Har Gow 蝦餃 and Dim Sum

In all of the research that was done, har gow are steamed in order to cook them. I have included two great recipes from books about Chinese cuisine and dim sum, giving two ideas of how one should cook har gow. I have also included some images that provide the necessary tools for steaming and the right way to steam dumplings.

Ha Gow Recipe from Dim Sum: The Art of Chinese Tea Lunch

Filling:

8 ounces medium shrimp, peeled and deveined, cut into 1/2 –inch chunks

3 tablespoons minced bamboo shoots

½ teaspoon soy sauce

¼ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon rice wine or dry sherry

1/8 teaspoon ground white pepper

½ teaspoon toasted sesame oil

1 tablespoon cornstarch

+ Wheat Starch Dough rolled into four 8-inch cylinders

Mix the filling ingredients and set aside. Oil several 8 or 9 inch round cake pans. Cut each cylinder of wheat starch dough crosswise into 8 pieces. Put one piece of dough, cut side up, between two 6-inch squares of baking parchment; then position the flat side of a cleaver blade or a flat bottom of a pan over it and press straight down to form a 3-inch circle. Peel off the parchment.

Make one very narrow pleat that extends from the edge almost all the way to the center of the circle. Make 7 or 8 more narrow pleats alongside, each almost overlapping the last. Your final pleat should be just over halfway around the circumference of the dough. Press a finger lightly along the inside of the pleats to flatten them slightly and enlarge the pocket within. Spoon about a teaspoon of the filling into the pocket, keeping it from touching the open edge of the dough. Pinch the edges of the dough together very firmly. Repeat with the remaining dough and filling. Arrange the finished dumplings ½ inch apart in the oiled pans.

Set up a steamer and bring the water to a boil. Steam the dumplings over high heat for 7 minutes, replenishing the pot with boiling water as necessary between batches. Let the dumplings rest for a few minutes before transferring them to a serving plate. Serve hot.

Wheat Starch Dough:

1 ¼ cups wheat starch

¼ cup tapioca flour (seems to help sealed edges stick together better)

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup boiling water

1 teaspoon peanut or vegetable oil

In a medium bowl, combine the wheat starch, tapioca flour, and salt. Add the boiling water and the oil and stir with chopsticks or a wooden spoon. While the dough is still very hot, turn it out onto a board dusted with 1 tablespoon of wheat starch. Kneed until smooth, adding a little more wheat starch if necessary. The dough should be soft but not sticky.

Divide the dough into thirds. Use your palms to roll each portion into an 8-inch cylinder. Cover loosely with a slightly damp paper towel to keep the dough from drying out. The dough is now ready to cut and press or roll out as needed.

Har Gow Recipe from Florence Lin’s Complete Book of Chinese Noodles, Dumplings, and Breads

Shrimp Filling:

1 pound raw shrimp

2 tablespoons minced parboiled pork fat or fatty bacon

¼ cup finely chopped bamboo shoots

1 small egg white

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. cornstarch

dash white pepper

½ tsp. sugar

1 tsp. dry sherry

2 tsp. sesame oil

Shell and devein the shrimp. Chop the fat and bamboo shoots and set them on a plate. Rinse and drain the shrimp and pat them dry with paper towels. Chop them fine, then put them in a bowl and add the egg white and the 1 tsp. of salt. Stirring with chopsticks, make sure the shrimp is completely coated. Then add the cornstarch, pepper, sugar, sherry, sesame oil and mix some more until the coating is smooth. Add the bamboo shoots and fat and mix well.

Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, so the shrimp will absorb the egg whites, making the filling tender crisp.

Dough:

½ pound wheat starch, about 1 ½ cups

1/3 cup tapioca flour

¼ tsp. coarse salt

1 ½ cups boiling water

2 tablespoons corn oil or peanut oil

Combine the wheat starch, tapioca flour, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Make a well in the center and pour in the boiling water all at once. With chopsticks, stir to incorporate the dry flour on the sides of the bowl; then add the oil. Continue to stir until a ball forms. Turn the hot dough onto a work surface and knead the ball of dough until it is very smooth—about 2 to 3 minutes. Put it in a tightly closed plastic bag and let it rest for 5 minutes.

Divide the dough into four pieces. Keep three of tem in the plastic bag while you roll the first with your hands into a sausage shape about 6 to 8 inches long. Cut it into ten pieces. Smear a tiny bit of oil on the plastic wrap covering both sides of the tortilla press and a tiny bit on the dough pieces themselves. Place one piece cut side down on the press and press it into a 3-inch round. Put the circles of dough aside, overlapping, while you press the others. It is better to fill these ten wrappers first than to make wrappers out of the remaining dough, because you want the wrapper dough to remain soft and pliable.

Take one wrapper and press and pinch four to five ¼ inch pleats, thus making a small pouch. Put 2 teaspoons of shrimp filling in the pouch and press the edges together to close.

Steam the dumplings- cooking time will be 4 to 5 minutes. The Cantonese often use oyster sauce as a dip for the shrimp dumplings.