What's Cookin': We made siew mai at home

What’s Cookin’ is our fun home-cooking tutorial series that provides step-by-step instructions and easy-to-cook recipes for popular local delights and trending dishes with an AsiaOne twist. And we promise that they are simple enough to make them in your own kitchen. 

For today's recipe, we show you how to make your very own siew mai at home.

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If you enjoy going for dimsum, you know that your meal is not complete without at least one round of siew mai. While you can get frozen dimsum at the supermarket, nothing beats having freshly-made siew mai.

If you prefer to stay safe and not to dine outside for now, get fresh siew mai by making your very own at home. We promise that it's not as difficult as it seems.

Ingredients

Makes up to 17 siew mai

Wrapper

• 250g all purpose flour
• 1/2 tbsp salt
• 1 egg
• 150ml water
• 1 drop yellow egg colouring

Filling

• 5 pieces prawn
• 1/2 cup water chestnut
• 1/4 cup scallions
• 40g shiitake mushroom
• 10g ginger
• 250g ground pork
• 1 1/2 tbsp cornstarch
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 1/2 tbsp canola oil
• 1/2 tbsp sesame oil
• 2 tbsp oyster sauce
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp white pepper
• 1 large carrot

Steps

1. Add flour and salt to a bowl and mix together.
2. Add yellow egg colouring to 50ml water and mix. 
3. Add egg to bowl. Pour in a bit of the coloured water and mix well. Continue adding coloured water while mixing and add the rest of the water in the same manner. The resulting dough should be soft and not sticky. Let dough sit for at least 30 mins,
4. Take the rested dough and separate into four equal portions. Dust a single portion with flour and roll it out with a rolling pin. Fold in the sides and roll out again. Repeat folding and rolling action for another 5 times.  
5. Portion the dough into another three parts. Take one part and roll till dough is as thin as possible without tearing. Use a glass cup to cut out your round wrappers. Dust the wrappers with flour to prevent them from sticking to one another.  
6. De-shell prawns and mince finely. Mince water chestnut, scallions, mushrooms and ginger. 
7. Place minced pork in bowl and add cornstarch, water, and oils, and mix well. Add prawns, water chestnut, scallions, mushrooms and ginger, and mix well.
8. Add oyster sauce, salt, sugar and white pepper, and mix well to create your siew mai filling.  
9. To wrap your siew mai, take a wrapper and place one teaspoon of filling in the centre of the wrapper. Enclose the meat with your wrapper and adjust till the open-topped package can stand on its own. 
10. Add your wrapped siew mais to a bamboo steamer with sliced carrots as the base. Steam till they are cooked thoroughly. 

ALSO READ: What's Cookin': We made fresh, multi-coloured kueh lapis

View our full collection of What's Cookin' videos and recipes here. 

editor@asiaone.com