Hello, your fellow maipēsu girl here :)

My gluten-sensitive partner loves dim sum but with Chinese cooking, we can never be too sure when they do or do not sprinkle in a little flour here and there as a thickening agent, fried coating, or in the sauces. It's been more than 10 years since he's had some Shu Mai so thus we embarked on the journey to deliver comparably delicious Shu Mai.

Come along with me on this first attempt to make Gluten Free Shu Mai! The video will show you how I put the Shu Mai together :)

🥟 GF Siu Mai Dough (makes ~16 dumplings)

• 1 cup rice flour
• ½ cup tapioca starch
• ½ cup glutinous rice flour
• ¾ cup boiling water, keep ¼ cup on the side
• ½ tsp salt

For my gluten-free flour for general use, check out my gf all-purpose flour recipe. It's only 4 ingredients.

Dough Prep Steps:

1. Sift the dry flour ingredients and salt into a mixing bowl
2. Add ¾ cup boiled water
3. Start working the dough together- work with a dough hook if you have a dough mixer. By hand, I mix with a wooden or silicone spoon or spatula first (don't burn your fingers), then go in with my hands to knead the dough. I add bits of the extra ¼ cup boiled water on the side if I feel the dough is on the drier side and could use a bit more water. I'd describe the desired dough to be like a hydrated Play-doh or polymer clay consistency and feel
4. Once done, cover it with a wet paper town or some cling wrap and set it aside to keep it hydrated

🥩 Pork Filling (makes ~16)

• 4 frozen shrimp meat, coarsely chopped
• 4 shiitake mushroom, diced
• 1 cup pork belly, chopped or ground pork with high fat percentage (to ensure the shu mai doesn't come juicing out like an open xiao long bao)
• 1 tsp white pepper
• 4 tsp shaoxing rice wine
• 4 tsp sesame oil
• 4 tsp sugar
• 4 tsp gf oyster sauce (I use
• 1 tsp cornstarch
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 small carrot, diced (optional for presentation)

Filling Prep Step:

1. Mix all the prepared ingredients together except the carrots
2. If the filling doesn't seem goopy enough, I'd add another 1 tsp of cornstarch- my first batch of shu mai came out with pork filling juice sitting because I used a lean ground pork so I'd recommend compensating with another 1 tsp of cornstarch in the mix or using a fattier pork option.

Shu Mai Steps:

1. Separate the dough into 16 balls and roll them out into thin skins and cover them again- if your skins are drying out too quickly like mine did, I'd wrap the shu mai immediately with the pork filling and pop it onto a tray in the freezer for storage before steaming.
2. Sprinkle the diced carrots onto the top of the shu mai for presentation (I opted out on crab roe, the traditional topping for shu mai)
3. Steam for 8-10 minutes and it's ready to serve! Steaming is so fast that I make a huge batch in one day and freeze them to eat anytime over the next couple weeks! The best homemade TV dinner :,)

‍