Har Gow

Har Gow is one of the traditional Cantonese style restaurant snacks. It together with dried Steamed Siu Mei, barbecued pork buns and the egg tart constitute the four famous snacks in Guangdong province, China.

What is Har Gow?

Har Gow belongs to Cantonese cuisine. It is a kind of half-moon shape dumpling. The main raw materials are fresh shrimp, pork belly, shiitake mushroom, wheat starch and tapioca starch. And the auxiliary materials include oil, salt, cooking wine and ginger.

Origin of the Har Gow

Har Gow was invented in a small restaurant from Wu Village, Guangzhou city. This restaurant is close to the river, and the environment is beautiful. There are often have some fish boats selling fish and shrimp on the river. In order to attract customers, the owner of this restaurant used the local fresh shrimps and adds pork, bamboo shoots as filing to make a kind of new dumpling. That is Har Gow.

At that time, the Har Gow is a novelty and delicious taste, so it won the diners’ preference. Soon it was famous in Guangzhou. After the improvement of some pastry chef, the dumpling skin raw materials were changed from flour into wheat starch, it was particularly good and more popular.

Tips

1. The water used for making the dough skin must be hot.
2. Once the Har Gow skin is made, it needs to be used immediately. Otherwise, the skin will break easily if it is dry.
3. Be careful when using chopsticks to clip Har Gow, it is easy to break the skin. (Brush a layer of oil on the steamer before steaming can greatly reduce the breakage rate.)

Har Gow Recipe:

You’ll need:

For Har Gow skin:
130g wheat starch
30g tapioca starch
150g hot boiled water
For the filling:
250g shrimp( peeled, deveined and patted dry)
50g fat pork, smashed
1 carrot
2 tablespoons ginger, finely minced
2 Chinese water chestnut, cut into small pieces
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
1pinch white pepper
1 pinch chicken essence

How to make Har Gow

For the filling:
1. Two-thirds of the shrimps are smashed into the mud, and another third of the shrimps are cut into small pieces. Two-thirds of the carrots are sliced, and another one-third of the carrots are cut into small pieces. Set aside.

2. Mix the shrimp, carrot pieces, Chinese water chestnut, fat pork, ginger, salt, sugar and chicken essence in a bowl. Then, drop the shrimp mixture from a one-foot-high position in the bowl, about 50 times.

3. Add vegetable oil into the shrimp mixture and mix well. And put it in the refrigerator for 15 minutes. Then, add the shrimp pieces and mix them well. And put it in the refrigerator again. Set aside.

For Har Gow skin:
1. Mix the Wheat Starch and tapioca starch in a bowl. Slowly pour the boiled water, and stir with chopsticks. Seal the bowl with lid or plastic wrap and wait 5 minutes.

2. Then, add the lard and mix until smooth. Cover with a damp cloth and ferment for 20 minutes.

3. Divide the dough into 12 grams small doughs evenly and press it to a round disc. You also can adjust the shape of the skin according to your preference.

4. Put a spoonful of stuffing in the middle of the Har Gow skin, and dipped some water around the outer skin to wrap the filling.

5. Use carrot slices as a mat and put the Har Gow in the steamer. Heat the boiling water in the steamer and steam for 6 to 8 minutes on medium heat. Serve.