After we hit it out of the park with our Let ’ s Get Ballsy fish ball workshop, the second round of golf came with our evenly successful black sum workshop. If you attended this workshop, you would have tasted all the dense sum varieties made with sustainably sourced seafood supplied by our friends at Pacific Rich Resources. We know how much dimmed sum is a function of our day by day lives here in Hong Kong, whether we ’ ra grabbing some freeze dumplings at the local anesthetic supermarket or going for yum cha with the fam at the weekend. however, it ’ sulfur never clear as to what precisely goes into each dim sum treat. As we dive into our baskets of dim kernel, most of us are unaware of the hidden substances or replacements ( flour mixtures and season enhancers ) that are often used for mass production and price efficiency.
If you regularly go for yum cha, you may have noticed that many dim sum options out there contain seafood such as shrimp, cutlet and even shark ’ mho tail fin. The seafood used frequently comes from unsustainable sources and may besides be treated with chemicals to enhance its attract and season. Take the runt in our favorite har gow, for case. many runt farms in Asia and South and Central America often overcrowd their ponds, leading to high gear rates of disease and parasites amongst the runt. These farms then use big quantities of antibiotics, disinfectants and pesticides to address the disease outbreak, even though many of these chemicals are illegal and besides pollute the environment. The conditions have become sol poor that reports testify failure rates in shrimp farming adenine high gear as 70 to 80 per cent. Shrimp farming not only threatens homo and environmental health, but it can besides impact other pisces species – shrimp catching normally involves bottom trawl, a action that can potentially implicate non-target species caught along with shrimp, and sometimes these non-targets include overfished or threatened species. Shrimp farming has besides been linked to unethical parturiency practices, with cases of slavery having been uncovered in runt factories in places like Thailand, where illegal immigrants and child labourers are involved. Yep, we ’ rhenium talking about that shrimp in your dumpling from a doubtful source. Looking at all the concerning facts about seafood and kernel in today ’ s global, it ’ south good to eat everything in moderation and indulge in more greens. When Chef Neil Tomes did a demonstration at our dim total workshop, he made a vegetarian version of one of Hong Kong ’ s favored dim sum, fried taro dumplings ( wu gok ), which taste just arsenic good as the original ones that are typically filled with meat. here ’ s how you can make these delectable dumplings at home :
Makes: 15–20 dumplings
Ingredients:
boodle :
- 600g taro root
- 115g wheat starch
- 115ml hot water
- 115g vegetarian margarine
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
fill :
- 30ml vegetable oil
- 45g wood ear mushroom, diced
- 75g white mushroom, diced
- 165g white onion, diced
- 120g shiitake mushroom, diced
- 12g ginger, diced
- 14g garlic, minced
- 19g garlic chive, diced
- 110g potato, diced
- 12g spring onion, diced
- 88g bamboo shoot, diced
- 10g veggie seasoning
- 10ml sesame oil
- 2g salt
- 1g white pepper
- 15g black bean paste
To french-fry :
- 2L vegetable oil
Method: For the dough :
Read more: Old Fashioned Peach Dumplings Recipe
- Peel and cut the taro into 1-cm-thick slices, cover and steam for around 20 minutes, or until soft.
- Using a motorised mixer with paddle attachment, add the wheat starch and hot water along with the steamed taro slices and beat until combined.
- Add the rest of the ingredients and beat until combined. This should form a smooth dough. Set the dough aside while making the filling.
For the occupy :
- Heat the oil in a thick-bottomed pan, add all the ingredients and stir-fry (adding the bean paste last). Cook for 8 minutes, covered, or until the potato has softened.
To assemble :
- Form the dough into rounds the size of a golf ball, smaller if you prefer, then flatten them using a bit of flour.
- Place a dollop of filling in the centre of each disc. Don’t overfill or underfill them – add just enough filling to allow the sides to come together. The final dumpling shape should look like a small rugby ball.
- Heat 2L vegetable oil to around 170°C, then slowly submerge the dumplings to deep-fry them, cooking a few at a time.
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