Siomai

Suomi is a Filipino steamed dish made with ground pork, carrots, onion, green onion, salt, pepper, egg, oyster sauce, sesame oil, corn starch and wonton wrappers. These soft and bite-size dimsums will surely make a very fulfilling snack. Have them with a lot of fried garlic bits and chili garlic oil. Make your favourite steamed siomai at home with this easy siomai recipe and it is best served with sweet and ice cold gulaman samalamig.

WHAT IS A SIOMAI AND WHY DO I LOVE THEM SO MUCH

Siomai is one among the Chinese dumplings we love. Siomai, shumai, or xiu mai is a type of the Chinese pork dumpling served in dim sums.  Among all the dishes we owe from the Chinese cuisine, siomai is literally the best and the most famous one. In all the Chinese restos I have visited, I always order some siomai. It is one of my life adventures to taste all the best siomais in the world.

What I love about siomai is that they are bite-sized. You’ve already eaten a dozen before you realize it! They are soft, tender and very meaty. I started

HOW TO MAKE SIOMAI

Making the siomai is super easy, only that the steps would be repetitive. Make sure to have plenty of time to enjoy the siomai-making process.

Let’s start with making the siomai mixture. The siomai mixture is usually made with mostly pork, made tastier and colorful by different veggies and aromatics like carrots, onions and green onions. You can literally add any vegetable you like. What’s important to remember is to chop or mince them. The sizes of the ingredients must be similar to the ground pork.

Most siomai recipes end the siomai mixture on this part. But here at Yummy Kitchen, we make sure to make our dishes extra flavorful. After mixing all the ingredients, we add a layer of umami in the siomai mixture. This will ensure that with every bite, whether dipped in sauce or not, will already be rewarding to the palate. In this recipe, I added soy oyster sauce and sesame oil. This is totally optional but is highly recommendable.

When the siomai mixture is ready, time to put them into the wrappers. Molo wrappers are the appropriate wrappers for this recipe. These are the square thin shaped wrappers which may more likely be together with the lumpia wrappers at the dry goods section of the grocery.

If you are curious about using lumpia wrappers as siomai wrappers, let me just tell you my experience. Steamed siomai using lumpia wrappers? Nope. Don’t try. The wrappers simply did not seal. The second the pork mixture is cooked, the lumpia wrapper is too soft and soggy. How about fried, you ask? Still nope. The lumpia wrapper will cook way faster than the pork mixture and will end up getting burnt. So to keep it short, let’s simply use molo wrappers.

Unlike lumpia wrappers, molo wrappers are much easier to separate. Grab a piece and then place 1 – 2 scoops of pork mixture and then seal. In this recipe, I added 2 scoops and the wrapper is open. If you like your siomai to be closed/sealed, only add a scoop. For an easier technique, press the sides as if you are holding an ice cream cone until you achieve your desired shape.

The last thing to do is to decide whether to steam or to fry your siomai. But since we used raw pork, it is much better if we steam them to fully cook the pork. Remember to cover the lid with cloth to prevent water from dripping.

Once done, serve the siomai and consume it immediately. Sprinkle a lot of fried garlic bits and have your chili garlic oil or toyomansi on the side. Enjoy!

Easy Siomai Recipe (TAGALOG)

Mga Sangkap:

• ½ kilo giniling na baboy
• ½ tasa ng carrots (hiniwa)
• ½ tasa ng sibuyas (hiniwa)
• 2 kutsara ng green onions
• ½ kutsarita ng asin
• ½ kutsarita ng pamintang durog
• 1 itlog
• 2 kutsara ng oyster sauce
• 1 kutsarita ng sesame oil
• 2 kutsara ng cornstarch
• Molo wrappers

Paano Gawin:

1. Ihanda ang mga ingredients. Ilagay ang giniling na baboy sa malaking bowl.
2. Ilagay ang carrots, sibuyas, asin, paminta, green onions (o spring onions) at cornstarch. Haluin ng mabuti.
3. Sunod na ilagay ang oyster sauce at sesame oil. Haluin ng mabuti. Ilagay na rin ang itlog at haluin gamit ang mga kamay.
4. Ihanda ang mga wonton wrappers. Kumuha ng 2 kutsara ng pork mixture at ilagay ito sa gitna ng wrapper. Medyo ipush ito pababa gamit ang kutsara para maging siksik. I-seal ang mga sides nito gamit ang tubig.
5. Ihanda ang steamer at i-brush ito ng konting mantika. Iayos ang mga siomai sa steamer. Wag ito pagdikit dikitin.
6. I-steam ang mga siomai ng 15 – 20 minuto gamit ang mababang apoy.
7. Ihain ang siomai at kainin agad habang mainit pa. Samahan ito ng toyomansi na may chili flakes. Yum!