You have seen it. Those translucent pink dumpling thing — what is that? Why the translucent wrapper? What are those pink thing inside? What’s the texture? I am going to tell you all about it!!
Hargaw is the Cantonese Romanization of Shrimp Dumpling. Har is the pronunciation for 蝦, which means “Shrimp,” while Gaw is the pronunciation for 餃, which means “dumpling,”
Translucent wrapper
Have you wondered what that piece of translucent wrapper is made of? When you go to an Asian grocery store, you will find there are so many different kinds of flour in the flour aisle. Some can be used interchangeably in certain recipes, but they all have their distinct function in Asian cooking. That translucent Hargaw skin is made with wheat starch 澄麵 and potato starch 生粉, with some water and oil. Wheat starch is the starch left behind when the gluten is removed from wheat flour. It turns translucent after heating, so you can see the cooked pinkish shrimp underneath. It is also used in many Cheung Fun (Rice roll) and other Chinese dim sum recipes. These starch can be used to fry food, to create that crispy outer skin.
Fillings
Bedsides shrimps, many dimsum places also put pork, water chestnut or bamboo shoots in it. Dimsum chefs marinate the fillings with salt, sugar, pepper, cooking wine, egg white, cooking oil, and potato starch. Of course different places’ recipes vary, but that’s the basic idea for marinating Chinese style dumpling fillings.
Will you try Hargaw next time? It’s also supposedly to be one of the healthier dimsum options since it’s made with lean protein! Let me know what you think about it!
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