♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -Today on "America's Test Kitchen," Lan makes Julia har gow... Jack talks all about chicories... and Keith makes Bridget Hong Kong-style wonton soup.

It's all coming up right here on "America's Test Kitchen."

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♪♪ -Dim sum was popularized in the teahouses of Guangdong, served as little bites to be enjoyed while chatting and socializing.

And today, Lan's going to show us how to make the iconic, well-loved dumpling har gow, which is what you commonly find on dim sum menus these days.

-Har gow was originated by Cantonese cooks, and if you know anything about Cantonese cooking, it's about taking one ingredient and really highlighting its flavor.

In the case of this recipe, it's the shrimp in the filling.

But before we can get to that, we need to make that wrapper.

So the first ingredient we need is wheat starch.

Now, that's what you have when you take all the gluten-forming proteins out of regular flour.

I have 5 1/4 ounces here.

I like to go by weight.

It's just a little bit more precise and we want to make sure we nail the texture.

But if you don't have a scale, that's 1 cup and 2 tablespoons of wheat starch.

It's going to go right into this food processor.

Next up, I have a second starch.

This is 1 3/4 ounces of tapioca starch.

And a pinch of salt to season.

Now, this isn't traditionally done in a food processor.

You'll see cooks just put those starches in a bowl and stir with chopsticks.

But that can be hard to do right and so I think a food processor makes a lot more sense.

I'm going to give this a quick buzz just to mix everything.

And now I'm going to bring some water up to a boil.

You want the water to be at a rolling boil.

It has to be hot enough to cook the starches in that dough.

We want that because that's going to give our dough stretch.

-Okay.

Those are big bubbles.

-I'm going to measure out 1/2 of a cup plus 1 tablespoon of boiling water.

This is going to go right in.

And then we're going to do nothing.

[ Chuckles ] -[ Laughs ] That was easy.

-Right?

What I want to do is to give that hot water time to cook the starch.

If I just got that blending, the -- the spinning action of that blade would actually cool it too much and you wouldn't get the structure you needed.

You'd end up with kind of a paste.

So it's a 5-second wait before we pop the lid back on.

And I'm going to give this one quick buzz to move that water around.

And now we're going to add 4 teaspoons of melted lard.

That lard is in there to tenderize the dough so it's not too chewy, too resilient.

-Mm-hmm.

-And now I'm just going to turn this on.

I'm going to let this run for 1 minute.

And in that time, that dough is going to come together and pull away from the sides of the processor.

[ Whirring ] Perfect.

One last step.

I'm going to just lightly grease our counter.

And, um, this dough needs just a little bit more work.

How cool is that?

-It's warm.

-It is.

It's a really nice dough to work with, and I'm just going to knead it.

Sometimes if you mismeasure, it might not come together.

If that's the case, you can add water, 1/2 teaspoon at a time.

So it's been about a minute.

This is looking and feeling really nice and cohesive.

So I just want to wrap this up so it doesn't dry out while we make our filling.

Julia, ready to make the filling?

-Yes.

-Alright.

I've got 6 ounces of shrimp here.

It's been peeled, deveined.

The tails have been removed.

Next up, I've got 2 tablespoons of finely chopped canned bamboo shoots.

If you can find fresh, that's cool.

If you can't find either forms of bamboo, you can use canned water chestnuts.

-Ah.

-This is just to add a little bit of texture to the dumpling.

Next up, I have a tablespoon of lard.

Now, what is traditionally used is fatback.

It's just the kind of the really clean white pork fat.

And while you could use oil, the lard is going to set up more firmly and be firmer at room temperature, making the filling easier to work with.

-Makes sense.

-I have 1 teaspoon of Shaoxing wine.

It's just a nice bit of nuttiness, a touch of acidity to brighten everything.

And then I have some aromatics -- 1/2 teaspoon of minced garlic and 1/2 teaspoon of finely grated ginger.

I have 1/4 teaspoon of ground white pepper.

Very traditional.

1/4 teaspoon of sugar.

1/4 teaspoon of table salt, and 1/4 teaspoon of soy sauce.

That soy sauce, it's there to make the filling a little bit more savory.

So lid goes on.

I'm going to pulse this mixture until the shrimp is finely chopped and everything is well combined.

It can be anywhere between 10 to 20 pulses.

That looks great.

So this is just going to go right into that bowl.

