaming keeps the shumai extra tender and juicy. Whatever type of steamer you have, make sure you spray it with nonstick oil spray before placing the raw dumplings so these delicate babies don’t stick to the pan. I fill my bottom pan with plenty of water and then bring it to a rolling boil on high before placing the steamer insert with the dumplings.

Cover with the lid and then steam on high until the dumplings are cooked through the center, about 10 minutes. If you’re not sure the dumplings are fully cooked, take the largest dumpling you see and cut through the center to check.

Continue to steam all the shumai and then it’s time to enjoy your labors. Generally these aren’t eaten with a dipping sauce, but rather served alongside bottles of soy sauce, vinegars, and chili oil so you can choose your own adventure. A bowl of this chili crisp would be most welcome too!

If one batch of Shumai is too much for one sitting, you can easily freeze them either raw or cooked. If you prefer to freeze them raw, place the tray in the freezer uncovered until the Shumai are frozen solid (3-4 hours). Then transfer them to a freezer safe bag or air tight container. When you are ready to cook them, steam them straight from the freezer, adding 3-5 additional minutes to the cooking time.

Looking for the fastest and easiest way to a meal? Then I suggest pre-cooking them before you freeze. Once the Shumai are cooked, let them cool to room temperature, place them in a freezer safe bag or airtight container, and freeze. You can reheat them either in the steamer or the microwave straight from the freezer. To mimic the steaming process in the microwave, put a couple tablespoons of water with the shumai and cover with plastic wrap before microwaving for a couple minutes.

Try these delicious Shumai and let me know what you think! I hope you love them as much as we do, and that you are inspired to try your hand at some of our other really popular dumpling recipes, like these Korean Mandu or these Mushroom Dumplings.

Shumai

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Author: Funky Asian Kitchen
Prep Time: 35 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 45 minutes
Yield: makes 30 shumai 1x

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Ingredients

Scale

2–3 dried shiitake mushrooms
1 pound fatty ground pork
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon soy sauce
2 teaspoons oyster sauce
½ teaspoon ground white pepper
1 ½ Tablespoons Shaoxing rice wine
2 teaspoons sesame oil
6 ounces peeled and deveined shrimp (you can use any size)
2 Tablespoons finely chopped white portion of green onion
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 large egg white (save yolk for another purpose)
30 wonton wrappers / egg wrappers 8cm/3.5″ squares or rounds
Oil spray for steamer basket

GARNISH:

1 Tablespoon masago/tobiko caviar or very finely minced carrots

FOR SERVING:

Soy sauce, vinegar (Chinese black or white distilled), and chili oil or paste

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Instructions

Make the filling:

Place the mushrooms in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Submerge the mushrooms using a small plate/bowl and soak until soft, about 15-20 minutes.
Squeeze out excess water and trim and discard the woody stems. Finely chop the mushrooms and set aside.
Peel the shrimp and then chop it into small pieces with a knife. I keep the shrimp roughly chopped so you can taste the shrimp better in the filling.
Place the ground pork, salt, soy sauce, oyster sauce, rice wine, and ground white pepper in a large mixing bowl.
Mix the pork vigorously with your hands, slapping it around the bowl, until it becomes sticky, about 2 minutes.
Add chopped mushrooms, shrimp, green onions, egg white, and cornstarch. Mix well.

Making Shumai:

Have a small dish of water ready if you are using square wrappers.
With your left hand (or right hand if you are left-handed), bring your thumb and fingers together to form an “O”
Place the wonton wrapper over the “O”
Take 1 heaping Tablespoon of filling and gently pack it into the center of the wrapper, pushing into the “O”.
Use the back of the spoon or a butter knife to smooth the filling so it’s even with the edge of wonton. If you’re using square wonton sheets, wet the outside of the shumai lightly with water and fold the corners of the square down so it sticks to the side of the shumai.
Place the shumai on the counter and use your fingers to shape it into a round cylinder.
Set the shumai on a plastic wrapped tray or large plate and continue making shumai until you have used up all of the filling. (you may have some wrappers leftover. You can re-freeze any leftover wrappers that you don’t use.)
Garnish the dumplings by adding a tiny bit of caviar or chopped carrots to the top of the shumai.
Set up a double boiler or a bamboo steamer/steamer basket in a wok or large deep skillet with 3-4 cups of water and bring the water to a boil over high heat.
Oil the surface of the steamer basket and place as many shumai as can fit into the basket without touching.
Once the water is boiling, place the steamer basket into the steamer and cover with a lid.
Steam the shumai for 8-10 minutes until the center is cooked through and a temperature reading is 165. (You can cut into the center of the biggest one to check.)
Place the shumai onto a platter and continue to cook any remaining shumai, adding more water to the pot if needed.
Serve the shumai right away with soy sauce, white/black vinegar, and chili oil.

