Directions

• Prepare the dough
• Boil 5 pieces of purple cabbage leaves in a cooking pot.
• Use a hand blender to blend and filter the juice (now it is dark purple).
• Add 3 tsp white vinegar into the juice, stir and wait for it to turn pink. Set it aside to cool.
• Mix 240g plain flour, 120g corn starch, ¼ tsp salt in a container.
• Divide the flour mix into two containers, each one should be around 180g.
• Pour 80-90g water into one of the flour mix, stir and knead. Pour 80-90g cooled pink cabbage juice into the other flour mix, stir and knead.
• Cover both doughs with a film and let them rest for 30 mins.
• Prepare the stuffing
• Soak 1/2 cup pudding rice in fresh water overnight.
• Soak 10 dried Chinese shiitake mushrooms in fresh water for 1 hour. Wash thoroughly before soaking.
• Peel the carrots and squeeze the mushrooms dry. Cut the mushrooms, bell pepper and carrots into small cubes, then place them in a bowl with green peas and sweet corns. Save the juice from the shiitake mushrooms for later use, because we don’t want all that flavour to go to waste.
• Finely blend the purple onion and 5 cloves of garlic.
• Finely blend the scallops.
• Stir fry the finely blended onion and garlic with a tsp of vegetable oil until softened.
• Add minced pork with blended scallops.
• Add 1 tbsp light soy, 1 tbsp dark soy, ½ tbsp oyster sauce, ¼ tsp Wangshouyi 13 spices and 1 tsp sugar into the mix. Stir fry well until thoroughly cooked. Turn off the stove. Add in the vegetables and mix well.
• Drained the soaked pudding rice, and put them in your slow cooker/rice cooker. Add your cooked and seasoned minced pork and vegetable mix to your rice.
• Pour the saved mushroom juice with fresh water into your slow cooker until the liquid reaches the surface of all the ingredients.
• Mix well and close the lid. Turn on the “rice” option and let it work the magic.
• After it is done. Don’t open the airway immediately to let the steam out. Instead, let it sit for another 10 mins.
• Open the lid, sprinkle some diced spring onion, mix well and let the rice stuffing cool while we prepare the Shumai skin.
• Assemble your Shumai
• Sort the rested dough into a long roll (white) and a larger piece with the same length (pinkish purple).
• Gently wrap the pinkish-purple skin outside the white dough. Roughly 2 cm diameter.
• Cut the long dough into small pieces (1 cm in length).
• Spread flour on top and flatten them.
• Use a rolling pin to roll the mini doughs into dumpling skins.
• Spread more flour between skins to prevent them from sticking to each other.
• After the rice stuffing is cool, spread the stuffing on a piece of skin. Remember to leave some space on the edge.
• Close your hand gently, while using the other hand to squeeze the “neck” of the Shumai. The first two may not come out the way you expected but it is ok. Keep trying and you will get the hang of it.
• After you are done with them, add baking sheets squares underneath each one and place them gently on your steamer or steaming stand (while the water underneath is boiling).
• Cover the lid and let them steam for 5 minutes. Voila!
• You could serve them with Chinese dark vinegar, eat them as they are, or like Yannis, eat them with his favourite sweet chilli sauce One bite is a mouth full of flavours. 您慢用(nín màn yòng)！