I'm going to cover it and then pop it into the fridge for 20 minutes, where it'll chill and firm up and be easier to work with.

Julia, the dough is done.

The filling is chilled.

Let's make some har gow.

-Okay.

-Before we start, I'm going to lightly grease our counter.

First step is to divide this into four equal pieces.

I'm going to place these three pieces over there.

I'm going to keep them covered so they don't dry out.

And this I'm going to roll into a 6-inch log.

Let's see.

Okay.

And now we'll divide this into six equal pieces.

They always look like marshmallows.

-They really do look like candies.

-Right?

And then if you don't mind, would you move these under the plastic wrap so they stay moist?

Alright, Julia, now we have our little marshmallows.

And traditionally, chefs would use a Chinese cleaver, and they'd put it flat on the counter and press and smear the dough into a round.

-Mm!

-Really hard to do.

-It sounds hard.

-I learned from Grace Young that there's an easier way, and you do it with a tortilla press.

-Makes sense.

-Yeah.

So I've got one right here.

I'm going to lightly grease it.

I'm looking for a 3 1/4-inch-wide circle, and it's always best to press lightly first.

Not bad, not bad.

-Alright.

-Thank you.

So let's get this off of there.

I like my scraper for this.

I'm going to put a little bit of filling right in the center.

Especially if this is your first time doing this, you want to make sure you're not using too much.

And it is a heaping 1/2 tablespoon of filling.

I'm going to place this dough over the fingers, and I'll start by making the first pleat right over my pinky.

And it's just a little pinch and I'll pull it up so it's resting kind of above the filling.

-Okay.

-I'm gonna use my index finger of the other hand to kind of push the dough to make that second pleat, and I'll just place it, and then you just keep repeating that pushing motion with your index finger to create the subsequent pleats, and you'll rotate this dumpling in your hand as you go.

And once you're about three quarters, that's it -- You're done with pleating and you'll, like, kind of press the rest of that leftover dough up against the bottom.

-Okay.

-We have all this excess dough here and we don't need it.

So I'm going to use my thumb and forefinger to seal the dumpling by pressing.

And then we'll just pull off the excess.

And you have this beautiful little dumpling.

-That's so pretty.

Oh, it's a little purse.

-Yeah, it is a little purse.

-[ Laughs ] -How cute is that?

Um, and so this can go right over here on this sheet pan.

Okay.

So I want to keep these covered so they don't dry out.

So we'll keep going until we get our 24 har gow made.

-Alright.

-Now that our dumplings are made, it's time to steep them.

-Okay.

-I've got a 14-inch flat-bottomed wok here, and in here, I have 4 cups of water.

While it comes up to a boil, let's get our dumplings into a basket.

-Okay.

-I've already started, and you can see that these are bamboo steamer baskets.

They're 10 inches across.

Inside is an 8-inch parchment round that I've lightly greased.

And I'm just going to arrange these little dumplings.

I'll just stack these.

Pop the lid on.

Our water is up to a boil.

This is going to go right on top and they'll take 8 minutes to cook.

Now, if you don't have a wok, that's okay.

You can use a 12-inch skillet.

Because a skillet is a little bit wider on the bottom, water evaporates more quickly, so you really need to keep an eye on the water.

Make sure you're not scorching your skillet.

Julia, it's been 8 minutes.

I'll shut this off.

I'm going to pull these out of here.

This is almost done.

We're going to give them a 10-minute rest.

-Alright.

But you didn't even check that they were done.

You're just trusting the timing here.

-It's going to work.

8 minutes in the cooking, 10 minutes in resting.

-You shouldn't peek.

You should trust the timing.

-Okay.

-You ready?

-You think?

[ Laughs ] -I think so.

These are ready as well.

How cute are they?

-Oh, they're almost translucent.

-They are.

They're also known as crystal dumplings.

And it's a reference to that translucent wrapper.

But how about three?

-Oh, those look picture-perfect.

-Chili oil, one of my favorite condiments.

It enhances the dumpling without overwhelming it, which soy sauce can.

-And of course, you can buy this, but you can also make it yourself.

And you can find that recipe on our website.

Lan, these look gorgeous.

-Julia, we did it.

-[ Laughs ] Mmm!

It is so good.

The shrimp has so much flavor.

Like you said, dim sum is highlighting one key flavor and it really comes through.

