Shrimp dumpling is one of the most famous dim sum dishes. I am not familiar with dim sum previously. However in the past two years, I am having so many dim sum dishes and fall in love with those little lovely foods.
Shrimp dumpling has a relatively transparent wrapper and then pink shrimp meat can even be seen from the outside. The transparent wrapper is due to the flour used for the wrapper dough. Instead of usually flour, wheat starch is used and only a small section of flour is added. The more wheat starch used in the dough, the more transparent the wrapper will be.
Boiling water should be used in the dough. In Chinese, we name this way of making dough as 烫面 which mean hot flour. However after stir the water in, let the flour bowl set aside for at least 5 minutes to cool down a little bit.
The traditional version calls for lard in the wrapper dough, if you do not have some or you really do not like lard, replace it with cooking oil. However lard should be added at the very beginning of the kneading process, while cooking oil should be added in the middle size of the process.
Besides for the meat filling part, I skip the pork fat. But you can add some. The meat should be marinated firstly. I highly recommend adding the spring onion just before wrapping the dumpling so that the water in the spring onions can be kept. For how to fold dumplings, check this post: pot-stickers .
- One small section of carrots
- 1 cup wheat starch
- a small pinch of salt
- 2 teaspoons tapioca starch or flour
- 3/4 cup of boiling water
- 2 teaspoons lard , or around 1 teaspoons of cooking oil
- 150 g raw shrimp , rinsed, tails removed, chopped
- 1 inch root ginger , finely chopped or grated
- 2 teaspoons sesame oil
- 2 teaspoons Chinese cooking wine
- 2 teaspoons light soy sauce
- 1 dash of white pepper powder
- 3 spring onions , finely chopped
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In a large bowl, combine the wheat starch, tapioca starch and the salt. Slowly stir in the boiling water and you can see there is no dry flour in the bowl. Set aside for around 5 minutes.
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Add some lard (or not) and knead the flour into a dough until smooth. If you are using cooking oil, add the oil in the middle of your kneading process. Set the dough aside.
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Peel fresh shrimp and devein. Finely mince the shrimp and add cooking wine, soy sauce, pepper powder and chopped ginger firstly. Stir the filling in one direction until you get a paste like texture. Set aside to marinate for around 10 minutes.
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Get the dough out and knead around another 4~5 minutes to punch the air out and then roll the dough into a cylinder around 1 inch and then cut it into small sections around 1 inch diameter.
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Roll the small sections out to thin round wrappers one by one.
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Add chopped spring onions in the shrimp meat and mix well. Wrap the dumplings one by one.
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Slice some carrots slices and put the carrots slices firstly in your steamer and then place the dumplings on the carrots slices one by one.
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Put the steamer in wok, bring water to a boiling and steam for around 10 minutes.
You can add some pork fat in the filling.
I will follow this
Thanks for stopping by and commenting. Hope you like it.
Hi, I tried this and the wrapper keeps breaking. Do you have any idea what happened? I used tapioca starch instead of flour.
Hi Yalin,
I have not encountered with that problem. However the dough with wheat flour cannot be stretchy as plain flour dough. So be gentle when assembling the dumplings. Besides,the following reasons might cause the problem.
1. The dough is not knead enough so it is still not stretchy. Make sure that this is no dry flour in your dough and cover to set aside for at least 5 minutes.
2. The oil added is not enough.
3. The temperature of the water is too low. We need to use boiling water.
4. Cover the dough and wrappers with wet cloth so that the dough will not dry out.
Your description is really great. I try to make dumplings for some months now, and it works quite well with rice flour and tapioca starch, which I can find easily in the thai shops at home, but I was never really happy with the dough. You can find some youtube channels who show in detail how to make it, but I never found wheat starch to buy where I live. Now I am on holiday in Vienna, where there are many asia shops who sell wheat starch. Reading your receipe gives me the confidence needed to buy several kilos to take home. I was not really sure before that this is the right thing to do. Thank you very much.
Hi Hotcha,
If you can get wheat starch, you will be able to make lovely har gow with transparent wrapper. It is not difficult. Just be gentle and careful when assembling the dumplings. Wish you good luck!
Hi can I make this a day or 2 ahead. Please let me know. I want to make it for sunday. Thanks
Hi Veena,
Freshly made ones are much better than pre-prepared.
If I use store bought/ready made dumpling wrapper, will I get the same consistency/texture from your recipe? Thanks!
Hi Lauren,
Normal dumpling wrapper cannot provide such a transparent texture unless you find ones made with wheat starch.
Hi! How much salt did you add into the large bowl? I can’t seem to find the measurement for the salt in your ingredient list.
Hi Priscillia,
Thanks for your correctness. I have updated the recipe and in fact you just need a small pinch.
Hi, finally! finally I ‘ve found a site with my fav dishes and recipes! THANK YOU!
You are the most welcome! Aziza! Happy cooking ahead.
Can this be made with rice flour or more tapioca starch instead of wheat starch? These look awesome but my wife cant have gluten 🙁
Hi Stephen，
Chinese people seems do not have problems with gluten. So we do not develop gluten free dishes particularly. But we do have tapioca starch dumplings in China. You can definitely try it. But when wrapping the dumplings, be gentle as tapioca wrappers will be quite easy to break.
OMG i tried it and got really sick. I wish it had worked out. I can’t stop the headaches. Please help me.
Hi Andrew,
I understand that wheat starch wrapper is much difficult to handle. But I can only help if you can provide more details.
When you say wheat starch are you just referring to All Purpose Flour?
Hi Todd,
Wheat starch is not all-purpose flour. Wheat starch contains little gluten. If you cannot find Asian wheat starch, you can use gluten free flour.
YESTERDAY I MADE HAR GOW WITH WHEAT STARCH AND POTATO STARCH .POTATO STARCH INSTEAD OF TAPIOCA FLOUR ..IS THIS RECIPE IS CORRECT? AND PLEASE TELL THAT WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN POTATO STARCH AND TAPIOCA STARCH OR FLOUR……THANKS
Dear Elaine,
Thank you so much for posting this recipe Very delicious. I found the dough easy to work. I love the translucent color. Hao Chi. Keep up the good work
Leo (the late bloomer) ;).
hai,..thank you
whith this recipe i can lern to make of delicius har gow
I like it’s
how many dumplings does this recipe make?
around 15 ones.
love your work and recipies.
Thank you!