Chinese Shu Mai with Vietnamese Twist

Chinese Shu Mai with Vietnamese Twist

Inspired by our culinary success during Easter preparations and anxious to move on to the season two of Stranger Things, Charlotte and I came up with a couple of other cooking projects. Have to put this recipe here first before I lose it and forget all my adjustments. It’s is hard to strike out with Chinese ground meat recipes but this one came out especially good and with a few changes — lazy me went for gyoza skins — turned out to be fun and easy. The original idea comes from Food52.

1/2 lb ground pork

1/2 lb cleaned uncooked shrimp, cut small

1 large garlic clove either chopped small or put through the garlic press

2 tsp ginger either chopped small or grated

1 small shallot

1/4 cup cilantro chopped small

1 tbsp of chives

1 tsp sugar

1 tbsp fish sauce

1 stalk lemongrass, soft part only, chopped small

3 tbsp potato starch

a pack of round gyoza skins

peas or small pieces of carrot to decorate if you feel like it

 

 

Mix all the ingredients besides gyoza skins, and peas, and carrots. Blend it well until everything is well mixed and the mixture is smooth.

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Roll the meat-shrimp mixture into 24 balls. Make sure to wet your hands as you go, otherwise it will be sticking to your hands creating a lot of waste. I absolutely cannot eyeball anything and only can divide things in two, somewhat equally. The picture below is a proof. So when I mix something that should be later divided, I do not use a bowl but use a tray instead. Once all is mixed, I divide it in two, and in two, and in two. Obviously, I never cook odd number of anything. Sometimes I run into a problem when the last portion has to be divided into three. Then I call Tom.

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The rest is easy. Place one gyoza skin on the palm of one hand, the meatball goes into the center of it, and you pull the edges up. Being artistically challenged, I go geometrically bringing East-West sides in first, then, North-South, then, the middle of each of the four new flaps. Charlotte was more creative with her squishing. In the end, steam made everything stick together nicely and we could not tell the difference who did which one. If you use peas or carrots — stick a piece on the top of each bundle.

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The wok is filled with water so that it would not touch the steamer. Once the water comes to a boil, the steamer goes on top of the wok for about 7 min. I always check the temperature to make sure it’s above 140º F and salmonella has met its demise.

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And the Dipping Sauce, of course:

2 Tablespoons fish sauce

1 Tablespoon rice wine vinegar

1 Tablespoon water

1 Garlic clove, minced

fresh red chile pepper, minced



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