These are picture-perfect.

-I couldn't have done it without you.

-[ Chuckles ] Lan, this was really fun to learn.

Thank you for showing me how.

-Thanks for coming along.

-If you want to make this gem of a dumpling, start by making a stretchy dough in the food processor with wheat starch and boiling water.

Add a variety of aromatics to the shrimp filling, and practice makes perfect when shaping the dumplings.

From "America's Test Kitchen," Lan's own recipe for har gow.

This would be fun to make with my daughter.

-Oh, yeah.

♪♪ -If you love vegetables like I do, shopping in the supermarket in the winter can be a little sad, but it doesn't have to be.

My guess is you're walking right past these beautiful chicories, and maybe you're not buying them because you don't know what they are.

The reason I love chicories is because they're so bold.

That means they have a sturdy texture that works both in a salad bowl and in cooking.

And they've got some bitterness that stands up to rich ingredients.

I love these bitter chicories with poached eggs or bacon in a salad.

So let me start with the things I bet you know, which is radicchio.

Now, the long, skinny variety here is Treviso.

The round cabbage-like is Chioggia.

They're both wonderful, not only in salads, but you can grill them, you can braise them, you can roast them.

I'm pretty sure you're familiar with Belgian endive.

It's got this white color from being grown indoors or underground, away from sunlight so the chlorophyll can't develop.

Roast those endive.

Oh, it becomes so sweet.

Or, of course, use them in salad.

Next up, I've got chicory.

Now, maybe this is why things are confusing because the entire family is known as chicories.

They're actually related to sunflowers.

But then there's a specific green that we call chicory.

Now, if you've been to New Orleans, you may be familiar with the coffee made with chicory.

It's actually the root of the plant that's dried and ground.

And it was originally added to stretch the coffee, but it's now added because it makes it mellow and a little bit chocolaty.

Now, in terms of the green you're going to buy in the supermarket for cooking, it's pretty bitter.

This one is probably best cooked.

It's got a sturdy texture.

Yeah, you can put it in a salad bowl, maybe with a warm vinaigrette, but I like it cooked.

In the middle here in front of me is escarole.

Now, this is my personal fave because this is what my Italian grandmother would make.

She would braise it with anchovies and golden raisins and pine nuts.

The center leaves are also tender enough to use in a salad bowl.

And finally, I have frisée here in front and curly endive.

They're actually the same plant.

Frisée is just younger and more tender and immature.

Frisée means "curly" in French, and it's obviously got curly leaves.

This is really best in a salad bowl.

Now, the curly endive, you can cook with this.

You can also use it in a salad, but it's pretty chewy and sturdy.

So there you have it.

The wonderful world of chicories, the bold and the beautiful.

♪♪ -From their filling, the construction, to how they're presented, Hong Kong-style wontons are different from other wontons out there.

Now, I'm very excited because I love wontons of all shapes and sizes, and Keith is here.

He's going to show us how to make a gorgeous Hong Kong-style wonton soup.

Did I get that right?

-You got that right.

-Okay.

-So, the star of this soup are these shrimp-filled wontons.

They're absolutely delicious.

Very delicate.

And that just shows how important seafood is in the cuisine of Hong Kong.

So I have 12 large shrimp here, which are 26/30 shrimp per pound.

And I'm going to peel these and I'm going to save all these peels.

Now we want to take the vein out of this.

Start with a paring knife and just cut gently into the top of that... -Nice.

-...and just slip that out like that.

A lot of the fillings that we see -- that you typically see with recipes chop the shrimp.

We like to keep them in nice large pieces.

You kind of bite into that wonton, you have a nice burst of shrimp flavor there.

-Okay.

Gotcha.

-I'm going to take these.

I'm going to cut these in half crosswise, like so.

And that is our shrimp.

And we're saving our shrimp shells.

Now for the pork, predominantly shrimp, but we do have a small amount of pork here.

I have 4 ounces of ground pork in this bowl.

And before we add any of our flavorings, I'm just going to take four bundled chopsticks like this.

And I'm going to mix the pork.

So I'm just going to take that and continue to mix this for about 5 minutes.

-Gotcha.

Now, often with ground meat, we avoid doing this step because we want it to be super tender and almost fall apart.

Think things like Italian meatballs or meatloaf, but in this case, that structure that's being developed by the myosin, the stickiness, is going to work to the advantage of the filling.

