Siew Mai

To prepare the pork filling - Mince 700g of pork and place them in a large mixing bowl.

Add 2 tablespoons of corn starch, 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 teaspoon of ground white pepper, 1/2 teaspoon of sugar, 1 teaspoon of Maggie Seasoning Sauce or Worcestershire sauce, 2 tablespoons of Shaoxing Huatiao wine and 2 tablespoons of sesame oil.

Roughly chop 80g of water chestnuts into fine pieces.

I used canned ones.

Chop 4 large Chinese mushrooms into fine pieces too.

Add the water chestnuts and mushrooms to the pork mixture.

Mix all the ingredients well to combine.

Finely dice a small carrot.

These will be placed on top each pork siew mai to garnish.

Use salmon roe or salted egg yolk if preferred.

Set aside the pork mixture and the diced carrots till ready to wrap dumplings.

To make the glutinous rice filling - Soak 2 lap cheongs (Chinese sausages) in boiling water until the skin is separated from the meat.

Remove the skin from the lap cheong and cut them into small dices.

In a large sauce pan over medium-high heat, pan fry the lap cheong dices until they are golden but not brown.

They should be a lovely red.

Follow the instructions at Glutinous Rice in Lotus Leaf (http://cooking.storyofbing.com/2010/07/glutinous-rice-in-lotus-leaf-2/) and prepare the glutinous rice.

Once the rice and other ingredients are stir fried till fragrant, add the pieces of fried lap cheong and set aside to cool.

Prepare the ingredients necessary for the wrapping of the dumplings.

Start by placing a sheet of wonton wrapper on a flat surface.

Place a small teaspoon of filling in the centre of the wonton wrapper.

Dap finger in some water and gently wet the sides of the wonton wrapper.

Gather the wonton wrapper with the filling in the palm of hand and squeeze gently while folding the wrapper skin upwards and against the filling so that the wonton wrapper wraps the filling tightly.

Make sure the dumplings are tight.

Otherwise they may fall apart while being steamed.

Use more water to seal them if necessary.

Place a large shrimp on the top of each pork siew mai.

Add a few pieces of chopped carrot or salmon roe or salted egg yolk to add a fresh colour to the dumpling.

Do the same for the glutinous rice siew mai, adding more lap cheong pieces on the top if preferred.

Place the dumplings in a steamer lined with baking paper.

Cut some holes through the baking paper to let the steam through.

Place the steamer over boiling water for 14-15 minutes or until the filling is cooked.

Serve hot.

Uncooked dumplings may be frozen and steamed at a later date.

Dust some flour in a container so that the dumplings wont stick to it.