Siomai
Open-topped pork and prawn dumplings, steamed, with calamansi and chilli oil on the side.
Pork, Shellfish, Egg. Not vegetarian — contains pork, shellfish.
Ingredients
- 500 g minced pork, with some fat
- 200 g prawns, chopped coarsely
- 150 g jicama, finely diced
- 1 carrot, finely diced
- 4 spring onions, sliced
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 2 tablespoons cornflour
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 0.5 teaspoon black pepper
- 40 wonton wrappers
Method
- LEFT OPEN AT THE TOP. The wrapper is pushed up round the filling and the top stays exposed, so the filling steams directly and sets firm. A sealed parcel poaches its filling in its own juice and comes out loose.
- Jicama and carrot in a very fine dice, salted 10 minutes and squeezed. Jicama is mostly water and that water turns the filling to slurry.
- Mix the pork, prawns, vegetables, spring onion, soy, sesame oil, sugar, pepper, egg and cornflour, then beat the mixture against the side of the bowl for 2 minutes until it is tacky and holds together in a lump. Underworked, it crumbles when you bite it.
- Chill 30 minutes. Cold filling is far easier to shape and holds its shape in the steamer.
- Lay a wrapper over the gap between thumb and forefinger, push a heaped teaspoon of filling down into it, and squeeze gently so the wrapper pleats up the sides.
- Flatten the base on the board so it stands, and press the exposed filling level with a wet spoon.
- Line the steamer with cabbage leaves or perforated paper and set them 1 cm apart. Touching, they fuse.
- Steam 12 to 14 minutes over a rolling boil. Cut one open: the filling should be firm and grey-pink with clear juice, not pink in the centre.
- Serve with soy, calamansi and chilli oil mixed at the table, not poured over in the kitchen.
Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.
Filed under Philippines · All recipes