-That's right.

Okay.

It's been 5 minutes.

My arm's aching.

-[ Laughs ] -But you can see that the pork is all stuck together to one another.

-Yep.

-And it's kind of forming this nice ball that won't stick to the sides of the bowl.

It's kind of pulling away from the sides of the bowl like that.

Now we can get into our flavorings.

So we have 1 scallion that's been minced.

I have a tablespoon of Shaoxing wine.

Have 1/2 teaspoon of toasted sesame oil for some nuttiness.

2 teaspoons of salty, umami-rich oyster sauce.

1 teaspoon of soy sauce.

I also have 1/8 of a teaspoon of white pepper and 1/8 of a teaspoon of table salt.

And now for my favorite ingredient, which I think makes this wonton really, really pop.

We have 1/2 teaspoon of dried flounder powder.

-Hmm.

-And what it is, it's salted and dried flounder that they ground up, and it adds an umami flavor.

It adds those glutamates that we really like.

And it's not overtly fishy.

-Right.

-But it does kind of give a nice kind of seafood background to the pork.

Really worth finding this.

-Okay.

-That's beautiful.

Okay, so that is our pork.

So we have our pork and our shrimp, and then we can make wontons.

-Okay, great.

-Now it's time to put together our broth for our soup.

So we have this great chicken stock with a ton of gelatin and a ton of flavor that we made ourselves by cooking chicken parts with some aromatics like ginger and scallions.

It's really important to make your own stock here, and we have the recipe for how to make it on our website.

Now we need to flavor it for the soup.

-Okay.

-And that's flavored with seafood.

So we're going to use our shrimp shells that I reserved from earlier.

And we're going to make a stock out of that.

-Great.

-So I have a teaspoon of oil that's heating in this medium saucepan over high heat.

And we're going to brown our shrimp shells before we add our stock.

-Okay.

-So I'm going to add this to the pan.

And then we're just going to cook this for 2 minutes until those shrimp shells turn color and start to get a little spotty browning on that.

-Gotcha.

-It's been 2 minutes, and you can see that the shrimp shells have changed to that pink color.

And we're starting to get some browning on that.

So that is great.

So I'm going to add 4 cups of our chicken stock that we made.

And 2 cups of water.

And just a smidgen of salt -- 1/4 teaspoon of table salt.

We're going to bring this up to a simmer.

Now, we don't want to cook the shrimp shells that long.

The flavor is pretty volatile.

So what we're going to do is we're going to bring that up to a boil.

-Okay.

-Okay.

You can see that our broth is now up to a simmer.

I'm going to cut the heat fully here and let it steep for 15 minutes.

But before we let that steep, I'm going to add some more of this dried flounder powder, another 1/2 teaspoon.

-Gotcha.

I'm seeing a theme here.

-It is a theme.

So 15 minutes and then we can strain those shells off.

-Okay.

-Shells have been steeping in our broth for 15 minutes.

Now it's time to strain them off.

Slowly pour it through a fine mesh strainer.

Okay, we got all the liquid out of that.

Put our broth back into our saucepan slowly and gently.

Okay, that looks great.

Okay, I'm going to season this with a little bit of soy.

I have 2 teaspoons of soy and another 1/8 teaspoon of white pepper.

Stir that in.

-This smells so good already.

-And that is our broth for our soup.

I'm just going to put a lid on this.

Set that aside.

Now we can make our wontons.

-Okay.

-You're going to help me.

-Okay.

-So I am going to start with a heaping 1/2 teaspoon of our pork mixture and put that into the center of our wonton.

Okay.

And then we'll take a piece of our shrimp and nestle that right in the pork.

Now for wrapping.

And I like to do this while it's on the counter.

These two like that.

-Alright.

I'm going to do a monkey see, monkey do here.

-Yep.

And that -- those two.

So meeting all four corners.

-Alright.

-And then bringing those corners up.

We're just making a purse.

-Alright.

So these pointy corners come up?

-Yep.

Exactly, like that.

-Okay.

-Now, it might seem a little hard right now, but what we're going to do is we're going to nestle the wonton in between our thumb and forefinger.

-Okay.

-Just underneath like that.

Like that.

And then you're just kind of squeezing here.

You're squeezing the neck right above the filling.

-Alright.

Kind of pushing it down a little bit?

-Yep, pushing it down.

