WRAPPERS
2/3 cup all-purpose flour hot water, plus:, hot water
FILLING A
5 oz regular or firm tofu - mashed
1 1/2 tsp tientsin preserved cabbage - minced, (packed)
1 tbsp presoaked & minced tree ears
1 tbsp presoaded & minced lily buds
3 tbsp black or shiitake mushrooms - (pres, oaked & minced)
1 1/2 tsp green onion, minced
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp vegetable oil
1/8 tsp salt
2 tsp soy sauce
FILLING B
3 tbsp water chestnuts, minced
3 tbsp black mushrooms, minced - (presoake, d)
3 tbsp bamboo shoots, minced
3 tbsp carrot, minced
2 tsp green onion, minced
1/2 tsp gingerroot, minced
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/4 tsp cornstarch
1 1/2 tsp sesame oil
DIPPING SAUCE
1 soy sauce
1 mushroom soaking liquid
1 sesame oil
A Recipe for
Open-Face Steamed Dumplings (Shao Mai)
“Americans can eat garbage, provided you sprinkle it liberally with ketchup, mustard, chili sauce, tabasco sauce, cayenne pepper, or any other condiment which destroys the original flavor of the dish.” |
| Henry Miller, American writer (1891-1980) |
Old people shouldn't eat health foods. They need all the preservatives they can get. |
| Robert Orben |
Nobody seems more obsessed by diet than our anti-materialistic, otherworldly, New Age spiritual types. But if the material world is merely illusion, an honest guru should be as content with Budweiser and bratwurst as with raw carrot juice, tofu and seaweed slime. |
| Edward Abbey |
This Recipe for Open-Face Steamed Dumplings (Shao Mai) is one of thousands in the Recipes-to-go Bread Cookbook.
If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay home. |
| James Michener |
If you enjoy this Open-Face Steamed Dumplings (Shao Mai) Recipe - you should enjoy the recipe collections you can find on the websites below:
Welcome to the Church of the Holy Cabbage. Lettuce pray. |
| Author Unknown |
“That's something I've noticed about food: whenever there's a crisis if you can get people to eating normally things get better.” |
| Madeleine L'Engle (1918--) American author. |
This is a recipe for Open-Face Steamed Dumplings (Shao Mai) from the recipe cookbook of Recipes-to-go (Bread)
Without rice, even the cleverest housewife cannot cook. |
| Chinese Proverb |
“Americans are just beginning to regard food the way the French always have. Dinner is not what you do in the evening before something else. Dinner is the evening.” |
| Art Buchwald |
“Happy and successful cooking doesn't rely only on know-how; it comes from the heart, makes great demands on the palate and needs enthusiasm and a deep love of food to bring it to life.” |
| Georges Blanc, Ma Cuisine des Saisons |
I envy people who drink -- at least they know what to blame everything on. |
| Oscar Levant |
Researchers have discovered that chocolate produces some of the same reactions in the brain as marijuana...The researchers also discovered other similarities between the two, but can't remember what they are. |
| Matt Lauer , on NBC's "Today" show, August 22, 1996 |
There is no sincerer love than the love of food. |
| George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) |
These little open-faced steamed dumplings, a popular item in dim sum
teahouses, are a special treat, for you seldom see a vegetarian
version. With their flowerlike appearance and savory filling, they
are an attractive luncheon dish. You can use the ready-made
wrappers, sold in refrigerated or frozen sections of some markets
("shu mai skins"). "Suey gow skins" or "gyoza wrappers" are too thick
and will dry out during steaming. Wonton wrappers can be substituted,
but trim off the pointed corners. Better yet, prepare your own
wrappers according to the directions below.
DIRECTIONS: =========== To prepare wrappers, combine flour and hot
water. Knead a couple of minutes into a smooth dough; cover and let
rest at least 1 hour. Place on a lightly floured board, and knead for
2 minutes or so. With palms of your hands, roll it into a long,
cylindrical shape, 7-1/2 inches inches long, 1 inch in diameter. Cut
crosswise into 1/2-inch pieces; you will have 15. If your climate is
dry, keep the dough covered. Shape these, cut-side up, into a round
shape. Flatten them with the palm or heel of your hand on a
flour-dusted board. With a pastry roller, small rolling pin, piece of
dowel, or even an empty jar -- all of these should be wielded under
the palm of your hand -- roll each into a round wrapper, 3-1/2 inches
in diameter, thicker in the center, thinner toward the edge. This is
easily done by rolling the pastry roller from the edge of the piece
of dough to the center, and back again, turning the dough
counterclockwise a little with your left hand after each roll.
Continue all the way around several times, also turning the dough
over once or twice, until you have a thin, 3-1/2 inch wrapper.
Prepare Filling A or B by combining the ingredients. Place
approximately 1 tablespoon filling on the center of each wrapper.
Holding the wrapper on your left fingers, encircle it from below with
your right thumb and index finger, gathering the wrapper up around
the filling. Squeeze gently around the middle to make a kind of neck;
some of the filling should emerge at the top. The bundle should hold
together securely or it will collapse during steaming. Pat the bottom
with your left hand to make a flat base. If the skin is not too
floppy, you can also turn the edge slightly outward (like an open
flower), pinching it if necessary to make it secure.
Place a layer of damp cloth in a bamboo steaming basket or on a flat,
perforated race (you can use a heatproof plate if you have neither of
these, but circulation of steam is somewhat impaired this way).
Arrange the shao mai on it. With the rack well above the boiling
water in a steamer, steam for 10 minutes (if frozen, do not defrost
first). They will stick to the cloth, but if you wash and reuse the
same cloth each time, they will not stick as much.
Serve while still hot, before the skin hardens -- as is, or with small
dipping saucers of soy sauce and mushroom liquid (from the black
mushrooms), mixed in equal proportions. Add a few drops of sesame oil.
Advance preparation: These can be assembled in advance, frozen, and
steamed just prior to serving.
* Source: The Fragrant Vegetable, by Martin Stidham * Typed for you by
Karen Mintzias
Serves: 15
Open-Face Steamed Dumplings (Shao Mai) Recipe brought to you by Recipes To-Go