Prawn, Courgette & Egg Filled Chinese Dumplings
As Lunar New Years celebrations creep closer and closer - it’s time to start planning the menu… We’ve teamed up with @thechinesefoodie to bring you all the Lunar New Year inspiration you could ever need, starting with delicious prawn, courgette and egg filled Chinese dumplings. Follow her recipe and recreate the dish with ingredients bought in store… you won’t regret it.
Ingredients
Wrappers (can also used store bought ones): - 300g plain / all purpose flour
- 150g room temp water
- Pinch of salt
Filling: - 200g peeled raw prawn tails
- 4 medium sized eggs
- 1 medium courgette
- 2 tbsp oyster sauce
- 1 tsp of white pepper powder
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- Salt
Dipping: - 1 tbsp Chinese chilli oil
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp Chinese black vinegar (or rice vinegar)
- 1-2 tbsp dumpling water
- Drizzle of sesame oil
- Finely chopped onion for garnish
Method - Put flour in a large bowl, add in salt and stir well. Gradually stir in the water until dough is formed. Cover dough to rest for 20 mins then knead for 1-2 mins into a smooth ball, cover again to rest for 1h.
- While the dough is resting, prep the filling. First beat the eggs with a pinch of salt added, scramble in a hot pan until well cooked and a little golden, set aside to cool down.
- Julienne the courgette and quickly blanch in salted boiled water until soft (1-2 mins), sift and rinse under cold water, squeeze out excess water and pat dry with a kitchen towel.
- Take 100g prawns and cut them into a fine mince, roughly cut the other 100g into larger cubes. Put them both in a large bowl, add in 1 tsp white pepper powder, 2 tbsp oyster sauce, a generous pinch of salt and stir using a fork / chopsticks in one direction until it all gels up together.
- Add the cooled egg and courgette into the prawn, add 1 tsp sesame oil and mix evenly to have filling ready.
- Dust worktop with flour, poke hole in middle of dough ball, stretch out to a long rope thickness of a ping pong ball, then use a knife to cut dough rope into around 14-15g portions, press with palm to form round disks and roll out to about 8 cm diameter thin wrappers.
- Wrap your dumplings. Put 1 heaped tbsp of filling at the centre of the wrapper, fold over in half and pinch middle for it to hold shape and fold 2-3 times each side.
- To cook the dumplings, simply boil in a large pot of hot water until they float, then add about 100 ml of cold water, bring back to boil, repeat twice and drain. Alternatively, fry in about 2 tbsp oil in a hot pan, add 2 tbsp of cold water when the pan starts to smoke and put the lid on, repeat 3 times and they should be fully cooked. Leave to cook until a little golden at bottom.
- Arrange dumplings in a shallow bowl / plate, garnish with spring onion and serve with dip. Drizzle extra chilli oil if you like it spicy. Enjoy!
