When it comes to dim sims, my go-to are the prawn dumplings and this deep-fried meat dumpling. The prawn dumplings are excellent because they are nicely steamed with crunchy fresh prawns. Some chef even adds water chestnuts to make it extra crunchy. It has a soft filling with some mince and mushroom, but it gets wrapped in a deep-fried chewy, mochi-like skin. My habit always starts with a prawn dumpling and then the deep-fried meat dumpling.
These are best to make fresh, and probably like any deep-fried items, left it too long in the fridge is pretty much not that tasty anymore (even if you re-microwave it).
Deep-Fried Meat Dumpling (Dim Sim)
Print RecipeIngredients
- Pastry Ingredients
- 40 grams of tapioca starch
- 65 ml of cold water
- 160 grams of glutinous flour
- 100ml of cold water
- 60 grams of sugar
- 40 grams of vegetable shortening, at room temperature
- Filling Ingredients
- 150 grams of pork mince
- 4 stalks of spring onions, finely diced
- 8 pieces of Chinese mushroom, finely diced
- 8 pieces of fungus mushroom, finely diced
- 100 grams of bamboo shoots, finely diced
- 2 cloves of garlic, finely diced
- Marination Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon of soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon of rice wine
- 1 tablespoon of salt
- 1/2 tablespoon of sugar
- White pepper to taste
Instructions
- Mix all marination and fillings into a large bowl mix thoroughly until combined. Leave to marinate for at 30 minutes.
- Mix tapioca starch with 65 ml of cold water in a bowl until fully combined. Leave aside.
- In another bowl, mix sugar, glutinous flour, 100ml of cold water and shortening until thoroughly combined.
- Add tapioca flour mixture into the glutinous flour mixture. Use your hands, mix and knead the mixture into a dough.
- Separate the dough into 2, roll each dough into 2 long logs. Separate each log into 8 equal balls.
- Use a roller pin, roll each small dough ball into a flat round pastry, add a teaspoon of filling in the middle, use your fingers, pinch the edges together to keep the filling within the dough.
- Gently roll into an oval-shaped ball.
- Repeat with the rest of the dough.
- Add enough oil for deep fry and turn on high heat in a large wok.
- When the oil reaches 180 degrees Celsius, use a stainless steel strainer and slowly drop dumplings into the oil on a strainer, this avoids them dropping to the bottom of the wok and getting burnt.
- Do not move or poke them, as the dough can be sticky. Let the dumpling fry, so the outside becomes harder and crispy for about 1 to 2 minutes.
- Move the dumpling from the strainer and let it float nicely in the wok. Repeat step 10 with the remaining dumplings.
- Fry until lightly golden and remove from the heat; place cooked dumplings onto an oil absorbent paper to remove excess oil.
- Serve immediately with chilli and soy sauce.
