I love to come up new ideas for dumplings. There are so many variations you can explore by just changing the stuffing, or even the wrapper. By simply changing the wrapper base from wheat flour to rice flour changes the whole experience, and of course the stuffing can be anything you imagine. Dumplings can be Chinese, Japanese, or even American, European, or African. There is no end to the combinations. <br /> <br />This time, however, after some experimenting, I decided to combine a Vietnamese twist on a traditional pork shu mai filling with a unique hybrid flour/rice wrapper to make a Vietnamese-style shu mai. <br /> <br />I actually started by comparing three different versions of a suitable wrapper using only ingredients that are easily found in U.S. supermarkets. The first was a traditional Chinese-style, using only all-purpose flour. The second was a mixture of rice flour and potato starch that gave the papers a slightly more Vietnamese flavor. They were really tasty right after I cooked the dumplings but because of the starch, they hardened quickly when they cooled. Finally, I settled on a mixture of all-purpose flour and rice flour. The papers have an interesting texture from the rice flour but they hold up well on the table, or even the next day. <br /> <br />I have step-by-step photos on how to form the shu mai dumplings on my website (http://www.cuisinivity.com/recipe/archive/appetizer/viet_shumai.php), if you want an illustration of the written instructions below.

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