Shrimp and water chestnut dumplings

This is a recipe I have worked on and tweaked for a couple of years. The diced water chestnuts give the dumplings a nice crunch texture and mouth feel. I use some of the shrimp and water chestnut to make a shrimp/water chestnut paste so the mixed ingredients stick together and are easier to handle when wrapping the filling.

Dumpling Ingredients:

1 pack of circular dumpling wrappers

1 lb of raw shrimp

1 can of water chestnuts

3 chopped scallions

1 tablespoon soy sauce

2 teaspoons of sesame oil

sea salt

Dipping Sauce:

2 tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoon rice vinegar

1 tablespoon water

1 teaspoon of sesame oil

1 teaspoon Sriracha sauce

2 chopped scallions – green part only

Chop the shrimp into medium size pieces, sprinkle with sea salt and let sit while you dice the water chestnuts and chop the scallions. Place about half of the chopped shrimp and diced water chestnuts into a food processor along with the soy sauce. Process the shrimp and water chestnuts to make a shrimp paste. Mix the shrimp paste with the remaining chopped shrimp, diced water chestnuts, chopped scallions and sesame oil.

Place some filling into the middle of a wrapper, fold the wrapper over the filling and crimp the edges closed to make crescent/half-moon shaped dumplings.

Heat oil in a pan and pan fry the dumplings. When the bottom of the dumplings have turned golden brown add water to the pan and cover to steam the dumplings. Hold the lid on the pan and shake the pan a little to prevent the dumplings from sticking to the pan too aggressively. Once the water has boiled off, pan fry a little longer to crisp the bottoms of the dumplings.

Whisk together the sauce ingredients to make the dipping sauce.