One Hundred Pork Siew Mai Anytime!

This is an absolute winner, although I must say this dish takes a lot of preparation work unless you have an electric chopper to cut up all the vegetables in less than 5 minutes and an electric steamer or a really big 3-tier stove steamer to take on the cooking work. Otherwise, it's a lot of repetition work.

The outcome is worth the trouble and the wait, for everyone will be so impressed with your culinery skills and you can look so fresh and nonchalant when the party starts. No oily frying and cleaning up to do.


Equipment:

1. Chopping board
2. Chopper or chef knife
3. Big mixing bowl
4. Mixing spoon
   
5. Steamer, either electric or stove
   

Ingredients:

1. Prawns -- 60 (or almost equal amounts to the pork)
   
2. Ground pork -- 4lbs
   
3. Carrots --- either two big carrots or a quater pack of baby carrots (the type that's washed and ready to eat)
4. Chinese mushrooms --- about 12 big ones
5. Water Chestnut --- half a can with the size of the longan-type cans
6. Wonton skins --- enough to wrap 100
   
7. Sesame Oil --- 1 tablespoon
   
8. Light soy sauce --- 3 tablespoons
9. Five spices --- 4 tablespoons
   
10. Egg --- 1 jumbo egg or two large eggs
    

Method:
First, soak the Chinese mushrooms until soft. Meanwhile, you can get to work mincing the carrots and water chestnuts, and shelling the prawns and dicing them up. When the mushrooms are manageable, cut them up to small pieces and mix all the ingredients together in your mixing bowl, including your seasonings.

Next, place a wonton skin on your palm and put a spoon of the mixture on it. Then cup the floured skin up with your fingers, sticking it as much as possible to the filling. The target shape is to make them round like with a broad base that would allow it to sit on a plate ready for steaming. It doesn't really matter how you do it, just as long as you close the skin around the stuffing as much as possible, otherwise, you might find the skins slipping off the meat when done.

Finally, pop the little round things into your steamer and steam on high for about 18-20 minutes. You have to make sure they cook thoroughly since you're using pork and prawns, but 20 minutes is a good estimate.

Final result: Steaming pork siew mai by the hundred for both the eyes and your stomachs to feast! (Of course you can adjust the amount if you don't need so many...heehee, but they seem so fun to make it's addictive once you start!)