Ebi no nikogori suigyoza / shrimp shui jiao dumplings

Delightful and tasty dumplings featuring shrimp. I used to use coconut oil as a pork fat substitute, but I could not fully get used to its clingy taste. Other oil or fat seemed to lack something. Then I realized that juiciness does not have to come from fat or oil. For example, with xiao long bao steamed soup buns/dumplings, the juiciness of the filling comes from the soup. Below I applied the technique of making nikogori jelly with the water used to rehydrate dried scallops, and mixed it in with the shrimp filling.

1/2 recipe (dumplings only; yu choy sum on top and dipping sauce not included):
251 calories; 15.0 g protein; 2.1 g fat; 40.3 g carbohydrate; 38.2 g net carbs; 149 mg sodium; 80 mg cholesterol; 2.1 g fiber


<Ingredients>

 

(20 dumplings)

1/2 portion of suigyoza shui jiao wrapper recipe
     100 g all purpose flour
     50 cc water
     All purpose flour (to roll out wrappers; not in photo)
     Potato (or tapioca) starch (to prevent wrappers from sticking together after assembly; not in photo)

For filling
Handful shrimp (135 g in shells; 100 g after shelling and cleaning)
2 cm small renkon lotus root (23 g in photo)
     Tiny amount of rice vinegar (to soak renkon to prevent discoloration; not in photo)
1/2 green onion (5 g in photo)
5-6 nira garlic chives (4 g in photo)
1/2 clove ginger
1/2 tsp shokoshu shaoxing wine
1/2 tsp sesame oil
Nikogori jelly
     30 cc rehydration water of horhi-kaibashira dried scallops
     45 cc water
     1 g gelatin
     1 g kanten agar agar powder

(Small handful saishin yu choy sum & dipping sauce)

<Directions>
1.

Make nikogori jelly.
Take some water from specified amount (45 cc), and mix with gelatin to hydrate.

Mix remaining water and rehydration water of dried scallops, microwave to boil, and add hydrated gelatin and kanten powder. 

Mix well, and let solidify (if room is warm, put in fridge).

2.

Skin renkon and soak in water with a tiny amount of rice vinegar.
Finely chop green onion.
Skin and grate ginger.
Chop shrimp.

3.

Grate half of renkon, and chop finely remaining half.

4.

In a small bowl, put shrimp, renkon (both grated and finely chopped) and green onion.
Juice in ginger (discard fiber).

Add shaoxing wine and sesame oil.

Break up nikogori jelly with a spoon or fork, and add to shrimp mixture. 

Mix well.

5.

Wrap filling, and place in a tray covered with potato starch.

6.

Bring plenty of water to boil, and cook dumplings.

When almost done, add leafy greens (yu choy sum), and cook until leaves brighten.

7.

Serve with dipping sauce.

<Notes>

• Grated renkon binds together all ingredients, while finely chopped renkon provides a nice crunch.
• Jelly made of gelatin starts to liquefy at relatively low temperature (25-28C/77-82C), whereas jelly made of kanten agar agar stays solid until the temperature exceeds 70C/158F.  When both gelatin and kanten agar agar are used, the filling is easy to wrap (gelatin alone would make the filling soggy when the room or your hands are warm) yet releases a delicious soup/juice in your mouth when eating the dumplings.
• For rehydration water of dried scallops above, enough water to cover (150 cc) was added to 6 dried scallops (39 g) and allowed to sit overnight. The rehydration water's sodium content was 1.24% when converted to a rate with table salt (146 mg sodium per 30 cc). 
• Dipping sauce in the top photo is a mixture of soy sauce, dashi, rice vinegar (equal parts) and raayu (la you) chili oil. Mixing in dashi (same amount as soy sauce) is to lower sodium intake. If dashi is not available, water works fine. Karashi mustard is a nice option.
• Nikogori is a common term meaning jelly full of collagen that forms on the top of animal-based soup or stew.