HAR GOW - DIM SUM - CHINESE SHRIMP DUMPLINGS
Shrimp wrapped in a dough wrapper and steamed to perfection.
One of the many dishes you will be offered for a "Hong Kong" style Chinese luncheon where the items on the menu are collectively called "Dim Sum". Here you will find hundreds of Dim Sum aficionados gathered in large dining rooms, and ladies with push carts almost screaming out names of the dishes while hawking some of the most delightful morsels of Chinese steamed, fried and baked items for you to try. These delectable morsels are served on small individual plates with usually 3-6 of the same items on each plate. Each plate has a price coding or color marking so the young ladies (waitresses) will know at the end of your lunch, just how much each plate was worth and what the final total of the bill will amount to. The beauty of this is you can just keep ordering small plates of Dim Sim to your hearts delight. Surprisingly, the final bill is usually much less than you would imagine.
RECIPE PRINTED FROM: THEGUTSYGOURMET.NET©
INGREDIENTS:Makes 32 dumplings
• ¾ lb. (340 g) medium shrimp
• ⅓ cup (40 g) minced bamboo shoots, water chestnuts or jicama
• 1 green onion (optional)
• 2½ tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 egg white
• 2 teaspoons sake
• 1 teaspoon Mirin (Japanese rice wine) or 1 teaspoon dry sherry
• 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
• ½ teaspoon black bean garlic sauce or soy sauce
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon grated fresh ginger
Ingredients for the dough:**
• 1 ¼ cups (150 g) wheat starch
• ¼ cup (30 g) tapioca flour/starch or wheat starch
• 1 cup (240 cc) boiling hot chicken broth
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
DIRECTIONS:
1. Peel and devein the shrimp. Cut the shrimp into ½ inch segments. Mix with the rest of the
filling ingredients and set aside.
2. In a bowl, mix all the dry ingredients for the dough. With wooden chopsticks, stir in the
boiling hot chicken broth and the vegetable oil.
3. Sprinkle wheat starch over a wooden cutting board or other appropriate kneading surface.
When the dough is still hot, start kneading the dough until it becomes smooth. If the dough is
sticky, you may need to add more wheat starch.
4. Cut the dough into 4 sections and roll each section into an 8-inch cylinder, using the palms
of your hands. For this recipe, cut each cylinder into 8 pieces. Cover with plastic to keep the
dough moist while you flatten each piece.
5. The trick to making the wrapper into a near-perfect circle is to sandwich the piece of dough
between two pieces of parchment paper and flatten it using the bottom of a pan. Then you
can use a rolling pin to roll them out more. You want your wrappers to be at least 3½"
wide.
6. Fold 8 narrow pleats, where each pleat overlaps the previous pleat halfway. You should leave
about ⅓ of the edge without pleats.
   
7. While avoiding the edges of the dough, use a small spoon to place a teaspoon of filling into
the center of the wrapper.
8. Press the edges of the dough together, forming a half circle. Put it on your working surface,
pressing the bottom of the dumpling. Fill the remaining wrappers until you have about 32
dumplings.
9. Using a steamer, cook the dumplings over high heat for 7 minutes. Remove the steamer from
the heat and let the dumplings settle for 3 minutes before moving them. Serve dumplings
hot.
 COOKS NOTE**
Usually for Dim Sum, you can substitute won ton wrappers for the dough wrapping. In the case of
Har Gow, this does not really work well. Esthetically or physically, I find it a problem, and not worth
the effort.
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