Editor’s note: The theme of Gohan Lab is to help people make simple, tasty “gohan” (meals).

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The best part about ground meat is its versatility when matched with other ingredients. If enfolded in a wrap, it becomes a Chinese dish. Shumai that tastes just as good when piping hot or cold also works well in boxed lunches. Even if you do not have a steamer, that can easily be accomplished by pouring water into the frying pan.

Some shumai are firm in texture and offer the enjoyment of the meat flavor. Our recipe yields light and fluffy shumai that suits people of all ages. A key is the addition to the mixture of tofu, whose ratio should be 3 of ground meat to 1 each of onion, tofu and egg. The first step of thoroughly mixing ground meat with salt to trap the flavor is the same as the Hamburg steak from last week.

Although the wrapping part may seem difficult, it is simple once you get the hang of it, as you do not have to close the top like “gyoza” dumplings. Use the spoon, palm and inside of the fingers skillfully to give shape.

The ground pork used for the photos cost about 130 yen ($1.20) per 100 grams. The fact that it turns into a fine dish with a bit of work despite the low cost is another pleasing aspect of ground meat.

BASIC COOKING METHOD

(Supervised by Katsuhiko Yoshida in the cooking aspect and Midori Kasai in the cookery science aspect)

* Ingredients and cooking utensils (12 pieces serving two) 150 grams ground pork, 1/4 (50 grams) onion, 50 grams tofu (either soft or firm type), 1 egg, salt, sugar, bit of pepper, 1 Tbsp sake, 1 tsp soy sauce, 1 tsp katakuriko starch, 12 shumai wraps, 1 Tbsp oil

1. Finely chop onion, mix in a pinch each of salt and sugar and leave for five minutes. Wrap tofu in paper towel to drain.

2. Place meat, 1/3 tsp salt, pepper in bowl and mix well. Once it turns sticky, add sake, soy sauce, 1/2 tsp sugar and mix. Squeeze out water from onion, add to mixture and mix. Add tofu and mix. Beat egg and add. Mix so meat absorbs egg. Add katakuriko starch and mix.

3. Place a shumai wrap on hand, place one-twelfth of meat mixture with spoon (PHOTO A). Bring handle of spoon down while keeping it stuck in the mixture. Close hand to enfold meat with wrap. Turn spoon with shumai attached, while holding shumai lightly so wrap sticks fast (PHOTO B). Turn shumai up and pull out spoon. Smooth surface with back of spoon, turn in palm to shape nicely.

4. Spread oil in frying pan and place on heat. Line up shumai (PHOTO C) and pour water to 1 cm high. Place lid and cook over medium heat for seven minutes. Make sauce by mixing 1 tsp each of vinegar and soy sauce, 1/2 tsp each of sesame oil and whole-grain mustard.

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Katsuhiko Yoshida is the owner chef of Jeeten, a restaurant in Tokyo’s Yoyogi Uehara offering Chinese home cooking.

Midori Kasai is a professor at Ochanomizu University and chairwoman of the Japan Society of Cookery Science.

ARRANGED VERSION

Use same meat mixture as shumai. Bring a liter of water to a boil in a pot, scoop meat mixture into dumplings using two large spoons and cook for five minutes. Add 2 Tbsp sake, 4 Tbsp soy sauce and heat for another minute. Add 1 tsp sesame oil and turn off heat.

COOKERY SCIENCE

The color of meat changes when exposed to air or when heated, as the pigment of meat called myoglobin undergoes a change. Fresh meat is bright red, while old oxidized meat turns brownish. When fresh meat is heated, it turns whitish brown. Ground meat that is pellet-like and has a large surface area is easily oxidized and is prone to lose its freshness.

LETTER FROM A READER

A reader wrote about the sauteed ground chicken installment published previously. The 76-year-old cafe owner from Ageo, Saitama Prefecture, traveled around India about 20 years ago and learned ways to cook curry. Keema curry is a popular dish at his cafe, but he had a problem with the ground meat turning out too firm. When he tried the method introduced in the article, “Turn off heat and loosen when half of ground meat turns whitish,” he was able to achieve the right softness. “Now I can cook keema curry that firmly holds the meat juice. I wish to share this with my teachers in India,” he wrote.

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From The Asahi Shimbun’s Gohan Lab column