Siu Mai, Shao Mai, or Steamed Meat Dumplings is one of the most popular Dim Sum dumpling. The main ingredients for this dumpling consists of pork, prawns, MSG, lard, and dried sole fish powder. In my home made recipe, I decided to omit the unhealthy bits, i.e. lard and MSG. As for the dried sole fish powder, you can purchase the dried sole fish from any Chinese medicinal shop; but, you would then have to grill and grind it to a fine powder yourself. If that’s clearly too much work, then I think a good substitute for it would be fish sauce. Anyway, the bottom layer of the dumpling consists of the pork and prawns mixture, and the top layer is usually filled with prawns and topped off with some fish or prawn roe and/or green peas for garnishing. So, I have included two “home-style” pictorial guides to wrap the dumplings. The picture quality is not as good due to the gloomy Fall weather in Vancouver and the normal lightings in my kitchen. Nevertheless, I think you will get the basic idea. ...
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