Pork, Shrimp and Crab Dumpling – Siu Mai or Siomai

Siomai as we all know is a small dollop of chopped pork meat and shrimp wrapped in a thin sheet of wanton wrapper can be found in all corners of the Philippines.  You can find several food carts selling different kind of dumplings in malls, at the corner of the street and now, even sidecars selling this stuff.   Though delicious at very affordable price, what disappoints me is the so many extenders and artificial flavorings added to these wonderful dumplings to the extent that it taste like starch-ball filled in wanton wrappers.  Ofcourse, the case is different if you are going to buy this on a authentic Chinese restaurants with twice to thrice the price of the commercial siomai.

My first encounter with these dumplings was during my childhood where my mom would buy us an order of siomai from Henlin after attending the mass.  They are so delicious and it’s almost I want to order a cup of rice to eat it with.  I have encounter different kinds of siomai or dumplings in my life.  I’ve tried the commercially available dumplings, frozen dumplings, street food-like dumplings and authentic dumplings priced at their respective target bracket.  Now, I prefer the authentic siomai, though pricey, you can see and eat real pork meat and a thud of shrimp meat.

Still, making our own siomai dumpling is a lot cheaper and you can add more ingredients you favor most, like shrimp.  You can also be assured that what you are stuffing in your stomach is healthier and well, are all edible.  With no preservatives and unnecessary extenders.

Since yesterday, I don’t know why but I started to crave on siomai or pork dumplings.  So I decided to make my own pork siomai.  Just imagining doing my own siomai, my mind automatically lists ingredients that I would enjoy putting in my recipe.  I’m imaging putting roughly chopped shrimps, some shredded carrots, some chopped yam bean (singkamas) for added crunch, and shredded crab meat.  Yes!  Crab meat is not usually put in siomai recipes but I found its meat to be tasty that’s why I’m adding some.  Luckily, I don’t have to buy crabs to get its meat.  There’s a vendor in our local market selling shredded crab meat, about Php120.00 per quarter kilo.  It’s real crab meat not the process one.  You could still see some broken shells in it so just meticulously remove those puny bits of shells.

Supposedly, I’m going to prepare it yesterday for dinner but my dad already prepared for dinner so I just though I’ll just prepare it on Sunday for our packed lunch on Monday.  I simply combined the pork meat, chopped shrimp and crab meat.  I added shredded carrots, chopped yam beans, grated ginger and chopped scallion.  Then oyster sauce, Hoisin sauce, salt, sugar and rice wine are added as flavorings.  Wrapped them in a wanton wrapper and steamed for 20 to 25 minutes.  For the chili garlic oil, I simply grated some garlic, added a teaspoon of dried chili and chopped scallion and our in hot olive oil and that’s it.

Ingredients
1/2 kilo                          Ground Pork
1/4 kilo                          Crab Meat
1/4 kilo                          Shrimp, shelled , deveined and roughly chopped
1 medium sized              Carrot, shredded and juice squeezed out
1 medium sized              Yam Bean, finely chopped
3 Tablespoons                Chopped Scallion
1 teaspoon                     Shredded Ginger
2 Tablespoons                Oyster Sauce
2 Tablespoons                Hoisin Sauce
1 teaspoon                     Sugar
1/2 teaspoon                  Salt
2 Teaspoons                  Rice Wine
2 Tablespoons               Sesame Oil
1/4 cup                         Quick Cooking Oatmeal
Wanton Wrapper

Chili Garlic Oil
1 teaspoon                     Dried Chili
2 cloves                         Garlic, Shredded
pinch                             Salt
1/4 teaspoon                  Sesame Oil
1 teaspoon                    Chopped Scallion
2 Tablespoons               Olive Oil

Garnish
Soy Sauce
Calamansi

Procedure


Mix the pork, shrimp and crab meat together.

Mi together the carrot, yam bean, scallion and ginger.

Mix the oyster sauce, Hoisin Sauce, sugar, salt , rice wine and sesame oil together.

Mix the meat mixture and vegetable mixture together.  Be sure that the vegetables are well incorporated into the meat mixture.

Add in the oyster sauce mixture.  Just simply use your hand to mix everything.

Add in the oatmeal.  The oatmeal helps bind the filling and to absorbed unnecessary moisture in the filling.  We don’t want our filling to get watery, do we?  Refrigerate for an hour or so.

Fill your wanton wrapper.  Enclose your hand.  Your thumb and point finger should be forming a circle or hole.  Place your wanton wrapper over this.

Place 1 1/2 to 2 teaspoons of the the meat filling at the center of the wanton wrapper.  And gently push the meat to the hole formed by the thumb and the point finger.  Gently tap the top of the siomai to flatten it.

Place in the steamer lined with baking paper.  You can greased a plate and place your uncooked siomai on it before steaming.  This helps to avoid the wanton wrapper from sticking.  Steam for 20 to 25 minutes.

For the Chili Garlic Oil.  Combine dried chili, garlic, salt, scallion and sesame oil.  Heat Olive oil until smoking hot and pour over the dried chili mixture.  To serve, you can simply dipped the siomai on the chili garlic oil or you can get a teaspoon of the chili garlic oil, add some soy sauce and squeeze some calamansi juice and dipped the siomai on it.  That’s how we usually done it.