Chicken Siew Mai

We love dimsum! I can repeat that a hundred times in this blog. Because we love it so much, I am perfecting my wrapper for these lovely dimsum recipes. Siew Mai is a frequent menu on the table for us and not as snacks as dimsum supposedly, but for us it is as good as a meal. I can eat as plenty as I can as long as there is still space in my tummy!

I’ve been buying dumpling wrapper in the supermarket but these days they run out of stock and it has been out-of-stock for awhile now. To my disappointment of not finding these dumpling wrapper, I am in a quest for perfecting my dumpling wrapper. The challenge is to find the right ingredients.

I am so intrigued with these dumplings with wrappers which look like almost transparent. I found the recipe but I can’t find the right flour. I finally found the recipe from a magazine; the ingredient that makes it green is spinach puree, now I know! The recipe calls for potato starch and Tang flour which I can’t find it in anywhere. So the next thing in mind is to substitute with what I have and see if it works. Yes it did but the wrappers are not that transparent as they should.

For the record, I have to post here what I’ve done for me not repeat the same mistake; in my quest for perfecting dumpling wrapper. It took a tedious job to it but once I got used to the hang of it, everything comes fast. First it was so thick and big, and finally I made it very thin but it took me a lot of testing 2 pieces each before wrapping all the fillings. At the end of this experiment, I’m already half full. It could have been easier if the recipe is well expound step-by-step but it was not.

Note: if you can find dumpling wrappers in the supermarket, no need to do the hassle of making your own wrapper, but if you are just as curious how to make it as I am, then go ahead, do it. Note that it will take your patience at first but once you have done it once, next time would be a lot easier!

Ingredients:

Filling:

¼ kg. Minced chicken

1 Tablespoon cornstarch

¼ Teaspoon sesame oil

Salt and pepper

Combine all the ingredients in a mixing bowl until thoroughly mixed and set aside.

Make the Wrapper:

100 g. potato starch

100 g. All purpose flour

½ cup water

50 g. spinach

Procedure:

In a blender, put spinach and water, blitz for few seconds until pureed. Transfer the mixture to a saucepan and bring to a boil. Let stand for 3 minutes to cool down a little bit but it should not be completely cooled.

In a mixing bowl, add potato starch and flour, add pureed spinach little by little while mixing the flour using a chopstick until the mixture comes altogether and forms into a dough. Knead the dough on a lightly floured board until smooth and elastic.

Divide the dough into 3. Work on one part and cover wrap the other two parts with a kitchen towel to avoid drying up. Shape the dough into a sausage-like and flatten with a rolling pin flouring the dough on both sides every time you roll the rolling pin. Using a Chef’s Ring, or cookie cutter cut the thin dough to form small thin circles.

Place 1 teaspoon of the filling in each of the wrapper and form into a siew mai.

Steam in a bamboo steamer for 10 minutes.

Serve with soy sauce with calamansi and few drops of sesame oil.

Cook’s note:

I could have used the pasta machine but I realized it too late and was lazy to assemble the machine.

Cook’s review: the wrapper has a mild background flavor compared to the ready-made frozen wrappers. They are a little bit sticky yet firm and still soft when cooked.