Around the World in 18 Breakfasts: China

Pork and prawn dumplings

Week 11: Pork and prawn dumplings
For our Chinese ‘Around the World’ breakfast we had some special guests who let us in on the secrets to cooking the most amazing dumplings. I’ve made dumplings before but I can honestly say I’ve never made any that tasted this good! We turned breakfast into a bit of a banquet with the addition of barbecued pork buns (bought frozen from our local supermarket) as well as some homemade sweet Chinese egg custard tarts brought by our guests.

Breakfast around the world - China

What you will need:
Makes approx. 24 dumplings.

You can either steam or fry these. We steamed half and ‘steam-fried’ the other half. The steam-frying method was the little secret that our Chinese friend shared with us and having tried it, I’ll never be able to go back to plain old frying again! They were amazing, and much healthier than regular fried dumplings as you hardly need to use any oil.

For the dumplings

  • 250g pork mince
  • 200g raw prawn meat, finely chopped
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • dash of salt
  • 2 spring onions, finely chopped
  • 1 tbsp oyster sauce
  • 1 tbsp cornflour
  • 1/2 tsp white pepper
  • 24 gow gee wrappers (round)
  • small bowl of water for sealing the wrappers
  • lidded frypan and oil (for steam-fried dumplings)
  • bamboo steamer, wok and baking paper (for steamed dumplings)

For the sauce 

  • 1/2 cup soy sauce
  • 1 clove of garlic, crushed
  • 1/2 tsp sugar

Method:
1. Mix together the pork mince, prawn meat, sugar, salt, spring onions, oyster sauce, cornflour and white pepper.
2. Place a small amount of the mixture (about a teaspoon) in the middle of each of the gow gee wrappers. Dip your finger in the water and moisten the edge of one half of each of the gow gee wrappers. Fold the wrapper over and pinch the edges together to seal.
3. Mix sauce ingredients together.

Making pork and prawn dumplings

For steamed dumplings
Steam dumplings, in batches, in a baking paper-lined bamboo steamer over a wok of simmering water for about 8 minutes, or until filling is cooked.

For steam-fried dumplings
Fry the dumplings in a small amount of oil on both sides until they’re lightly browned. Then add about half a centimetre of water to the frypan, place the lid on and cook for a few minutes until all the water has evaporated.

Serve with the sauce.

Around the world in 18 breakfasts - China

Join us on our journey!
This is the eleventh of our ‘Around the World’ breakfasts. Each week we’ll be making something from a different country as part of our ‘Around the World in 18 Breakfasts’ series. Subscribe to our blog or follow us on Facebook or Pinterest to be part of the journey. Next stop: Thailand!

Leave a Reply