You compact it a little bit.

And it's going to stretch that wonton skin just a little bit.

-Alright.

-You don't want to do it too, too hard.

-Yes.

-And you don't want to pinch the tops together... -Okay.

-...too much.

You want it to kind of splay out like that.

That's it.

-How's that?

-Perfect.

-Alright.

-Okay, so we're just going to put this onto a floured rimmed baking sheet.

I'm just going to take a damp towel and cover those wontons and make sure that they don't dry out.

So we're going to continue to make these.

Now, we're going to make 24 wontons all together.

-Okay.

-We've done all of our prep work.

And now it's time to put this soup together.

So it's going to start with some baby bok choy.

I have 2 heads of baby bok choy that I've separated the greens from.

And we're going to blanch that in 4 quarts of water in that Dutch oven.

-Okay.

-We don't want to cook that that much.

Just like a minute or so is all it's going to need.

We just want to soften the tops and soften the bottom a little bit.

Okay, it's been a minute and I want to get our bok choy out of this pot.

So just take a slotted spoon.

Put this onto a plate, letting that water drain.

-Beautiful green color.

Gorgeous.

-Okay, that's our bok choy.

Now we can cook our noodles.

I have 6 ounces of wonton noodles here.

Very, very thin and highly alkalized.

So they're going to have a nice chew, nice resilience.

-Gotcha.

-So that's going to go into our boiling water.

I'm just going to stir that to break those nests up.

It's been about 2 minutes.

And I just want to test these noodles to see if they're done.

We don't want to overcook these noodles.

Mm.

Hot.

-Hot.

-Mm.

That's perfect though.

-Done?

-Tender but still resilient.

I like that.

-That's the best way to test.

-So I'm going to take this.

I still am going to use this water to cook our wontons.

So I'm going to use a skimmer and tongs.

Carefully transfer this over to a colander.

Bok choy noodles are done, and now we can cook our wontons.

Now, I'm only going to cook eight wontons for the two of us.

So into our boiling water.

So we're just going to stir this.

Make sure they don't stick to the bottom, like that.

Now we're going to cook those for 4 minutes.

And what we're looking for is the skins will become translucent and they'll start to float to the top.

And that's when we know they're done.

-Okay.

Great.

-Wontons have about 30 more seconds to go, but we can start building our bowls.

I'm just going to take a healthy nest of noodles.

Long noodles.

Look [whistles] beautiful.

Now we can add our wontons to this.

-Okay.

-That has become nicely translucent.

You can see the shrimp and the pork in there.

-Absolutely lovely.

-Couple pieces of bok choy and then ladle it over everything here.

-Mmm.

Now it's a soup.

-Nice rich broth.

Look at that.

That looks great.

-That is gorgeous.

-We can garnish this with a little toasted sesame oil if you would like.

-Mmm.

A little goes a long way there.

-Yeah.

I also have some red vinegar here.

Now, I like to dip my wontons in that separately.

But you can also drizzle some over your bowl if you'd like.

I suggest we dip our wontons today.

Mm.

Absolutely delicious though.

-That is phenomenal.

-Yeah.

You get that burst of shrimp from that little nugget of shrimp in there.

-You sure do.

But I can't get over those wontons.

The skins in there, the wonton skins, they are gossamer thin.

They don't take over at all.

They're not doughy.

The shrimp is not overcooked at all.

-Now, what about the broth?

-Oh, that's so rich.

A lot of body in that broth.

-Not overtly seafoody or fishy, but just in the background.

A little bit of richness, umami, savory flavors.

-You're exactly right because it is a note that's in there, but it's not overly fishy at all.

-It's great, isn't it?

-This is everything in a bowl.

It's all the great flavors.

A little bit of land, a little bit of the sea.

Very Hong Kong.

-Yeah.

That's right.

-Thanks, Keith.

-You're welcome.

-So if you'd like to give yourself a try at making this wonton soup, infuse homemade chicken stock with shrimp shells and flounder powder.

Top the pork-filled dumplings with shrimp before shaping.

And then ladle the shrimp broth over bok choy noodles, and, of course, those wontons.

So from "America's Test Kitchen," absolutely spectacular Hong Kong-style wonton noodle soup.

You can get this fabulous recipe and all the recipes from this season, along with product reviews and select episodes.

And those are all on our website, americastestkitchen.com/tv.

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