Open-Faced Steamed Pork and Prawn Shumai (Siu Mai)

Walk into any yum cha restaurant on a Sunday morning in Perth and the trolley that always draws the biggest crowd is the one carrying the shumai. Those little open-faced parcels of seasoned pork and prawn, pleated neatly around the sides and topped with a single bright green pea or a jewel of orange carrot, steaming gently in their bamboo basket. They're the dim sum icon that everyone reaches for first and nobody ever gets enough of. The secret to making them at home without spending hours making dumpling dough from scratch is Yunion's extra thin wonton skins — they soften perfectly during steaming, hugging the dense, juicy filling flawlessly without a single doughy edge in sight. Here at Yunion, this is the recipe that turns a Sunday morning at home into something that feels genuinely special.

Serves: 4 Prep time: 30 minutes Cook time: 12 minutes

Ingredients

For the filling:

• 300g ground pork, ideally a 70/30 meat to fat ratio

• 150g raw prawns, peeled, deveined, and finely minced

• 4 dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked in hot water until soft, squeezed dry, and finely diced

• 2 tsp fresh ginger, finely grated

• 2 spring onions, finely chopped

• 1 tbsp light soy sauce

• 1 tbsp oyster sauce

• 1 tsp Shaoxing wine

• 1 tsp sesame oil

• 1 tsp sugar

• 1 tsp cornflour

• Pinch of white pepper

  
  

For wrapping:

• 1 packet Yunion Thin Wonton Skins

• Small bowl of water for shaping

  
  

For the topping:

• Frozen green peas, one per shumai

• Or finely diced carrot, one small piece per shumai

  
  

For the dipping sauce:

• 3 tbsp light soy sauce

• 1 tbsp Chinkiang black vinegar

• 1 tsp fresh ginger, finely julienned

• 1 tsp chilli oil

  
  

Method

• Make the filling. Combine ground pork, minced prawns, diced shiitake mushrooms, ginger, spring onions, soy sauce, oyster sauce, Shaoxing wine, sesame oil, sugar, cornflour, and white pepper in a large bowl. Mix vigorously in one direction for 4 to 5 minutes until the filling becomes smooth, sticky, and holds together firmly when pressed. The filling should be tight and cohesive rather than loose and wet.

• Refrigerate the filling for 15 minutes. Chilling firms the mixture slightly and makes shaping the shumai much easier.

• Place a Yunion thin wonton skin flat on your palm. Add a generous tablespoon of filling to the centre of the skin — shumai use more filling than regular wontons and should look generously stuffed.

• Now shape the shumai. Bring the edges of the wonton skin up around the sides of the filling, pleating the wrapper gently as you go to create a neat cylinder shape that is open at the top. The sides of the wrapper should hug the filling snugly while the top remains completely open, exposing the filling. Use your thumb and index finger to create a gentle waist around the middle of the shumai and press lightly to help it hold its cylindrical shape.

• Tap the base of each shumai gently on the work surface to flatten the bottom so it sits upright without toppling.

• Place a single frozen pea or small piece of diced carrot in the centre of the exposed filling on top of each shumai.

• Line a bamboo steamer with baking paper or lightly oiled cabbage leaves. Arrange shumai in the steamer with a small gap between each one as they expand slightly during cooking.

• Steam over a wok of vigorously boiling water for 10 to 12 minutes until the filling is cooked through and the wrapper is silky and slightly translucent.

• Serve immediately directly from the steamer with dipping sauce alongside.

  
  

Tips

• The cornflour in the filling plays an important structural role. It binds the mixture together and helps the filling retain its shape during steaming so the shumai hold their neat cylindrical form rather than spreading and slumping in the steamer.

• Extra thin wonton skins are specifically the right choice for steamed shumai. Standard thickness skins become thick and doughy at the pleated edges during steaming, which is exactly the texture you don't want. Yunion's thin skins soften evenly all the way around, producing that authentic dim sum texture where the wrapper almost melts into the filling.

• Baking paper in the steamer basket is essential to prevent the shumai from sticking to the bamboo. Cut small squares and place one under each shumai individually, or line the entire basket with a single sheet pierced with small holes to allow steam to circulate freely.

  
  

Find Yunion Near You

Our full range of fresh noodles is available at select supermarkets and Asian grocery stores across Perth. Find your nearest stockist and make your next family gathering one to remember.