Experimenting Siew Mai

It has been a long while since we made siew mai. The last time we made siew mai was years ago. It is strange that times fly faster than we even think about it. Memory fades and skills rusts. Needless to say, some of the pointers and tips which we acquire in our last experience have been forgotten. It is starting afresh once again.

My mum bought minced pork. We simply added salt and pepper and minced prawn to the pork and started mixing. A little flour was added for the smoothness of the paste as well as to create a paste. Drawing from the last experience, we were smarter this time round. We knew we should not complete making all siew mais one shot. We should make a few, steam them and taste them so that we could improve along the way. This would also reduce wastage from failure.

(The raw ingredients)

It was certainly a wise move.

(The completed raw siew mais)

The first batch of siew mais tasted a bit too salty. The colour looked too blend. We added too much fillings because we were initially worried that we would not have enough pastry for all the meat paste. Hence, each siew mais was too stuffed with fillings that they lost their daintiness typical of dim sums. Moreover, with too much fillings, the siew mais started to collapse after steaming. The fillings were too discrete instead of more paste-like. Hence, when the siew mais were cut, it was as if we were eating minced pork where we could taste discrete little balls of pork.

(The revised siew mais with carrots added and wantons and dumplings created)

Rectification went underway. To tackle the problem of saltiness and the lack of colour, chopped carrots were added to the mix. In addition, chopped carrots were also added to the top of the siew mai for aesthetic purposes. Beaten egg was also added to mixture to create stickiness among the mixture so that it would be more paste-like.

(The siew mais steaming in the pot)

To create more variety, dumplings and wantons were created. These could be added into soup later.

(The steamed dumplings and siew mais)

All completed dumplings, wantons and siew mais had to be steamed, cooled before they could be stored in the fridge for later use. When we wanted to consume later, we could just take out the items and cooked or steamed again. However, all items would taste best when consumed fresh because the skin would taste harder when they were steamed or cooked a second time.

On the whole, we were pretty satisfied with our work but certainly there was still ample room for improvement in our next attempt. That is, if we attempt not too long after this or we will end up forgetting the lessons learnt in this experiement.