Ingredients:

For dumpling wrappers:

• Flour (2 cups)
• Water (1 cup)

For filling:

• Shrimp (1 pound; peeled and deveined; chop it as fine as possible)
• Lotus root (1 root; peeled and washed; chop it very fine)
• Shiitake Mushrooms (3 large mushrooms)
• Ginger (1 inch; finely chopped)
• Cornstarch (1 tablespoon)
• Shaoxing Wine (2 tablespoons)
• Green onions (1 stalk; finely minced)
• Soy sauce (1 teaspoon)

For garnish:

• Carrot (2 tablespoons; finely chopped)

Directions:

In a large bowl, add the flour and add water gradually as required. Knead for 5-7 minutes until it’s very soft. When you poke the dough with your finger it should rise back up. Cover it with plastic wrap or a table cloth and leave it to rest for 30 minutes.

Soak the dried shiitake mushrooms in boiling water for 10 minutes. Once the mushrooms are rehydrated take out the mushrooms and finely chop it.

Place all the ingredients except for the carrots into a bowl and mix vigorously with a spoon or hands until it becomes pasty and leave it aside for 10 minutes.

Divide the dough into equal parts, you can either use a pasta maker to roll out the dough and use a circular cutter to make even shaped wrappers. You can use a rolling pin and roll it out this will take a little longer.

Form an “O” with your forefinger and thumb.

Place a wonton wrapper over the “O”. Push in 1 heaped teaspoon of Filling and push down into the “O” hole.

Use a butter knife to smear more Filling into until level with edge of wonton.

Place on work surface and push down to flatten base and use fingers to shape into a round

Line a bamboo steamer (or stove steamer) with baking paper

Fill a wok/pot big enough to hold steamer with about 2 cups of water. Bring to rapid simmer over medium high heat.

Place Siu Mai in steamer. Place lid on, place on wok over simmering water.

Steam the dumplings for 10-12 minutes.

Remove steamer from wok. Remove lid and place a tiny bit of carrot in the middle of each dumpling.

Serve immediately with soy sauce/dipping sauce.