Thai shumai dumplings

Both the Thais and Chinese serve these opentop dumplings. I prefer the Thai rendition as they eat them with fried garlic and sweet soy sauce. Much easier to prepare than gyoza or won tons, shumai can be assembled in moments.

Makes 20 fat dumplings

Prep 30 minutes Cook 8 minutes

200g raw peeled prawns

150g minced pork

8 water chestnuts, chopped

1 garlic clove

1cm slice ginger small bunch coriander (cilantro)

2 spring onions (scallions), finely sliced, plus extra to serve

2 tsp cornflour

1 tsp egg white

2 tsp fish sauce

2 tsp soy sauce

2025 won ton or gyoza wrappers

Fried garlic

2 Tbsp vegetable oil

4 garlic cloves, finely chopped

Sweet soy dipping sauce

60ml sweet soy sauce (kecap manis) 2 Tbsp lime juice

1 thumbsized red chilli, diced

Method

Roughly chop half of the prawns and place in a bowl with the pork and water chestnuts. Place the garlic and ginger in a food processor and chop until fine, then add the coriander, spring onion and remaining prawns and pulse until chunky. Add the cornflour, egg white, fish and soy sauces and pulse again to mix. Pour into the bowl with the pork and chunky prawns. Mix well and season with freshly ground black pepper.

If using won ton wrappers, snip off the corners of the squares so that they are more round and keep the wrappers covered with a tea towel so that they don’t dry out.

Place a wrapper in your hand and spoon 1 heaped tablespoon of the mixture into it. Wrap the wrapper around the filling so that it’s pleated round it and the filling comes up nearly to the top. Tap it on the work surface so that the bottom becomes flat and run a knife across the top to smooth over. You want it to be a tight, compact dumpling. Continue with all the wrappers and filling, then place on a plastic tray.

Fill a pot or wok with a couple of inches of water and bring to a boil. Place some baking paper with holes cut through in the bottom of a bamboo steamer. Arrange the dumplings, in batches, so that they are not touching each other, then cover and steam for about 68 minutes. Place on a serving dish, scatter with the fried garlic and extra spring onions and serve with the dipping sauce. Fried garlic

Add the oil and garlic to a small frying pan and cook for 12 minutes over low heat until golden.

Sweet soy dipping sauce

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl.

Note: If you’re making the dumplings in advance, arrange on a tray lined with nonstick baking paper. Top with more paper and cover in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for up to 24 hours ahead of steaming. You can also freeze the dumplings raw and steam from frozen.