Bánh Bột Lọc Trần - Vietnamese Dumplings

Suddenly, I have a craving for this.  I use the left-over meat from making "bánh cuốn" to make the filling. 

Ingredients:

Dough

• 3 cups of tapioca starch
• 1.5 cups of boiling water (I mean boiling, not hot :D)

Filling:

• 1/4 lb shrimp cleaned and deviened (Use whole small shrimps or large shrimp cut into 3-4 pieces.  You can use pork or pork and shrimp combo)
• salt or fishsauce (I use salt, but I don't know how much)
•  black pepper
• sugar (I don't use sugar)
•  minced shallots (I use the white park of scallions)

Fish sauce (nước mắm chấm)

Directions:

1) Marinate the shrimps/meat with fish sauce (or salt), shallots (or scallions), sugar and pepper and put it aside (in the refridgerator)

2) Boil the water (boil more thatn 1.5 cups of water, you don't want to run out of water for the dough). Measure 3 cups of tapioca starch and place it in a mixing bow.  Slowly add the hot water to the tapioca starch and stir it constantly with a spatula (I use a wooden spoon.  Becaureful, don't burn yourself). After about 1 minute when the water is less hot, use your hands to knead the dough until the dough is smooth.  Add more water if the dough is too dry. Cover the dough and put it aside.

3)In the mean time, use a skillet to cook the meat/shrimp fillings (add some oil and satay the meat/shrimps)
4)Use a rolling pin to flatten the dough about 1/8" thick (I use a pasta maker to flatten the dough :D)
5)Use a cup or cookies cutter to cut the dough into circle.
6)Add the filling to the center of the dough and pinch the edge of the dough.  Use a fork to press on the edge (see pictures)

 8)Add water to a large pot and boil it.  Add some oil (around 1-2 tsp) to the boiling water.  Add the dumplings to the boiling and cook them for 10 minutes (or until they're translucent)

You can buy the "Bánh Bột Lọc" mix and follow the directions on the bag. :D