Step 1

Preheat a large skillet over medium heat. Add 2 Tbsp of cooking oil and saute the shallots and dried shrimp for about 2 minutes. Add pickled radish and saute for another minute. Push to the side and add the ground meat and saute until they turn color, then combine everything. Add the jicama, celery and seasoning. Saute for another 3 minutes. Add the cooking wine and the chives. Stir to combine. Add the water and cook for another 10-15 seconds. Have a taste and adjust to your preference

Step 2

Combine potato starch with water and then add into the filling and stir until mixture thickens. Stir in the peanuts and off the heat. Let the filling cool down completely before wrapping. Once it cools down completely, you can cover and keep in the fridge for few days until you are ready to wrap the dumplings

Step 3

Please note that wheat starch is NOT wheat flour and sorry, there's no substitute for wheat starch in this recipe. You need it to create that transparent skin

Step 4

Combine wheat starch with tapioca starch/flour and salt. Boil about 300 ml of water, a little over is fine as it may evaporate a bit during boiling. Make sure it's rolling boil hot. This is very important. Pour 300 ml over the starch and use a chopstick to roughly combine. It won't come together just yet. Cover and let it rest for about 5 minutes so it won't be too hot for your hands to knead later

Step 5

Uncover and the rough dough should be warm. Use your clean hands to knead into a smoother dough now. Add the oil and knead into a very flexible and smooth dough. It should be stretchy because the hot water has gelatinized the starches making the dough easy to work with and won't break easily

Step 6

You can divide the dough into 24 pieces or for more precise, you can pinch off the dough and weigh on the scale to get about 20-22 gram each dough. I feel like this amount gives the right thickness to the wrapper without being too thick or too thin. Keep these dough covered so they won't dry out. Work with one dough at a time

Step 7

Roll the dough into a round ball and flatten slightly with your palm and then use a rolling pin to roll into a circle, about 4 inches or so. I can't always get it perfectly round and that's okay, we can always trim off excess dough with scissors later

Step 8

You can roll out all the dough into circles first, and just lightly dust them with a bit of wheat starch, not too much and stack them slightly and keep them covered

Step 9

Put about 1 tablespoon or so of the filling on the dough. You can just fold the dough in half and pinch to seal to create a half circle, this is just a simple way of wrapping. If you want to do some pleats, you can do about 6-7 pleats (refer to the video)

Step 10

Bring the water in the steamer to a boil. Put the dumplings in a bamboo steamer lined with parchment paper with some holes or you can put them on a steaming plate. The latter will take a bit longer for the dumplings to cook through

Step 11

Steam over high heat for about 8 minutes if using a bamboo steamer. About 10-12 minutes if using a plate. The skin will turn translucent and soft

Step 12

Brush the skin with a bit of cooking oil

Step 13

The dumplings are best served warm. Though I have tried to leave them at room temperature, covered in cling wrap for a few hours and the skin stays reasonably soft. But dumplings are supposed to be served warm anyway. So simply reheat for a few minutes in the steamer and they will be as soft as when they are just done cooking