Hello! Hi everyone, Wesley here. Today we're diving back into our series dedicated to Chinese breakfast dim sum classics with a shot at the elaborately delicate and difficult "har gow" shrimp dumpling. For those unfamiliar, har gow (or "xia jiao" in Mandarin) is a dumpling of Cantonese origin that most prominently features a shrimp based filling, wrapped inside of a thin and translucent wrapper made from a combination of tapioca and wheat starch. The tapioca starch (as anyone that has had boba will tell you) lends a chewy yet delicate quality to the wrapper, resulting in a soft, pillowy, chewy bite to the dumpling that is very unique from the more typical flour based dumplings like potstickers or gyoza. 

Despite being rolled and folded like pretty much any other dumpling, these unique qualities that we get from both our tapioca and wheat starches combine to make for an interestingly difficult dough to assemble, since (as we'll see in a moment), one wrong move, and you'll end up with an absolute disaster in your own mixing bowls. Finally to pair with all of this, we'll be putting together a light and bright dipping sauce to pair with our shrimp dumplings, making use of some red vinegar to give our har gow a sweet and savory finish. Hope you try it.

 

Yields 12

INGREDIENTS (filling)

  • 4 cloves garlic

  • 1 inch (about 1 tbsp) fine minced ginger

  • 18 shrimp

  • 4 oz bambooshoots

  • corn starch

  • cabbage

INGREDIENTS (marinade)

  • 4 tbsp low sodium soy sauce (or 2 tbsp full sodium soy sauce)

  • 1 tbsp sesame oil

  • 1 tbsp shaoxing wine

  • 1 tbsp rice vinegar

  • 1/2 tsp white pepper

  • 1/2 tsp corn starch

INGREDIENTS (sauce)

  • 4 tbsp low sodium soy sauce (or 2 tbsp full sodium soy sauce)

  • 1 tbsp brown sugar

  • 1 tbsp chili crisp oil

  • 1 tbsp red vinegar

INGREDIENTS (dough)

  • 50 grams wheat starch

  • 50 grams tapioca starch

  • pinch kosher salt

  • 100 grams boiling water

  • 1 tbsp sesame oil

PREP

  • CRUSH and mince the garlic, set aside

  • FINE MINCE the ginger, set aside

  • DICE 6 shrimp, then set aside

  • FINE MINCE the remaining 12 shrimp and set aside

  • DICE the bambooshoot, set aside

  • COMBINE all filling ingredients with all marinade ingredients, then marinate for 15 minutes

  • COMBINE all sauce ingredients, set aside

  • COMBINE the wheat starch, tapioca starch, and kosher salt

  • ADD the boiling water, then mix to combine

  • ADD the sesame oil once a cohesive dough ball forms, and knead to combine

ON THE STOVE

  • DIVIDE the dough into 12 equal pieces, then form the dough into coin shapes with your hands

  • ROLL the dough with a dowell, rotating a 1/4 turn after each roll until an even circle forms

  • ADD 1 tbsp filling to the center of the wrapper, then pinch shut using pleats

  • ADD the dumplings to a steam basket lined with cabbage leaves, then steam over a shallow pan for 15 minutes

  • SERVE with a side of sauce

 

tagged with dim sum, dumpling, har gow, xia jiao, dim sum recipe, har gow recipe, shrimp dim sum, shrimp dumpling, cantonese dumpling, cantonese food, canton, woo can cook