Steamed Tapioca Pearls Dumplings with Pork

by Tataya Kudo - March 11, 2013

If you have been a regular visitor to my blog, you must have known by now that I have a clear obsession with snack. In Bangkok, where I was born and raised, it was so easy to grab some delicious dirt cheap snacks from busy street stalls in almost every street corner. From crispy wonton, fried sweet potato balls, dim sum, fresh or preserved fruit, there was limitless choices of snacks.  So I usually spent my afternoon eating snacks and really got used to having snack whenever I feel like.

Now as I moved to Tokyo, I have very few time to have snack. It 's simply because I have to cook three meals and make a lunchbox every single day, this is something never happens when I was in Bangkok and it does keep me busy. Apart from cooking, taking care of the kid, house keeping, learning Japanese language and blogging, they are all real time suckers. So if I can mange to have more than one time to snack, it is my lucky day.

Now let's go back to the recipe. Today 's recipe is Steamed Tapioca Pearls Dumplings with Pork (Sakoo Sai Moo, สาคูไส้หมู). Steamed Tapioca Pearl Dumplings are savory dumplings made by wrapping crunchy roasted peanuts based stuffing with tiny beautiful tapioca pearl ,steamed until soft and shining so nicely. Please note that these dumplings are an ultimate street food that usually left to pros-- so it does take time to make.

Below is my Steamed Tapioca Pearls Dumplings with Pork (Sakoo Sai Moo สาคูไส้หมู) recipe.

Ingredients

Yields 3 servings 30 minutes

125 grams small tapioca pearls
6-7 tablespoon hot water

100 grams ground pork

10 cloves Thai garlic, chopped
4 tablespoon vegetable oil
50 grams shallots, chopped
50 grams crushed roasted peanuts
2 cilantro roots, pounded
1 teaspoon Thai light soy sauce
1 teaspoon fish sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon palm sugar

Preparation

1. Heat the oil in the pan, add in garlic. Cook over low heat until the garlic become light golden. Dish out but LEAVE about 2 tablespoon of the oil in the pan.

2. Add in cilantro roots, shallots, ground pork, peanuts, season with light soy sauce, fish sauce, palm sugar, sugar. Cook until the water almost all evaporate. Dish out.

2. Roll the stuffing into small balls of about 1.5 cm. diameter.

3. Rinse the tapioca pearls in cold running water. Drain well. Transfer them to the large mixing bowl, add 1 tablespoon of hot water, mix with hand DO NOT knead.

4. Cover and let sit for 20 minutes. The tapioca pearls will be soft and moist.

5. Pick up about 1 tablespoon of the tapioca pearls. Pat them into a small cake, place the stuffing at the center, pinch edges together to enclose.

Repeat

6. Before steam the dumplings, line up your steamer with non stick cooking sheet, or cabbage or slices of carrots to prevent the dumplings from sticking. Steam for 10-15 minutes.