← Nouns Cooking · Chinese

Ingredients

• 350 g raw prawns, peeled, deveined and patted very dry
• 50 g Bamboo shoots, finely chopped and squeezed dry
• ½ tsp Salt
• 1 tsp Sugar
• ¼ tsp White pepper
• 1 tsp Cornflour (cornstarch)
• 1 tsp Toasted sesame oil
• 1 tsp neutral oil or lard
• 120 g Wheat starch (tang mian fen)
• 30 g Tapioca starch
• ¼ tsp Salt
• 180 ml boiling water
• 1 tsp neutral oil or lard

Method

1. Cut a third of the prawns into small pieces and roughly mash the rest with the flat of a cleaver. Mix with the bamboo shoots, salt, sugar, pepper and cornflour, then stir hard in one direction for 1 minute until sticky. Stir in the sesame oil and the first 1 tsp oil or lard and chill while you make the dough.
2. Mix the wheat starch, tapioca starch and salt in a heatproof bowl. Pour in the boiling water all at once and stir fast with chopsticks into a shaggy dough. Cover and leave for 5 min.
3. Add the remaining 1 tsp oil or lard and knead on a lightly oiled surface for 2–3 min, until smooth, soft and slightly translucent. Keep it covered at all times so it does not dry out.
4. Roll the dough into a log and cut into 20 pieces. Press each piece into a thin 8 cm circle with the oiled flat side of a cleaver or a small rolling pin.
5. Put a heaped teaspoon of filling in the centre. Fold in half and pleat one side against the other, making 8–10 small pleats, to form a plump crescent. Pinch the top edge closed.
6. Line a bamboo steamer with baking paper, leaving gaps, and set the dumplings on it, well apart. Steam over rapidly boiling water for 6–7 min, until the wrappers turn translucent and the pink prawns show through. Serve straight away.

Tips

• Wheat starch (tang mian fen) is not the same as wheat flour; the starch is what makes the skins see-through. It still contains gluten.
• Wrappers stiffen quickly as they cool, so eat them hot from the steamer.

Sources

Written in our own words after cross-checking these recipes:

Taste of Asian Food Sift & Simmer Marion's Kitchen