HAR GAO（CLEAR PRAWN DUMPLINGS）WITH SWEET&SOUR RICE VINEGAR FOAM

The dish came about while I was in Hong Kong sourcing furniture for the restaurant.I had seen a beautiful sofa from a company called Forbidden City and on a whim went over to their office in Hong Kong in an attempt to beg them togive me a discount on the item.Serendipity works in amazing ways and I gained far more than I could have ever bargained for on that visit，in that I met my now good friend Terry，who goes about his furniture in a very similar way to me with food:staying true to the cultural and historical heart of China while taking his art forward into the contemporary world.It was his fearless approach to reinterpreting Chinese furniture design that gave me the courage to bring my owr touches to the most famous dumpling across China，the har gao-a clear shrimp dumpling seen on every dim sum menu in the world.

Makes 20 dumplings

INGREDIENTS

For the har gao prawn filling

250g peeled raw prawns

20g white vegetable fat

15g sugar

5g potato starch

1 teaspoon sesame oil

5g salt

pinch of white pepper or to taste

75ml ginger and spring onion water，made from the trimmings of fresh root ginger and spring onion crushed with the side of a large knife and mixed with water

For the har gao pastry

110g wheat starch

110g tapioca flour

5g potato starch

about 200ml boiling water

50ml vegetable oil

For the rice vinegar foam

200ml rice vinegar

100ml water

3 tablespoons sugar

2teaspoons soya lecithin

Sweet chilli sauce（one of the really brightly coloured varieties as a mark of respect to the neon takeaway versions！），to serve

1.For the har gao prawn filling，place all the ingredients in an electric stand mixer fitted with the dough hook and knead for 10 minutes.（The dough hook binds the ingredients together without turning the mixture into a puree，which a blender would do.）Remove from the mixer and refrigerate until ready to use.Clean the mixer.

2.For the har gao pastry，follow the instructions to form the pastry skins and wrap the filling.

3.Steam the dumplings over a high heat for 5 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 60C.

4. For the rice vinegar foam, warm all the ingredients in a pan and then blend with a stick blender until a foam forms.

5. To serve, brush the dumplings lightly with sweet chilli sauce and cover each with a tablespoon of foam before serving.

CHEF’S TIP

One thing that I have learned over the years making this pastry is that if you undercook the dough when adding the boiling water and it doesn’t have any elasticity, you can wrap it up in clingfilm and steam it for a minute before attempting to knead it again. But if you have overcooked the dough, save yourself the aggravation of trying to force dumpling skins out of it; throw the batch away and start again, adding the water a little slower this time.

hancheng

See author's posts