Royal China Canary Wharf’s Dim Sum Head Chef, Ka Fai Leong has provided a recipe for Nee Hao readers to try and top tips for creating the delicious delicacies at home for the upcoming festive period.

Spicy Seafood Dumplings Recipe

Makes approx 18 dumplings

For The Dough

Ingredients

290g plain flour

175ml water

Method

Chinese dumpling wrappers are fairly easy to make at home, but for a shortcut you can buy them from Asian supermarkets.  To make the dumpling dough from scratch, sift the flour into a bowl and stir in the water.  Knead until the dough is firm but with some elasticity, and then cover with a towel for about 30 minutes. This makes the wrapper more durable, and also makes them taste better. In addition, the dough also gets slightly softer after standing, making it easier to stretch and handle.

On a floured surface, roll the dough into a sausage and slice it into 2cm pieces, rotating the dough between cuts to prevent it from going flat. Squash the chunky cylinders from the edges inwards using a small rolling pin to create the pastry disks.

Tips:

Homemade wrappers should be used soon after they are made as they will dry out and become brittle, so be careful not to let them stand too long after making the discs. The dough can also be quite sticky, so never stack them on top of each other, and give each dumpling space when steaming them so they don’t stick to each other.

Filling Ingredients

8 OZ/226g freshly Cooked Crabmeat

2oz/55g Fresh Tiger Prawn

1 Stick Celery, finely chopped

1 oz/28g Carrot, finely chopped/grated

1 oz/28g Fresh Coriander finely chopped

1 bottle Chinese XO Sauce (a spicy flavour-packed sauce made with dried shrimp, scallops and seasonings including chillie and garlic, available from Asian supermarkets).

Method

To make the filling, mix together the crab, prawns, celery, carrot and fresh coriander in a bowl.

Press your thumb and index finger together at the tips to make a circle. Take a pastry disk and gently place it over the circle of your fingers, just so the wrapper slightly overlaps your thumb and finger.

Place a teaspoon of crab mixture in the centre of the wrapper and push the sides up and around the filling, so the top is still exposed (don’t enclose the dumpling completely).

Take 1 teaspoon of Chinese XO sauce and place on top of Dumpling

Place the dumplings into a bamboo steamer over a pan of simmering water and cover. Steam for 5 minutes, or until the crab mixture is completely cooked through. Remove from the steamer and serve immediately.

www.royalchinagroup.co.uk

There is no better place to celebrate Chinese New Year than at the prestigious Royal China restaurants in London. Beginning on 19 February 2015, the restaurants will be the perfect place to soak up the genuine atmosphere of the traditional Chinese celebrations, and enjoy some of the most authentic and fresh Chinese cuisine in London.