Char Siu and Shu Mai

Recipe originally submitted to GBSFood by theworkhorse, Submitted here by Lovelee. All typos and references to nonexistent pictures have been lovingly preserved.

Ingredients: Char Siu

Here's the recipe for the char siu

• 5 Tb light soy
• 3 Tb dk soy (I was out so I used thick this time)
• 5 Tb maltose
• 2 Tb white sugar
• 4 Tb Chinese cooking wine
• 4 Tb hoisin
• 1 tsp five spice powder
• a couple drops of red food color
• a couple lbs of pork shoulder, cut into manageable hunks (separated at the seams and trimmed of excess fat).

Procedures: Char Siu

Mix everything except the pork shoulder in a small pot, simmer on low for 5 minutes. Allow to cool to room temp.

Add marinade to pork, refrigerate overnight. Turning the meat the next morning.

Preheat your oven up to 425 degrees (~220 C). Set up a metal pan halfway full of water with a rack on top.

Don't throw away your marinade. Remove pork from marinade, and place pork on rack and leave for 15 minutes. Take marinade and simmer again for 10 minutes in a small pot. After the first 15 minutes, turn pork over and baste. Let roast another 15 minutes, then flip meat again, and allow another 15 minutes of roasting. You will have roasted approximately 45 minutes by now. Depending on the size and thickness of your hunks of pork they might be done now, they might not be.

Once you're sure your meat is ready, let it rest on a cutting board for 10 minutes before cutting it into thin slices, against the grain.

Ingredients: Shu Mai

And here's the recipe for shu mai This is what you need

• ~1 lb of fatty pork - shoulder/boneless country ribs
• ~1 lb of shrimp, shelled and deveined (you can use less if you like)
• a small pack of shiitake mushrooms, de-stemmed and cubed into little pieces
• a large egg
• 1 tb soy sauce
• 1 tb sesame oil
• 1/2 tb mirin
• 1/2 tb rice wine vinegar
• salt and pepper
• a pack of dumpling skins

Procedures: Shu Mai

Here are the seasonings

This pic is to show how small I cubed my mushrooms

You can either buy your pork pre-ground or grind it yourself in a food processor. I ground up my own pork in the food processor along with the shrimp and an egg and then add it to the chopped mushroom, and then mix in the seasonings. If you don't have a food processor, do your best to chop up the pork and the shrimp into as little teeny pieces as possible. It's easier to cut the pork when it's partially frozen.

So I'll be the first to admit, I don't make the prettiest shu mai in the world. I don't have the patience to make teeny little pleats around something that is going to be eaten in a bite or two so this is my super easy way of shaping them.

First put about a tb onto the center of a skin.

Gather up the ends with your two hands

Use a loose fist to shape your shu mai and use your bottom hand to flatten the bottom

Once they're all done, place a steaming rack sprayed with a bit of nonstick cooking spray over about an inch of simmering water and place shu mai atop. Cover, and let steam on low for 8 minutes.

Continue at this until all your shu mai are done.

If you want a dipping sauce, mix one part sesame oil, soy sauce, cooking wine, two parts sriracha and a dash of rice wine vinegar. Enjoy.

If you have any questions about either recipes feel free to ask.