Grandma's Shumai

i called my grandmother on friday during my lunch break, not only to touch bases with her but to see if she could hook me up with her recipe for shumai. i think she thinks i'm inept in the kitchen or something. and the viet-english conversations we have is hilarious. i don't fully understand what she's saying and i highly doubt she gets what i'm saying.

Me: you want me to put what ...?

or

Grandma: i don't know how big your teaspoon is but mine is ...

(i didn't realize that there were different teaspoon sizes?)

anyway, grandma hooked it up. it just reminded me of when i was kid.
Homemade Shumai sans wrapper, Grandma Style
Ingredients

• 1lbs ground pork
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 tsp fish sauce
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1-2 tsp oyster sauce
• 1/2 tsp pepper

combine all ingredients. ball up (i came up with 12) and assemble in cook safe dishes. steam in water bath on stove top for about 30-40 minutes. also, just for asthestics, i dabbled a dollop of tomato paste on each ball. it's how grandma always made it.

serve with white rice, sides of crisp veggies like cut up cucumbers and pickled daikon/carrots. i purposefully went ultra conservative with the seasoning, so my shumai came out bland. i just like to dip the pieces of meat in chilli nước chấm, just like how grandma and grandpa ate it.

now i have something yummy to eat all week. i baked some buttermilk loaf bread earlier so i'll have my version of bánh mỳ shumai.