Prawn & Ginger Dumplings (+ My Dozen Donna Hay Favorite Recipes Recap)

It's scary just how fast time flies. It's hard to fathom that we have been cooking along with Donna Hay at I Heart Cooking Clubs for the past 6 months. Our weekly Donna time comes to an end as we switch to our new chef, Nigel Slater next week, but I am sure I will keep cooking her always simple and tasty recipes and continue to utilize my big collection of her books and magazines. 

To send Donna off in style, I went to my first Donna Hay book, purchased in 2001, Flavours--it's the book that introduced me to her and her fabulous food styling. Since I had a craving for dumplings and shrimp in the freezer, I made these easy Prawn & Ginger Dumplings. 

I did make a couple of changes to the recipe, noted in red below.

Prawn & Ginger Dumplings
Adapted from Flavours by Donna Hay
(Serves 4 as a starter)

300 g (10 oz) raw shrimp meat, finely chopped
1 Tbsp grated ginger
1 Tbsp lemon juice
(I added 1 Tbsp finely chopped cilantro + a bit more to garnish)
1 tsp sesame oil
20 dumpling or wonton wrappers
2 cups (16 oz) fish or shrimp stock 

Dipping Sauce:
1/4 cup (2 fl oz) fresh lemon juice
2 Tbsp chili sauce (I used sweet chili sauce)
1 Tbsp sugar (I omitted the sugar and added 1 Tbsp mirin--Japanese rice wine)

Place the shrimp meat, ginger, lemon juice and sesame oil in a bowl and mix to combine. Place a tablespoon of the mixture onto a dumpling or wonton wrapper and brush the edge with water. Press the edges firmly to seal.

To cook the dumplings, place the stock in a saucepan over medium heat and allow to rapidly simmer. Place a few dumplings into the stock and cook for 3 minutes or until the dumplings are cooked through. Set aside and keep warm while you cook the remaining dumplings. 

To make dipping sauce, combine lemon juice, chili sauce and sugar and serve in a small bowl wit the warm dumplings.

Notes/Results: Good flavor with the ginger coming through nicely and pairing well with the sweet shrimp. These dumplings go together very easily--good for me because I hate 'futzy' recipes that take a lot of fiddling. I added the cilantro for a touch of color and because I love the flavor--chives or green onion would also work well. For the stock, I made a quick shrimp broth from the shells, a touch of mock chicken and a dash of low-sodium shoyu. Because I am not a big fan of adding extra sugar to things, I omitted it since I was using a sweet chili sauce, and then I added a tablespoon of mirin (rice wine) which has its own sweetness. I made a half batch of the filling and got about 12 dumplings out of it. I would definitely make these again for a pupu or a light dinner served with an Asian-inspired salad. 

I like to look back on my time with our IHCC chefs by recapping some of my favorite recipes. For Donna, most of my favorites were her salmon recipes and I clocked in with cooking 8 of them in the past six months. 

Here are my "many moods of Donna Hay salmon recipes" plus four non-salmon recipes that I couldn't leave out of my favorites. (Hmm... what does it say that 3 of these additional recipes involve chocolate?) ;-) All of these recipes I have made again, or will make again--follow the links for the details on each.

Mmm... salmon, whether in soup, with noodles or salad, smoked or fillets, these 8 recipes were favorites for me. From Top Left:

• Coconut & Salmon Laksa
• Smoked Salmon Sushi Squares
• Miso-Grilled Salmon with Brown Rice & Simple Sesame-Cucumber Salad
• Spice-Grilled Salmon with Tzatziki Salad
• Smoked Salmon Wonton Crisps
• Grilled Salmon & Asparagus with Preserved Lemon Yogurt Sauce
• Lemon & Dill Smoked Salmon Pasta
• Red Curry-Spiced Salmon with Sesame-Ginger Rice Noodles

These are the four non-salmon recipes that stuck out as especially memorable--for their flavors, their styling ideas and their ease. From Top Left:

• Chocolate French Toast Sandwiches
• Sesame & Soy Butternut Bites
• Cheat's Chocolate-Hazelnut Mousse
• Caramelized Pineapple Skewers with Dark Chocolate Dipping Sauce 

You can see what recipes the other IHCC participants chose to say 'Catch Ya Later Donna Hay!' with by checking out the picture links on the post.