Har Gow Recipe (Steamed Prawn Dumplings)

The Gorgeous Cupcakes cookbook is now available at Big Bookshops. My cookbooks - Delicious Asian Sweet Treats and Delicious Asian Baked Treats, are now on sale there too.
Here are the addresses of the 3 Big Bookshops:
1. Blk 451, Clementi Ave 3, #03-307, S(120451), Tel:6777 2094
2. Blk 823, Tampines St 81, #02-00, S(520823), Tel:6785 1163
3. 1, Maritime Square, HarbourFront Centre, #03-17/18, S(099253),
Tel:62711091 (only the Sweet Treats and Baked Treats books are available at the Harbourfront branch)
Opening hours: Mon - Fri: 11am - 9pm, Sat, Sun, Ph: 1030am - 9pm.
Maps: Click http://www.bigbookshop.com.sg/address.htm to see the maps of the above places.

Steamed Prawn (Shrimp) Dumpling
I bought a packet of Soon Kuay (or Soon Kueh) flour (500g for S$1.95, Sunflower brand) a week ago because I wanted to try my hand at making this snack. Instead I ended up using it to make steamed prawn dumplings (har gow). Well, it isn’t exactly ‘restaurant-standard’ har gow with that transparent glassy look, but it tasted GREAT! The skin was springy and delicious.

Soon Kuay flour
Here’s what the Soon Kuay made is made up of: Rice flour, Tapioca flour, Wheat flour, Corn flour and sugar.

Raw grey prawns
Makes 16 har gow (steamed prawn dumplings)
This recipe may be doubled.
Ingredients:
Wrap:
250ml water
130g Soon Kuay flour
2 tsp cooking oil
Filling:
400g raw grey prawns
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp sugar
2 dashes white pepper
¼ tsp sesame oil
1 tsp light soya sauce
2 tsp ginger juice
1 tbsp tomato ketchup (optional)
Method:
(How to obtain ginger juice: Peel and wash about a thumb-sized old ginger. Grate till fine, then squeeze the juice out with your hands.)
1. Filling: Shell the prawns and de-vein them (remove the thin black vein running along the length of the prawn). Rinse well and pat dry. Cut each prawn into threes. Add the rest of the filling ingredients. Mix and set aside to marinate for 20 minutes in the fridge. Then stir-fry in a little cooking oil till semi-cooked. Set aside to cool.
2. Wrap: Heat 250ml of water over the stove. Measure out 130g Soon Kuay flour and 2 tsp cooking oil and set them next to the stove. Prepare a pair of chopsticks too. When the water is boiling briskly, add in the flour and turn off the heat immediately. Add the oil and stir the mixture with the chopsticks till combined. Set aside to cool. Knead till smooth.
3. Divide the dough into 16 pieces. Use a rolling pin to roll one piece till flat. Place filling in the middle and pinch edges to wrap securely. Repeat till ingredients are used up.
4. Grease the steaming tray with cooking oil. Place dumplings on the tray and steam for 15 minutes. Serve immediately.
Stir-frying the prawns
Preparing the dough
Video: Wrapping the Har Gow (Prawn Dumplings)


The Wrap: You can see from the video that the dough was a little sticky to work with. But it really wasn’t that difficult to handle – just a few practices and I got used to it.
Steamed Prawn Dumpling
Variations in patterns: I tried making the dumpling look like a ‘bao’ (bun) by pinching the pleats so that they become the top of the dumpling rather than its side. It didn’t look too bad!
A Bao-lookalike Dumpling
Tefal: I used the Tefal Vitacuisine Steamer to cook the dumplings. It has a tray that is perfect for steaming these little treats! The rice was cooked at the same time (see video below).
Video: Steaming the Har Gow with the Tefal Vitacuisine Steamer


Yes, I would definitely use this soon kuay flour again to make dumplings and perhaps use other kinds of fillings. By the way, these dumplings may be deep-fried too. But steaming is way easier, not to mention healthier too!

Flaxseed Cookies
Everyone who ate these cookies loved them. So they’re not your typical crunchy cookies, in fact they’ve got zero crunch. But they taste oh-so-good! Bursting with flavour and best of all - not too sweet. They contain flaxseeds (packed with omega-3 goodness) and zero trans fat (which means no unhealthy fats). Also, there is no butter or milk in these cookies (great news for lactose-intolerant people). Each pack costs S$4.90 at Fairprice Finest. This is definitely going to be a staple in my household.


If you’re into cupcakes, you’ll want to take a look at this cookbook which I borrowed from the library. It’s filled with gorgeous pictures that make me want to go bake all these cupcakes and wow everybody! It has several simple and creative decorating ideas too. Just look at the Halloween cupcakes – decorated with melted white and dark chocolate, quick and easy!

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