Mala Cream Shrimp Dim Sum
We are back with another recipe recreation from Netflix’s Culinary Class Wars— This time with Mala Cream Shrimp Dim Sum.
I’ve been loving seeing everyone’s take on this dish—this is the one I have seen recreated the MOST. And I completely understand why!
Visually, it is very striking. The crispy exterior looks very whimsical— it certainly drew me in when I was watching the show!
It was described to contain shrimp, lotus root, wrapped in thinly sliced spring roll wrappers—deep fried, and perched on top of a Mala Cream Sauce. Breathtaking.
I knew that the sauce was the most crucial part so I really wanted to try and recreate that special flavour.
I drew inspiration from a Peppercorn Sauce, but adding homemade Mala Oil to the heavy cream base.
I tried a few times to get it just right!
In the end it turned out rich, a little spicy, and it had that numbing mala tingle that I was going for. I could eat it with a spoon.
It paired beautifully with the juicy, crispy shrimp dumpling— overall I think this is one of the best dim sum dishes I’ve ever made.
Recipe:
Makes 9
Mala Oil:
3-4 dried chilis (or 1.5 tsp Korean gochugaru)
3 tsp sichuan/szechuan peppercorns (aka prickly ash)
1 star of anise
1/4 tsp cumin seeds
1/3 cup oil
1/4 tsp salt
In a small saucepan add the 1/3 cup of oil and place over high heat.
Place the dried chilis, sichuan peppercorns, star of anise, cumin seeds in a coffee grinder. Blend until it becomes a fine powder. Pour the powder into a medium heatproof bowl.
Once the oil just starts to smoke, remove it from the heat and pour it over the mala spice mix. Careful as this will bubble up rapidly. Give it a good stir, add the salt. Set aside and allow the oil to cool.
Mala Cream Sauce:
2 tsp oil
1 shallot, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp Shaoxing Wine (or cooking wine)
1 cup heavy cream
2-3 tbsp homemade mala oil (recipe above)
1 tsp brown sugar
1 tbsp salted butter
1/4 tsp msg
Finely mince your shallot and garlic. Add them to a cold pan with oil. Turn the heat to medium. Allow the aromatics to start to sizzle. Once they start browning and sticking to the bottom, deglaze the pan with your shaoxing wine.
Let the alcohol cook out, then add your cream.
Turn the heat to low, add your brown sugar, msg and mala oil. Bring it to a simmer, stirring the cream constantly. Allow it to thicken slightly. Add the butter. Taste to see if it is salty/spicy enough and adjust to your liking. As well, if it gets too thick, add some water to thin it out. Do not over cook! The sauce will start to split.
Remove from the heat and pour the sauce through a fine mesh strainer and into a bowl. Discard what was caught in the strainer.
Let the cream sauce cool at room temperature while you work on the Fried Shrimp Balls.
Fried Shrimp Balls:
400g shrimp, peeled and deveined
100g lotus root, peeled (optional* see note at the end)
2 green onions, thinly sliced
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp Shaoxing Wine or cooking wine
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp white pepper
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp corn starch
10 spring roll wrappers
1L neutral oil, for frying
Prepare your shrimp by peeling and deveining. If wet, place them on a paper towel and blot to dry them off.
Place your shrimp on a clean cutting board. Using a knife (or two!), start chopping the shrimp into small pieces. After about a dozen passes over the shrimp with your knife, reserve about 100g of shrimp pieces that are a bit larger in size. (This so the shrimp balls have some texture and larger shrimp chunks inside!)
Keep chopping the remaining shrimp until it becomes a fine paste. Place the fine shrimp paste as well as the larger chunks you set aside earlier into a medium bowl.
(Clean your cutting board.)
Wash and peel your lotus root. Slice it into 1/4” thick rounds. Stack the rounds and proceed to cut into matchstick-like pieces. Rotate the matchsticks 90 degrees, and roughly dice the lotus root. Add it to your bowl with the shrimp.
To the same bowl, add your green onion, soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, sugar, white pepper, salt and corn starch.
Mix to combine.
Refrigerate for 30 minutes to 1 hour.
While the shrimp paste is chilling, prepare your spring roll wrappers.
Separate 10 sheets of spring roll papers. Lay 5 wrappers in one stack and 5 in the other (it will be easier to cut less at a time!).
Fold the spring roll wrappers like a 3 sectioned letter. Thinly starting at one end, thinly slice the folded stack to create spring roll strips. Repeat the slicing with the other stack of wrappers. Place them all on a tray, or in a bowl.
Once the shrimp paste is cold, divide into 9 even portions. Oil your hands so that it doesn’t stick, and roll each portion into a ball.
Toss the shrimp ball in your cut spring roll strips. Pack them on so that the ball is entirely covered.
Repeat with all 9 shrimp balls.
Fill a medium heavy bottomed pot with 1L of neutral oil (canola, vegetable) and turn the heat to medium high.
Allow the oil to get hot, roughly 350 degrees.
Once the oil has reached the desired temp, drop in your shrimp balls. Cook 3 at a time as to not overcrowd the pot. Heads up—They cook fast! Fry them for about 2-3 minutes or until golden. Remove them from the oil with a spider, or slotted spoon. Set them aside while you fry what’s remaining.
To Plate:
green onion
red pepper
For the garnish, thinly slice green onions lengthwise and place the strips in a bowl of ice water. This will make them curly! As well, in the same way, thinly slice a red pepper. Using the tip of your knife, scrape away the flesh until you are left with just the pepper skin. This will curl naturally! Place it in the same ice water as the green onions to keep it fresh.
For easier plating, transfer your Mala Cream Sauce to a squeeze bottle. If your don’t have one, that’s okay!
Spoon out 3 dollops of Mala Cream Sauce onto your plate.
Place a Fried Shrimp Ball on each of the sauce mounds.
Top each piece with a green onion slice and a red pepper skin
Enjoy!!
Notes:
*If Lotus root is hard to find, you can substitute with water chestnuts or you can omit entirely.
These can be fried ahead of time and reheated in an airfryer or toaster oven upon serving (but they really are best fresh!)
The Mala Cream Sauce can be made ahead of time and stored in the fridge. Bring it to room temperature to serve. I do not recommend heating it up as it tends to separate.
