We continue with our Dim Sum series today with this classic Quail Egg Siu Mai dumpling 鵪鶉蛋燒賣. It’s seldom offered in dim sum restaurants nowadays, not sure why cuz these are the most delightful and delicious little dumplings.
To make these you’ve gotta get yourself some wee quail eggs. I love these eggs so much! Not only are they delicious but their perfectly tiny size makes them fun additions to all kinds of dishes where a chicken egg might be too much. We sneak these gems onto pizzas, soft cooked in soup noodles, tossed with salads, etc.
First thing first! These wee eggs need to be hard boiled first. We like to cook our eggs starting with cold water instead of dropping them into boiling water. With this method it less likely for the eggs to crack while being cooked.
It’s easy to do! Just add eggs into a pot and cover with room temp water, then bring the pot to a boil. Once boiling remove immediately from heat, cover with lid and let sit for 6 mins. That’s all!
Another super duper tip for easy to peel egg shells: Add a splash of vinegar to the water before boiling. It totally works! Smooth perfectly peeled eggs!
We like to use ground pork that’s pretty fatty. See those lovely white bits? Fat is flavor, after all.
To that end we add cold water and even crushed ice to the meat as we stir in one direction.
Stir, stir, stir, stirring all the way…! This is what the result of your stirring should look like. It takes a while. You can also use your mixer to do this part, but make sure to set on the lowest setting so as to avoid any heat.
Or you can just borrow muscle like I did – I made my hubby do it 😜!
Both ingredient are then chopped, the mushroom to a mince, and the shrimp can be in larger pieces. I think I chopped the shrimp too big this time, next time I will go smaller a bit.
The shrimp and mushrooms are mixed in with the emulsified pork. Isn’t it just gorgeous looking?
If you can’t find anything but thick skins you could individually roll them out thin before wrapping. The size won’t really matter as the excess wrapper is cut off in the end anyways.
It’s time to wrap our Quail Egg Siu Mai! Start with the hard boiled quail eggs. Here you have a choice. You can either use whole quail eggs or half quail eggs. We decided to go with half eggs. Slice the eggs lengthwise if using half eggs.
Place one piece of egg on one siu mai wrapper. Make sure that the round of the egg is facing down.
Pssst: Check out our video on how to wrap Quail Egg Siu Mai:
Add one scoop of pork filling on top of the egg. We weighed the filling first so that the dumplings would all have the same size.
Bring the wrapper up evenly around the filling and egg. Use a thin spatula to push the filling down to make sure that there are no air pockets. Make sure the egg stays at the bottom!
Use scissors to cut off extra dough flaps. The pork filling should be slightly higher than the wrapper so that the dumpling sits on the filling, not the dough.
Our Quail Egg Siu Mai dumpling is finished wrapping, isn’t it cute? See how lovely and smooth the egg is?
Here are our wrapped dumplings. Be sure to oil up a tray for receiving the wrapped dumplings. Otherwise the dumpling will stick.
At this point the dumpling are ready for steaming and eating. For those dumplings not to be eaten right away they should be frozen.
Hope that ya’ll enjoy these lovely little bites of eggy pork-liciousness. Dim Sum for life!!❤️❤️
Quail Egg Siu Mai Dim Sum Dumpling Recipe 鵪鶉蛋燒賣
(makes 22 dumplings) Prep time: 20 mins Cook time: 12 mins
Ingredients:
Directions:
Prepare the quail eggs: Place eggs in small pot. Cover with at least an inch water. Add a tsp of vinegar. Set on stove and heat until boiling. Once boiling immediately remove from stove and cover the pot with lid. Let sit for 6 mins.
Rinse with very cold water. Gently crack the eggs all over, peel and set aside. If using half eggs slice half lengthwise.
Prepare the mushrooms: First thing to do is to soak the dried mushrooms in room temperature water. Different mushrooms rehydrate at different times so soaking early is a good plan.
I like to cut off the mushrooms stems and discard as soon as I can as that helps the shrooms to soak water in faster. When rehydrated, mince the mushrooms.
Prepare the shrimp: Defrost the shrimp if using frozen. Roughly chop.
Prepare the pork filling: Add salt, cold water and starch to the ground pork. Use spoon or chopsticks to stir in one direction until a rough paste forms. Add in crushed iced and continue stirring until the meat and fat are completely incorporated and a smooth paste is formed.
Add sugar, white pepper, sesame oil, dried flounder powder and minced mushrooms and mix until combined. Fold in the chopped shrimp.
Wrap the dumpling: Take one wrapper. Place one egg or half egg on top, making sure the round side is down next to the wrapper. Add on 1/2 oz (15g) of pork filling on top of the egg. Bring the wrapper up around the filling evenly, using a thin spatula to press the filling down as you do so.
Use scissors to cut off any wrapper sticking above the pork. The pork filling should be just slightly above the final edge of the wrapper.
Repeat until all eggs and filling used up. Place the wrapped quail egg siu mai egg side up on a well oiled tray.
Cook the dumpling: For the dumplings you want to cook and eat right away, place onto parchment paper lined steamer. Steam for 12 mins over a simmer. Remove to plate and serve hot with a small dipping saucer of nice sweet soy sauce.
Store the dumpling: For the dumpling you want to eat later, place the whole tray of then into the freezer. When the dumplings are firm enough to keep their shape (about 1-2 hrs) place them into a ziplock bag for freezer storage for up to 3 months.
