Crab and Scallop Sui Mei

These open-faced dumplings (pronounced "shoe-MY") are made with round gyoza skins. If you can't find gyoza skins, purchase wonton wrappers instead, and cut them into circles with a three-inch round biscuit cutter. You can make and refrigerate the seafood-and-vegetable filling up to a day in advance; fill and steam the dumplings shortly before serving them. If you don't have a bamboo steamer, prepare these in two or three batches in a collapsible metal steamer basket (be sure to line it with lettuce leaves so that the dumplings don't stick).

Yield: 9 servings (serving size: 2 dumplings and about 1 teaspoon sauce)

Ingredients

• Dumplings:
• 1/3  cup  chopped shiitake mushroom caps
• 1/3  cup  chopped water chestnuts
• 3  tablespoons  chopped green onions
• 2  garlic cloves, chopped
• 1  teaspoon  grated peeled fresh ginger
• 1/2  teaspoon  dark sesame oil
• 1/4  teaspoon  salt
• 5  ounces  sea scallops, chopped
• 1  (6-ounce) can lump crabmeat, drained (such as Chicken of the Sea)
• 1  large egg, lightly beaten
• 18  gyoza skins
• 1  teaspoon  cornstarch
• 8  lettuce leaves
• 
  Dipping sauce:
• 1  tablespoon  sugar
• 2  tablespoons  low-sodium soy sauce
• 2  tablespoons  rice vinegar
• 1  tablespoon  water
• 1  teaspoon  sambal oelek (ground fresh chile paste) or Thai chile paste

Preparation

To prepare dumplings, place first 4 ingredients in a food processor; pulse 8 times or until finely chopped. Add ginger, oil, salt, and scallops; pulse 4 times or until scallops are finely chopped. Spoon mixture into a medium bowl; add crabmeat and egg, tossing to combine.

Working with 1 gyoza skin at a time (cover remaining skins to prevent drying), spoon about 1 tablespoon filling into center of each skin. Gather up edges of skin around filling; lightly squeeze skin to adhere to filling, leaving top of dumpling open. Smooth surface of filling with the back of a spoon dipped in water. Place dumplings on a baking sheet sprinkled with cornstarch; cover loosely with a damp towel to prevent drying.

Line each tier of a 2-tiered (10-inch) bamboo steamer with 4 of the lettuce leaves. Arrange 9 dumplings, 1 inch apart, over lettuce in each steamer basket. Stack tiers, and cover with the steamer lid. Add water to a large skillet to a depth of 1 inch; bring to a boil. Place steamer in pan; steam dumplings 10 minutes. Remove dumplings from steamer.

To prepare sauce, combine sugar and remaining ingredients, stirring with a whisk until sugar dissolves. Serve sauce with dumplings.

Nutritional Information

Calories:

100 (13% from fat)

Fat:

1.4g (sat 0.3g,mono 0.4g,poly 0.4g)

Protein:

8.1g

Carbohydrate:

13.3g

Fiber:

0.6g

Cholesterol:

43mg

Iron:

0.9mg

Sodium:

370mg

Calcium:

31mg