虾饺crystal prawn dumpling

Crystal prawn dumplings

This is another 'been there, done that' project though I did enjoy the process. It helps greatly that I am a prawn dumpling fan. Although this is my first attempt, to my relief, the dough is decently thin and I did not have to make a meal out of it !

Nimble fingers are a must for nice prawn dumplings, a skill that is easily acquired after the first 10 awful ones. It makes me appreciate the dim sum chefs who laboriously make these little gems. No wonder just a couple of these can cost so much !

Makes 20 not-too-small prawn dumplings. Some images of the process of making the dumplings are included at the end of the post.

 

Ingredients :

Prawn filling :

200g prawn meat, shelled and deveined

50g pork,minced

Pinch of salt

1 teaspoon of  sugar

Pinch MSG

Pinch pepper

1-2 Tbsp corn flour

Dash of sesame oil

2tsp cooking wine

Coriander leaf,chopped

( Some will marinate the prawns in 1 t soda bicarbonate,2T tapioca flour ( 生粉),2T sugar and water  for 1 hour, rinse prawn and pat dry. Finally mix actual ingredients of filling. This produces the springy, crunchy prawn. I omitted this because it compromises the taste of the prawn )

Method to prepare prawn filling :

Mix all the ingredients. Chill until ready for use.

Dumpling dough :

57g wheat flour ( 澄面粉）

10g potato flour ( 马铃薯粉）

20 g tapioca flour（生粉）

150g boiling water ( 100 C)

Dry knead flours:

25g tapioca flour, 50g wheat starch

 Dough :

In a mixing bowl, combine these flour : wheat, potato, tapioca. Pour hot water and stir with a pair of chopsticks. Cover and rest 5 minutes.

Add dry  flours and knead  into semi cooked dough ( I cheated and used the bread machine to do the job ).

Knead until it is soft and pliable. Dough is now soft, opaque white.

Divide dough to thumb sized portions or the size of a quail egg.

On floured worktop , flatten it into a disc with a rolling pin.

Wrap with prawn filling, sealing the disc to look like an ingot.

Steam for 10 minutes on a colander with oiled surface.

Goes with a spicy chilli sauce.

Raw flour

Raw flour cooked by boiling water. The texture gets lumpy at first.

A combination of cooked and raw flour. Texture changes after kneading to soft and smooth.

Prawn filling

Rolling dough  into little discs

Filling up dough disc

Fold and pleat only one side of the disc to achieve a crescent shape

Voila ! Ready for steaming