Homemade Har Gow (蝦餃)

Something a little different from the usual things I make, we made Har Gow from scratch! It tasted good but definitely doesn’t have the normal har gow look.

Ingredients: (makes about 15)
Skin:
1 1/2 Cup Wheat Starch
2 tbsp tapioca Starch
1 cup boiling water
1 tbsp oil
1 tsp salt

Filling:
800 gram of shrimp
2 tbsp tapioca starch
1 tbsp minced ginger
1 tbsp light soy sauce
salt and white pepper to taste

The first thing we do is mix together the tapioca starch and wheat starch with some salt. Once that has mixed in, I drizzled in the oil and started drizzling the boiling water.

Once the dough begins to form into a ball, pull the warm mixture out and knead until it’s putty texture. Mould the dough into a log and put plastic wrap or a wet cloth over it and let it sit for at least 30 minutes.

While the dough is resting, we can prepare the shrimp by chopping the shrimp and marinating it. I used about 800grams of shrimp for my recipe and it was the perfect amount! So, we just chopped and marinated the shrimp.

As the shrimp is marinating, we can prepare the steamer with cutting out vent holes in the parchment paper and setting it into the bamboo steamer.

Now the the dough and the shrimp is ready, we prepare the dough by cutting the log into smaller pieces. Taking a small rolling pin, roll out one of the cylinders of dough. I found an oval shape was actually easier than circular shape. However, I was not successful making the iconic ha gow shape.

Now, we stuff the har gow with about 1 tablespoon of filling, then trying your best to pinch upwards around the shrimp. My dough was a little stiffer than I would like it, so it tore easily. I just pressed down to seal right away. Then, we lined the prepared steamer with these har gows.

This was the interesting part, I wasn’t sure how long to steam these har gows that looks like dumplings. I put it on the steamer for about 10 minutes and it worked well. Everything was cooked and it tasted good too! The skin was relatively translucent, but I think it would be more clear if I got the skin thinner… however, the texture didn’t work properly for me on this try!

Overall, it was a fun meal to make and it was tricky and time consuming. Dim sum isn’t known to be easy but we enjoyed eating this delicious dim sum!