We're bookmarking this Jamie's Friday Night Feast recipe for dinner parties. It's a great get-ahead dish that gives you plenty of time to hang out with your guests
"Liv's kids are obsessed with Asian food" says Jamie, "especially dumplings. With that in mind, I wanted to give her a fail-safe recipe to cook up at home for everyone to enjoy. You can get ahead by making the dumplings in advance, ready to cook to order when you want to tuck in – get your lucky guests ready and waiting at the table."
Serves 6
Total time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Ingredients
300g raw peeled king or tiger prawns, deveined, from sustainable sources
1 x 140g tin of water chestnuts
5cm piece of ginger
6 spring onions
1 large free-range egg
¼ teaspoon ground white pepper
1 teaspoon Shaoxing rice wine
1 teaspoon sesame oil
vegetable oil
FOR THE DOUGH
250g dumpling or Tipo 00 flour, plus extra for dusting and cooking
CONDIMENTS
black rice vinegar
chilli oil
sweet chilli sauce
low-salt soy sauce
Method
1. For the dough, place the flour in a mixing bowl, gradually add 120ml of warm water and bring together into a ball of dough. Knead on a clean flour-dusted surface for 5 minutes, or until smooth, then wrap in clingfilm and leave aside to rest for 30 minutes while you make the filling. Chop two-thirds of the prawns into 1cm cubes, finely chop the rest, then place in a bowl. Drain the water chestnuts, peel the ginger, then finely chop both. Trim and finely slice the spring onions. Add it all to the bowl, then beat and add the egg, along with a good pinch of sea salt, the white pepper, Shaoxing rice wine and sesame oil. Mix well.
2. On a clean flour-dusted surface, knead the dough a few times, then cut in half. Cover half the dough with a clean damp tea towel while you roll the rest into a sausage, roughly 40cm long. Break off 1.5cm pieces and roll each one into a ball, then flatten into an 8cm round, roughly 2mm thick. Using a pastry brush, lightly brush around the edge of each round with water, then dot 1 level tablespoon of filling in the centre. Fold the dough in half over the filling, cupping your hands around to seal and get rid of any air bubbles. Make the edge wavy like a shell, placing the dumplings on a floured plate as you go.
3. To cook the dumplings, put a large non-stick frying pan on a medium heat with 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil. Arrange the first batch of dumplings inside and fry until golden on the bottom. Meanwhile, whisk 4 heaped teaspoons of flour with 800ml of water (re-whisk between batches). Once the dumpling bottoms are golden, pour in enough floury water to come 1cm up the side of the pan. Cover with a tight-fitting lid and simmer for 5 minutes, then remove the lid until it begins to fry again – you’ll notice a delicate pancake starting to form and encase the dumplings. When it’s nicely golden, confidently bang it out upside down on to a serving board. Repeat with the remaining dumplings and floury water. Mix up your own dipping sauce, to taste, using a combination of the condiments. Delicious served as part of a wider dim sum selection.
CALORIES: 230kcal
FAT: 4.6g
SAT FAT: 0.7g
PROTEIN: 16.4g
CARBS: 30.9g
SUGAR: 2.1g
SALT: 0.7g
FIBRE: 1.1g
Jamie’s Friday Night Feast Cookbook by Jamie Oliver is published by Penguin Random House © Jamie Oliver Enterprises Limited (2018 Jamie’s Friday Night Feast Cookbook). Photographers: Ella Miller, David Loftus and Steve Ryan.