Beef Shumai
Beef Shumai, the Classic Dim Sum Snack
In the 1930's, dry-steamed beef shumai were all the rage all over Guangdong. In the past 20 years, they have spread to medium- and large-sized cities throughout Guangxi, making them a necessary item for teahouses and restaurants in the Lingnan region.
Ingredients
- 45 pieces dumpling skins
- 5.3 ounces-6.17 ounces (150-188 grams) fatty pork, minced
- 1 ½ cups (75 grams) coriander
- 3/4 cup (75 grams) chopped green onions
- 1 ⅓ pounds (600 grams) sirloin beef, membranes removed and minced
- 1 piece dried orange peel, macerated and chopped
- 2 pieces lemon leaves, deveined
- 4 ounces (115 grams) water chestnut, peeled and chopped
Marinade (Beef)
- 2 teaspoons (11 grams) salt
- 1 teaspoon ground pepper
- 1/3 teaspoon lye water
- 2 teaspoons (11 grams) light soy sauce
- 2/3 teaspoons baking soda
- 3/4 cup (188 grams) water
Seasonings
- 1/3 teaspoon lye water
- 2 tablespoons (26 grams) sugar
- 1/3 cup (38 grams) water chestnut powder
- 4 teaspoons (19 grams) chicken bouillon
- 6.63 ounces (188 grams) crushed ice
- 6 tablespoons (56 grams) potato starch
- 1/4 cup (56 grams) garlic sauce, add at end
- 1/4 cup (56 grams) sesame oil, add at end
- 1/4 cup (56 grams) spring onion oil, add at end
- 1/3 cup (75 grams) water, used for mixing with powdered ingredients
Cooking Directions
Preparations
- Prepare a clean blender. Add the beef marinade ingredients and mix well. Then add sirloin beef and mix on a low setting for 10 minutes. Refrigerate for 10 hours to marinate.
How to make beef shumai filling
- Remove sirloin beef filling from refrigerator. Place in blender and blend into a paste. Add lye water and mix well. Add crushed ice and mix until it is dissolved. Add sugar and mix thoroughly. Separately, mix 1/3 cup water with water chestnut powder, chicken bouillon, and potato starch to achieve a consistency in between powder and liquid. Add this mixture to the beef filling and stir evenly.
- Add the fatty pork, dried orange peel, and lemon leaves. Mix evenly. Then add water chestnuts, coriander, chopped green onions, garlic sauce, sesame oil, and spring onion oil. Mix evenly. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Put it all together
- Add 0.91 ounce (26 grams) of filling to a dumpling skin. Form it into a shumai shape.
- In steamer basket, lay out oil paper or degreased metal sheet. Place shumai inside. Steam over high heat for 7-8 minutes. Serve.
- Tip: The beef filling should be soft and moist. Only by carefully controlling the amount of time that water is added can the meat absorb enough water. This way, the steamed shumai won't leak water.
One of the Legends of the Origin of Shumai
Some say that shumai actually come from northern China. After the shumai of Beijing – originally known as shaomai there – spread to Shandong, Zhejiang, Anhui, Guangdong, and other areas, the name was corrupted into "shumai", using a phonetically similar Chinese character.
Furthermore, the shaomai of Beijing were mostly sold in the early morning, so they also adopted names with characters phonetically similar to meaning "sold at dawn". In the south, the pronunciation of the words for "dawn" and "cooked" are similar (shu), thus earning them the name "shumai" in the south, which is now how the dish is referred to in English-speaking countries.
Back when Hohhot, Inner Mongolia was still known as "Guihua", shumai was already popular in the capital. At that time, Beijing and Tianjin restaurants used terms like "Guihua shaomai" and "authentic Guihua shaomai" to entice customers with the allure of original shumai made in the Inner Mongolian style.
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