Notes

*Shumai is generally not served with dipping sauce. Instead you are encouraged to make your own sauce with soy sauce, vinegar, and chile oil at dim sum restaurants.

* You can freeze any raw or cooked shumai:

If you’re freezing raw shumai, leave them on the tray and place the tray in the freezer. Freeze for several hours until they are frozen solid. Transfer to a freezer safe bag or container once frozen. When you are ready to steam, you can freeze them straight from the freezer, adding 3-5 minutes of cooking time.

If you are freezing cooked shumai, let them cool to room temperature first and then transfer to a freezer safe bag or container. You can reheat them by steaming or microwaving for a couple of minutes straight from the freezer. If you’re microwaving, add a couple tablespoons of water to the shumai and then cover with plastic wrap before microwaving. This helps preserve moisture by mimicking the steaming process.

Keywords: shumai, shrimp, pork, chinese, cantonese, dim sum, dumplings, wontons, lunar new year, holiday

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Longevity Noodles

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Lunar New Year, one of the most important holidays in China, starts today. But don’t worry, celebrations typically last for weeks. So you have plenty of time to throw your own Lunar New Year dinner party. And no such menu would be complete without Longevity Noodles. Long strands of noodles symbolize a long life, and are served at birthday celebrations as well. There are a lot of steps to this recipe, but this is a special occasion dish. What’s a few extra steps in the pursuit of a long, healthy life? And once you dig into these Longevity Noodles, with their tangy sauce and plump shrimp, savory pork, meaty mushrooms, and crunchy toppings, you’ll know it was worth it.

Longevity Noodles Sauce

I start this recipe by whipping up a very quick, but deeply flavorful sauce. Pantry staples like oyster sauce, soy sauce, and Shaoxing wine gets stirred together with some chicken stock and set aside.

Then I move on to prepping the vegetables. Get everything ready so you can move to the stove and set up an assembly line of cooking.

Longevity Noodles Toppings

The toppings are what really set this noodle dish apart. Fried shallots and peanuts and ribbons of egg crepe add tons of flavor and texture. Because this dish has a lot of moving parts, there are some shortcuts I can recommend if you just don’t have the time or energy to go full out.

1. The egg crepe can be substituted with simple boiled eggs. I think soft fried eggs might be nice too, although casual and a little messy.

2. You can buy fried shallots in the Asian market. They come in a tub and you’ll get way more than you need so use the rest to top fried rice, noodles soups, or salads.

3. You can buy roasted peanuts instead of frying your own.

That said, I think you’ll be surprised by how much more flavorful homemade toppings can be. I don’t even really like peanuts, but straight from frying them in the pan, they were pretty great. If you find it’s too much prep work for one day, you can do things in stages. Cut up all of the veggies and start prepping some of the toppings the day before so you can focus on finishing the dish on the second day.

Once cool enough to handle, I cut the stack in half and slice them into ribbons.

It’s important to keep an eye on the shallots. Start them on higher heat and then when they start to get a light golden brown, you can turn the heat down and continue frying until they are evenly fried and a nice bronze color.

Likewise, you want to watch the peanuts carefully. When they have a hint of color and you think you want to leave them for a couple more minutes-Don’t! Take them out. The peanuts are so hot they will count to brown off heat so don’t leave them in the oil too long.

The Pork

Now that the toppings are done it’s time to make the pork sauce. First I put on a big pot of water because by the time it’s boiling, the pork will be done and it will be time to cook the noodles and shrimp and assemble our Longevity Noodles.

The Shrimp and Noodles

Now we are in the home stretch. At this point your water should be boiling, and we’ll turn off the heat and quickly cook the shrimp in it. This is the perfect way to cook plump and juicy shrimp-indirect heat. Shrimp is so delicate and cooks so quickly, it’s not necessary to hit it with a ton of heat. Gentle cooking is the best way.

Then scoop them out and set aside, and bring the water back to a boil. I know there are an endless variety of noodles in an Asian market. We want long, thin wheat ones for Longevity Noodles. Often you’ll find them just for the occasion, in lucky red boxes. However, I included somen as an option, which is a thin Japanese noodle. It’s similar to the long life noodles and will work if you cannot find the other ones.

Because they are so thin, they cook in under a minute! As soon as the noodles float to the surface, they are ready. After draining them, I give them a quick rinse to remove excess starch. Then I add the toasted sesame oil, coating each strand. This gives extra flavor but also keeps the strands from clumping up.

Now it’s time to assemble! Pour the pork sauce over the noodles, and garnish with all the delicious toppings!

Longevity Noodles are so special and festive, try them for your next celebration! Long life is as good a reason as any to indulge in a big platter of noodles, right? Let me know what you think of them by rating and commenting on the recipe below, and tag us in your pics @funkyasiankitchen, we love seeing your creations!