Siu Mai
Open-topped pork and prawn dumplings in a yellow wrapper, finished with a dot of roe. The other half of the dim sum trolley's opening pair.
Photograph credit: Siu Mai - Roland in Vancouver (225) by roland · CC0 1.0 · Flickr
Beat the pork mixture in one direction for a full two minutes until it turns sticky and pulls away from the bowl. That is not folklore — the mechanical action extracts myosin from the meat, which sets on steaming into the springy, bouncy texture that separates a good siu mai from a loose meatball in a wrapper. The wrapper is not pleated at all: it is gathered around the filling and squeezed at the waist, then the top is left open and pressed flat with a spoon.
Questions About Siu Mai
How long does Siu Mai take to make?
40 minutes of preparation and 12 minutes of cooking, plus 30 minutes of soaking, so allow 1 hour 22 minutes from start to finish. The recipe serves 6.
The Method for Siu Mai
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Soak the shiitake in warm water 30 minutes, then squeeze them dry and dice them finely.
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Put the pork in a bowl with the soy sauce, wine, oyster sauce, sesame oil, cornflour, sugar, salt, white pepper and water.
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Beat the mixture with chopsticks in one direction only for 2 minutes, until it is sticky and pulls from the side of the bowl.
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Fold in the prawns, shiitake and spring onions.
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Hold a wrapper in a loose circle of thumb and forefinger, drop a heaped spoonful of filling in and push it down.
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Squeeze gently at the waist so the wrapper gathers, then flatten the exposed top with the back of a wet spoon.
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Set them on oiled paper in a steamer and top each with a little roe or diced carrot.
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Steam over rapidly boiling water 12 minutes, until firm and cooked through.
Related guide: Prep, cook and total time.
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A Few Pointers
- Beat in one direction for two full minutes. That is the bounce.
- No pleating — gather and squeeze at the waist.
- Flatten the open top with a wet spoon.
If You're Missing Something
- Out of spring onions? A small regular onion, finely sliced, or a few chives stirred in at the end both cover the job.
What to Serve With It
Har gow · Chilli oil · Chinese tea
Storage
Freeze uncooked for 2 months and steam from frozen, adding 4 minutes.
Siu Mai Nutrition Facts
Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.
Your notes on this recipe
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published ; last changed .
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