Siomay Bandung (Bandung Steamed Dumplings with Peanut Sauce)

 

I don't know exactly since when I love to eat this street food. Siomay is similar to Chinese Dim Sum. It is an Indonesian steamed fish dumpling served with Peanut Sauce. A word of Siomay itself can be derived from Chinese Shumai (siu mai or shaomai), a traditional Chinese Dumpling that is considered to have originated from Inner Mongolia.

This traditional dim sum is a popular meal in Indonesia as street food. There are so many types of siomay variations in Indonesian cuisine based on the meat that is used for the filling. We can use king mackerel fish, chicken, shrimp, crab, or mixture of chicken and shrimp. As the recipe I share in here is using mixture of chicken and shrimp as filling. Siomay Bandung is the most famous variety of siomay in Indonesian cuisine.

Siomay Bandung is served with tofu, hard-boiled egg and vegetables such as potato, cabbage, bitter-melon, and the most important component, that is Peanut Sauce. We can add some seasoning for peanut sauces such as chili, lime juice and a little bit sweet soy sauce.

The original recipe is come from NCC. But I made some change to the original recipe due to my liking. And also the recipe of Peanut Sauce or Peanut Sambal. I made my own recipe.

Siomay Bandung

Bandung Steamed Dumplings with Peanut Sauce

 

Ingredients: 

• 400 g chicken meat, paste
• 100 g shrimp/king mackerel fish, paste
• 2 tbs shallots, grated
• 1 tbs garlic, mashed
• 2 tsp ground white pepper
• 3 tbs sugar
• 3 tsp salt
• 1 tbs cooking oil or sesame oil
• 3 eggs
• 400 g chayotes, grated
• 450 g tapioca starch
• Wonton skins
• 1 medium sized bitter-melon
• 1 medium sized cabbage
• Some hard-boiled eggs
• Tofu

Peanut Sauce:

• 500 g roasted peanut
• 200 g red chilies 
• 3 garlic
• 3 shallots
• 2 tbs Javanese tamarind juice
• 2 tbs salt
• 7 tbs coconut sugar
• 1,5 liter water

 Directions:

1. In a bowl, combine chicken meat and shrimp paste with shallot, garlic, white pepper, sugar, salt, and cooking oil. I used food processor to combine it. Then add egg and mix well. 
2. Add grated chayotes and mix well. Add tapioca starch, mix well. Set aside.
3. Grease the steamer with small amount of cooking oil to make the dumplings will not sticky when steaming. 
4. Siomay : Take a piece of wonton skin, scoop about 1 tbs of filling, shape it using hands. Repeat until all the wonton skin are used up. Steam for 20 minutes.
5. Potato :  Boiled potatoes until half-cooked then peel the potato's skin. Cut in half and scrape a portion of potato side and fill it with the filling. Steam it. If you want simple way, just boiled it and peel the potato skin without fill it with the feeling.
6. Tofu : Cut in half and scrape a portion of tofu and fill it with the filling. Steam. You can also just cut in half and directly steam it.
7. Bitter melon : Cut in several pieces (as your liking). Scrape the seed portion and fill it in with the filling. Steam it.
8. Cabbage : Cut in several pieces as your liking and steam it. Some people usually make the cabbage roll and fill it with the filling. But I choose simple way, just steam it with fill nothing.
9. Egg : hard boiled eggs 
10. Peanut Sauce (Peanut Sambal) :
    
    • Process the peanuts in food processor until smooth. Transfer it into a medium bowl. Set aside.
    • Process red chilies, garlic and shallots until smooth. 
    • Heat a skillet and add some cooking oil. Stir fry the smooth red chilies, garlic, and shallot until fragrant. Add the ground peanuts, mix well. Pour water, mix it. Add salt, coconut sugar, tamarind juice, mix well. Wait until the sauce become thick then turn off the heat. Set aside.

Serving suggestions: place all dumplings on a plate. Pour some peanut sauce and drizzle over lime juice, sweet soy sauce, and some ground chilies or you can use chili sauce from the store. 

