MENU DESCRIPTION: “Served with a ginger chili pepper soy sauce. (Pan-fried or steamed.)”
Shrimp Dumplings from P. F. Chang’s are scrumptious mounds of shrimp and other yummy ingredients wrapped in wonton wrappers and steamed. You can also order them pan-fried, which makes the bottom of each little package a nice crispy brown. The dumplings are served with a soy- based dipping sauce that can be cloned by combining six ingredients in a saucepan. Recreating that part was easy. But those dumplings—oh, man! I must have gone through a couple boatloads of shrimp trying to figure out the best way to get my filling to hold together like the real thing. I tried adding egg and cornstarch and potato starch and flour to pureed cooked shrimp, but all I got was a shrimp mush that made the dumplings starchy and less flavorful than the real deal. It was only when I remembered hearing about how years ago shrimp molds were created into which pureed raw shrimp was poured and then cooked,creating uniform shrimp shapes that still had the taste and texture of unprocessed shrimp. No binders necessary. So get out your food processor and prepare yourself for the not-so- pretty sight of pulverized raw shrimp. At least you don’t have to worry about the size of the shrimp you buy for this recipe, since you’re going to mash up the little dudes anyway.
SERVES: 2 TO 4 (MAKES 8 DUMPLINGS).
INGREDIENTS:
SAUCE:
- ½ cup water
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
- I tablespoon chopped green onion (green part only)
- ½ teaspoon chili oil
FILLING:
- ½ pound raw shrimp (peeled and deveined)
- 1 tablespoon finely minced carrot
- I tablespoon finely minced green onion
- 1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
- ½ teaspoon minced fresh garlic
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon granulated sugar
OTHER INGREDIENTS:
- 8 wonton wrappers
- 1 egg, beaten
INSTRUCTIONS:
- Make dipping sauce by simmering sauce ingredients over medium heat for 1 minute. Remove the sauce from the heat and set it aside to cool.
- Make shrimp filling for the dumplings by pureeing the shrimp in a food processor until it makes a smooth paste. Add carrot, green onion, ginger, garlic, salt, and sugar and pulse the food processor a couple of times to mix.
- Measure a heaping tablespoon of this filling into the center of a wonton wrapper. Brush beaten egg on each of the top four edges. Bring two opposite corners up to meet in the middle and press together over the filling. Bring the other two opposite corners up and pinch all the edges together making a square package with sealed edges. Repeat with the remaining ingredients and let the dumplings sit for about ten minutes in the refrigerator so that the “egg glue” sets up.
- Prepare a steamer with hot water. When the water is simmering and steaming nicely, drop in the dumplings (four at a time if your steamer is small) and steam them for 15 minutes. Serve these immediately if you want steamed dumplings. To clone the pan-fried version, heat up some vegetable oil that’s about ¼-inch deep in a skillet over medium heat. When the oil is hot, place the steamed dumpling with the flat side down in the oil and saute for a couple of minutes or until the bottom is golden brown. Serve with the dipping sauce.
