Patron Exclusive Recipe #16 Cantonese Rice Flour Dumplings (水狗乸/水菱角/Water-Caltrop-Shaped Rice Flour Dumplings)

Sup, guys. I hope you're doing great.

So this week I was craving the rice flour dumplings my mum makes. It's a west Pearl River Delta (PRD) thing. In Guangzhou, it's a famous-ish but not often seen street snack. In other towns locating west of the PRD, these rice dumplings got their own variations.

I'm making this version that's originated from my mum's ancestral hometown, which is a bit southwest of Guangzhou. 

Forgive me that I can't make the perfect " water caltrop shape" 'cause that needs A LOT of practice. So don't feel bad if yours end up breaking or anything, the texture will still be great, just slightly less pretty~

And let's get started.

 **Ingredients**  

1. Rice Flour, 200g. 

Note on rice flour grinding method:
It'll be preferable to use rice flour that's ground directly from dry rice that's not soaked if it's ever possible to source.
The packaged ones are basically ground using the method of "soak the rice, grind it with water, drain the water, get the rice flour". This kind of water ground rice flour is very fine and smooth, it's perfect for stuff like sticky rice ball or rice cake. It's considered a better type of rice flour and it's more sought-after. But it may be a bit on the soft side when making stuff like this.
Another type of rice flour is made grinding the dry rice straight up, it's a bit more on the coarse side and less seen in dishes. If you're ambitious, you can grind your own rice flour in a blender till you get some fine powder.
However, it's difficult to source the "dry-ground" rice flour nowadays even here in the PRD, so I also used the "wet-ground" rice flour. It works fine, just need a bit less water than the dry-ground ones.

2. Water, about 180-190g. Plus water for cooking.

Note on flour absorption rate:
Like wheat flour, rice flour has different absorption. Here I'm using the classic Thai Erawan rice flour.
The rice flour to water ratio is about 0.9:1. You may need a bit less or a bit more, we'll need to adjust base on the texture of the batter.

  **Process**  

1. Get a wok of water up to above 60-degree centigrade. Measure out 190g water, make sure the water temperature stays at 60-65 degrees. We need it to be at this range for gelatinization.

2. Gradually scoop the measured out water into the rice flour, keep stirring.

3. After adding in 90% of the water, take a look at the consistency.
It should be a thick batter. When you lift the chopstick, the batter dripping back in will be able to "stand" on the surface for a bit. Like this in the picture.
If it's a bit too dry, add in a touch more water, half tbsp at a time. It'll go overboard very easily at this stage.

4. When the batter is ready, bring the temperature of the remaining water in the wok up to about 90 degrees.
Then use a pair of chopsticks, grab some batter on the chopstick, slowly drop it into the water, spreading the chopstick, forming a triangle-ish shape.
It's so hard to explain so I made a gif:

5. Let it cook in the water, don't bring it to a boil otherwise it'll break. So let's be a bit patient.
Scoop them out when they have been floating for about 30 sec and put them into a bowl of cool water to create better texture and also help it maintain shape.

6. After finishing all of them, you can put them in whatever soups you like. Here's my quick version base off my mum's version (her's is even simpler, just salt, peanut oil, veggie and scallion.)
So right, get a saucepan, add in 2 cups of water, toss in a couple of dried scallops. Simmer for a few minutes, add in an 1-inch piece of dry nori, and optionally a few fish ball. Then bring to a boil.

7. Add in the rice flour dumplings, bring them to a boil.

8. Now season with a 1/4 tsp of salt, equal amount of sugar, plus a sprinkle of MSG and white pepper. Heat off. Drizzle in a few drops of sesame oil, sprinkle in some chopped scallion, and toasted sesame seeds. And, it's done!

9. You can put it in literally any soup. The other day, I made a base of the Yunan little pot rice noodle (小锅米线/xiao guo mi xian), made some of these rice dumplings and toss it in. It was great.
So play with it and have fun, I'm thinking the American chicken dumpling soup would be awesome too~

Right, see you guys next week, hopefully. We'll be flying to the U.S. next Monday, if I don't have enough time to write the next recipe, then it'll be out a bit later~