Perfecting Har Gow (shrimp dumplings), Part 1 | Experiment
Part 1 of my quest for the perfect Har Gow focuses on perfecting the wrapper. I want to find out; what is the secret to making a snow white and translucent har gow wrapper?
Abstract
One of my most favorite Dim Sum dish is har gow, a Chinese steamed shrimp dumpling dish. When made properly, har gow wrappers are super thin and translucent with a beautiful snowy white color. When done well, the shrimp filling has a slightly sweet taste and a crunchy yet bouncy texture, but Har gow tends to vary depending on where I get it from. Some places have perfected their dumpling wrappers, but have terrible shrimp filling. Others may have perfectly cooked and flavorful filling, but terrible wrappers.
Never one for compromise, I decided to learn how to make har gow from scratch. I wanted to tackle the wrappers first, then move onto the filling separately, this way I’m only dealing with one variable at a time. What I found out is that there are so many highly reviewed har gow recipes each with different types of starch and oil. It was difficult to settle on what recipe I should try first. Thus, I came up with the idea for this fun cooking experiment. In this cooking experiment, I ended up using the Woks of Life recipe as my base recipe and tweaked it with each batch to see how the different types of starch (cornstarch, potato starch, and tapioca starch) and oil (canola oil and lard) affect the end result.
It turned out that potato starch and lard produced the best Har Gow wrappers.
Introduction:
Dim Sum is a Chinese (specifically Cantonese) meal consisting of small dishes serve at breakfast, brunch, and/or lunch with tea. Dim Sum is basically the Chinese equivalent to tapas. This type of brunch is super popular in the Bay Area and Los Angeles. As typical for brunch, it is usually a great way to gather together as family and friends and start the weekend. Dim Sum came about due to the Chinese tea time and was brought to America during the 19th century when Chinese immigrants started to settle in the East and West coasts.¹
Har gow, also known as har gau or har cow, is one of many popular Dim Sum dishes. The word “har” means shrimp and the word “gow” means dumpling in Chinese, so direct translation is shrimp dumpling. This shrimp dumpling is usually handcrafted with 7+ pleats in shape of a potsticker and is steamed prior to serving.
This shrimp dumpling is known for its white translucent and paper thin wrappers made of a blend of two types of starches with wheat starch being the main ingredient and cornstarch, tapioca starch, or potato starch as the second ingredient. The shrimp filling are lightly seasoned and has a nice slightly crisp and bouncy texture. Make sure to grab some the next time you go out for Dim Sum!
Hypothesis
Based on my experience with Korean fried chicken, I predicted that potato starch would create a chewier texture and a more translucent coating and as such, potato starch, out of the three starches, cornstarch, tapioca, and potato starch, would result in the best wrappers.
As for oil vs lard, I predicted that lard would give the dough a more flavorful and juicy flavor similar to how tortilla or tamales taste better when made with lard instead of oil. I did originally want to keep them on the healthier side which is why I started with plant based oils, that way I wouldn’t feel so bad about eating so many of them, but unfortunately it just didn’t work as well.
Method
The measurements I used for the flour, water, and oil are from the Woks of Life’s recipe as her recipes have never failed me (so far). Make sure to check out her blog if you want to learn how to make some delicious authentic Chinese dishes.
For this experiment, I made four batches of dough. The first two batches (Batch A and B) were to determine whether to use lard or oil in my recipe. The last two batches (Batch C and D) were to determine which type of starches (cornstarch, potato starch or tapioca starch) work better.
Note: Usually, I would have done a total of 6 batches (all 3 starches with oil and lard as the fats) to complete this experiment fully, but I only did 4 batches total. I was able to do this because I used the first two batches to determine the type of fat and the last two batches to determine the starch, but a more thorough experiment would have accounted for the possible interactions between different starches and fats by testing all 6 combinations.
All dried ingredients were first measured out into separate bowls. Hot water was then slowly poured into each of the bowls while I constantly mixed them until a perfect dough ball formed. Each dough ball was then wrapped with Seran wrap to prevent the dough from drying out and set aside to rest at room temperature for at least 20 minutes.
Afterward, the dough was individually divided into small dough balls. Each of the dough balls were pressed out into a thin circular shape using a tortilla press. Shrimp filling (made according to Wok of Life’s recipe) was then added to the center of each wrappers and I folded them up into the familar potsticker shape.
Results
Here is the taste breakdown on each batch:
Based on Batch A vs Batch B, lard was the best choice for oil. Thus, Batch C and D were made with lard instead of canola oil.
Here is the taste breakdown of Batch B, C and D. I added Batch B as a comparison because I wanted to compare the cornstarch vs potato starch and tapioca starch as all three of these batches B, C and D were made with lard as the fats.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the best way to make har gow dumpling wrappers was with potato starch and lard. Potato starch created a perfect buoyancy and elasticity texture. The lard added a nice savory flavor to the wrappers while keeping it moist and juicy. The potato starch also helped the dumpling wrappers hold its shape the best.
The tapioca came in second and the cornstarch came in last. Tapioca created a slight bouncy texture, but lacked a nice elasticity texture that the potato starch created. The cornstarch and tapioca starch dough both don’t hold their shape when roll out too thin.
In addition, lard definitely was better than the canola oil in every way, except for the health factor. The canola oil acted as a glue, but gave very little moisture to the dough. In addition, the canola oil added no flavor to the wrappers. The lard added a nice buttery and juicy flavor to the wrappers.
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References:
Kaplan, Alexandra. “Har Gow 蝦餃 and Dim Sum.” Omeka RSS, 2014, fft.dhinitiative.org/exhibits/show/hargow/links.
