Shrimp Dim Sum

Shrimp Dim Sum

Combine all the filling ingredients and refrigerate for three hours. Mix the dry dough ingredients thoroughly, then add the water and stir until a dough mixture forms. Cover and let stand for fifteen minutes. Knead the dough on an oiled surface for five minutes. Roll the dough out as thinly as possible and cut into rounds about three inches in diameter. To make the bonnets, pinch each round at three evenly spaced points on the edge to form pleats, the result of which will produce a little pouch. Fill each pouch with a teaspoon of filling. Pinch the edge as many times as needed to make enough pleats to close the pouch. Place the bonnets in a lightly oiled cake or pie pan, pleats up, and then into a steamer for fifteen minutes.

A culinary tale states that shrimp bonnets were originally made with rice flourBut one day the chef of the Imperial kitchens came to work roaring drunk. He began to make the shrimp bonnets for the emperor, but in his altered state he used wheat starch instead of rice flour. No one could tell the ifference until the bonnets were steamed and the prawns could be seem through the transparent dough. The emperor was delighted at this and rewarded the chef. It was several days, however, before the chef sobered up enough to realize his good fortune.