Beef Siomai (repost)

I have always loved eating siomai with all gusto!  It can be served as an appetizer or entree and even the main course and it will still be lovely.  When I was still working at Miriam College in the Philippines, I would always order siomai at the cafetorium.  You have the option to buy the ordinary pork siomai or get the one with the quail egg on it. 

The soy sauce with chilli dip is just so nice to go with the siomai.  I remember ordering 1 whole packet of uncooked siomai from the canteen and bringing it home.  I also love the ones you can eat at Hen Lin's, Chowking, Causeway, Ma Mon Luk, and of course the siomai sold at the Hagonoy town center.
Most of the countries in Asia have their own versions of siomai but this dish originated in China.  Shumai or Shaomai is made from mixture of mince meat and mince carrots and spring onions.  But then again, it would depend on which version are you eating.  The most well known is the Cantonese siomai or pork and mushroom dumpling of which the  standard filling consists of minced pork and small whole or chopped shrimp primarily.

Preparing siomai is not not difficult since you would only need to mix all the ingredients and wrap in the dimsum wrap.  You can even get adventurous with what you add to the main ingredients and the kind of dip that you want to use with siomai.

Ingredients:

500 g ground beef

1 c water chestnuts or singkamas,  minced

4  tbsp sesame oil

1 tbsp ground black pepper

2/3 cup onion, minced

1 c carrots, minced

1 c  white mushroom, minced

1 pack won ton wrapper

1/4 c spring onions, minced

2 tsp salt

1 piece raw egg

Procedure:

Mix all the ingredients except the wrapper in a big bowl.

Put  a tbsp of mixture to the wrapper.

Place the siomai in the traditional Chinese steamer and cover.

Steam for 20 - 25 minutes.

Note:  You can add minced shrimp, or replace the beef with pork and chicken.

A comment or two will be appreciated...