Patty Saveurs

Shrimp shumai or siumai recipe! These open-faced Chinese shrimp dumplings arre filled with a mixture of shrimp and pork, these shrimp dumplings are easy to make at home, best of shrimp dim sum, delicious, and you can make large trays with very few ingredients! A must try!

To me shrimp shumai are one the most delicious dishes Cantonese cuisine has to offer, I always order them in those take away Chinese restaurants but they're best homemade.

Shrimp shumai are filled with a mixture of ground pork and shrimp, I use deboned pork chops that I grind in my food processor. There is always a measure of ground pork with seafood filling in Asian dumplings, if you don’t like pork, you can replace it by chicken.

Shumai need to be steamed, I’ve bought one of these bamboo steamers at my Asian supermarket, they are cheap and fit perfectly on top of a saucepan.

Thin round wrappers are used for shumai, if you only have square ones, trim off the corners.

Forming shumai is not rocket science and really not that complicated, as always the more you practice and the nicer your shumai will be but, anyway, whether nice or not so nice, they will always be delicious.

How to form a shumai:

- Form a circle with your thumb and forefinger

- Lay a wrapper on top and push the center down a bit to form a hollow center

- Lay 1 tbsp. of filling in the hollow center, push down with the tbsp while pressing the dumpling closed, flatten the filling on top with the tbsp

- Lay the dumpling on your counter and flatten the bottom

Steaming the dumplings:

The bamboo steamers that you can buy at Asian supermarket are super handy. To avoid that the dumplings stick to the bamboo bottom, line the steamer with a piece of parchment paper one inch smaller than its bottom or with a few lettuce leaves. I like the parchment paper better.

Freezing the shumai:

Providing that none of the ingredients involved in the making of your shumai have been previously frozen, you can freeze your shumai raw on a tray and once completely frozen transfer them into a freezer container or bag. You can also freeze shumai once fully steamed and cooled the same way. When you will want to eat them, place them in the steamer and steam them a few minutes longer.

Optional items that are deeply appreciated with shumai (all made in minutes):

- Garlic oil, to brush the dumplings as soon as out of the steamer to prevent them from drying

- Fried garlic to sprinkle on top of dumplings, my recipe for both is here

- Garlic chili oil, for a nice kick of heat, my recipe is here

Enjoy!