These delicate crispy dumplings are called golden bags not just from their appearance but also their contents. They can be filled with minced pork or chicken and vegetables such as sweetcorn, carrots and petit pois, but I prefer mine with crab meat and prawns. They are ideal as canapés or starters.
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
- 1 tablespoon palm sugar or demerara sugar
- 1 tablespoon corn starch
- 200g cooked white crab meat
- 100g raw minced prawn
- 100g water chestnuts (finely chopped)
- 1 small banana shallot (very finely chopped)
- ¼ teaspoon ground white pepper
- 10 sheets large spring roll wrappers (25 cm x 25 cm)
- 1 tablespoon vegetable cooking oil & 2 cups for deep frying
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped coriander stems
- 1 stalk leek
Dipping Sauce
Serves 8-10
Preparation
To make the filling, put the raw prawns and crab meat with the palm sugar in a food processor and blitz for just a few seconds to combine evenly. Transfer the mixture into a bowl and add the water chestnuts and 1 tablespoon of finely chopped coriander stems. Mix in the oyster sauce and corn starch.
Heat the vegetable oil and add the finely chopped shallots until just about lightly caramelised and then add the crab meat mixture. As soon as the corn starch has thickened and bound the ingredients, turn off the heat and let the mixture cool.
Cut the spring roll sheets into 4 squares and then separate each sheet. Wrap them in a damp cloth to stop them from drying out. Cut the leek into half all the way across its length and then into thin long strips to make the ties. Blanch them in a bowl of boiling water to soften then drain and cool.
To make the dumplings, put a spring roll wrapper on the palm of your hand and put 1 heaped teaspoon of the filling in the middle. Draw up all the sides of the wrapper around the filling to form a pouch. Wrap one leek string around the pinched dumpling just above the filling twice round and tie to secure. Separate the top leaves of the pastry. Keep chilled or freeze until needed.
To cook the dumplings, heat the cooking oil in a pan until just before it starts to smoke, about 350 degrees F. Test by dropping a strip of leftover pastry into the hot oil. Only put 4-6 dumplings at a time to avoid overcrowding and also lowering the temperature of the oil. Turn the dumplings to cook evenly. Drain on kitchen paper & serve with Nonya Secrets Sweet Chilli sauce.