Tekwan (Palembang Fish Ball Soup)

Tekwan is a fish soup typical of Palembang, Indonesia. The fish cakes are made from the dough of fish and tapioca (or sago starch) similar to Pempek. The fish cake is cut in small sizes and presented in shrimp broth with a distinctive flavour, served with rice vermicelli, mushrooms, sliced jicama, and sprinkled with sliced fresh celery, scallion, and fried shallot. Some people made the fish ball from ikan tenggiri (Spanish mackerel), but the other made it from ikan belida (Featherback fish) or ikan gabus (Snakehead fish). All of them are freshwater fish.

Actually I have been several times made this tekwan. But I don't know why the texture of the fish ball never been same as what my mother's made. Maybe I add too many fish in the mixture or something like that. My mother gave me tips to not add so much fish to the mixture to make it more chewy and mix it with ice/cold water. Maybe when I made this in the next time, I will revised the recipe.

 

Tekwan (Palembang Fish Ball Soup)

Source :  "Resep Keluarga Nugraha"

Ingredients:

Fish balls :

• 325 grams boneless ground Ikan tenggiri (Spanish mackerel) meat
• 100 grams tapioca starch 
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper

Soup :

• 250 grams prawns
• 25 grams dried black fungus, soaked with hot water
• 2 medium sizes of jicama (bengkoang), peeled and slice into long and thin shape as you wish
• 20 grams dried lily flower (bunga sedap malam kering), soaked with hot water
• 1 stalk of Chinese celery, chopped finely
• 6 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoons pepper
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 liter water
• 5 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 medium size of onion, chopped
• cooking oil

 Other ingredients:

• 2 stalk of green onion, chopped finely
• 1 stalk of Chinese celery, chopped finely
• fried shallot flakes
• dried rice vermicelli, soaked with hot water
• soy bean sauce (optional)
• slices of lemon (optional)

Directions:  
Fish ball:

• Add all the ingredients to make fish ball and mix it well. 
• In a pot, boil water, reduce the heat. Take a tablespoon of fish ball dough and shape it into small balls by using two tablespoons. Drop into the pot until the fish ball floated. Then take away the fish ball and set aside.

Soup :

• Add 2 tablespoon of cooking oil. Stir fry garlic and onion until fragrant. 
• Peel the prawn shells of, add the shell and head. Stir it well until the shell and head turning into red.
• Pour the water, boil it. Then strain the prawn soup.
• Boil again prawn soup after you strain it. Add chopped prawns, jicama, soaked black fungus, and lily flower. Add sugar, salt, pepper, and Chinese celery. Cook until all the ingredients well-cooked.
• Add fish ball, take the soup into re-boil. Turn off the heat.
• Ready to be served with green onion, Chinese celery, soaked rice vermicelli, fried shallot flakes. If you like you can add some soybean sauce and slices of lemon juice and some chili sauce.

Ekkado Udang (Prawn Ekkado)

Ekkado is one of Japanese cuisine that is very simple to make. Long time ago, one of Japanese family restaurant in Indonesia, Hoka-hoka Bento, still didn't get "Halal" label from MUI (one of government institute which the member are Indonesian Ulama). So just because I really want to eat this, I try to made it by myself after I read the recipe from this blog.

Ingredients:

• 200 grams prawns, chopped finely
• 5-7 cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 eggs, take the egg white only
• 2 tablespoons corn starch
• salt
• pepper
• sugar
• 1 sheet bean curd, cut into 10x10 centimeter, or as you like. Immerse it in warm water. Remember not to long to immerse it, it could make the bean curd fragile and hard to shape)

Directions :

• Add chopped prawns, garlic, corn starch, salt, pepper, sugar, and egg white. Stir well.
• Once the bean curd are soft, lay them flat. You can spread/sprinkle small amount of water to the sheet. Put some of the chopped prawn base recipe in the middle. Then make a wrap of the bean curd so it form a money bag. Tie the top with cooking string.
• Prepare the steamer, and make sure the steamer has been hot enough before you put it. Steam it for 15-20 minutes. Set aside after cooked and put off the cooking string.
• Deep fry them in the hot oil until golden brown. Just make sure that you lower the fire once they are hot so you don't burn the wrapper before the filling is cooked. Ready to be served.
• To make them look pretty, change the cooking string with shallot cut into strips or use green onion or chives once they are cooked.