As Chinese New Year is around the corner, I started to think of dishes I could prepare. This year I am planning to make money bag, as opposed to the typical dumpling. Both represent wealth, but the money bag is more aesthetically pleasing. So I came up with this dish using Dancing Chef’s Hainanese paste. It came out really good. The spices in the paste is flavourful yet not overpowering, just perfect for my dish. This recipe is definitely a keeper. My family simply loves it! My eldest son even complimented that my money bag tastes so much better than the one he had at his prom night held at a hotel. My youngest son who doesn’t like any food with prawn just can’t get enough of it. Well my husband? Yes, he quietly ate his food piece after piece hahaha :). My heart feels so full!

Ingredients

• 600g minced chicken thigh (with skin) – See note
• 250g minced Prawn (washed, de-shelled, deveined)
• 6 pieces minced dried shiitake (washed and pre-soaked with hot water, stem removed, set aside 2 tbs of the hot water liquid from soaking the mushroom)
• 55g finely grated carrots
• two packs of wonton skin
• 1 pack of koo chai ( blanched in hot water to soften and pat dry with kitchen towel)

Seasoning

• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 1/2 tbs Hainanese chicken paste
• 1 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp cooking wine
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp chicken powder
• 2 tbs potato starch

Dip

• Dancing Chef Suki Sauce

Note 1 : The reason I added the skin on is to add extra fat and collagen. As chicken thigh is not fatty unlike pork, you need to add this to keep the dumpling juicy. However with skin on, it makes the mincing a bit harder. Do note I had intentionally left some larger bits while mincing the chicken, for better mouth feel. This is just my preference however.

Note 2: Cover the wonton skin and the money bag with damp cloth/kitchen towel as you work along, this is to prevent the skin from drying as you work on each bag.

Method for wrapping

• Mix all the ingredients together including the mushroom liquid, followed by the seasoning. Mix until well combined and mixture becomes sticky.
• Place one tsp of the mixture at the centre of the skin, gather the edges of the skin together and seal it with your finger( see photo below) . Then tie it with a strip of the koo chai. Note that you should not put too much filling as it will be difficult to seal and tie it.
• Do the same for the rest of the meat mixture.

Method for cooking

• Heat up oil in a wok over medium high heat
• Test the oil if it is hot enough by placing the tip of the wooden chopstick into the oil. Bubbles around the chopstick indicates that the oil is ready for frying
• Place the money bag gently into the oil in an upright position. This is to ensure that the meat are cooked first before the tip of the bag. When the bag starts to turn to golden brown, turn down the heat to medium low and continue frying until it becomes golden brown (about a minute). Turn the tip down so that it would now be submerged in oil and continue to fry until the whole bag is evenly fried. Note that you should not over-crowd your wok so that temperature of the oil would not drop tremendously, this is to prevent your food from being greasy.
• Remove the fried money bag from the oil and place it on paper towels
• Repeat the process until all the money bags are cooked
• Transfer it to a serving dish together with Dancing chef’s Suki sauce , alternatively if you don’t have access to the Suki dip at your location, you may use any other dip such as mayonnaise, or sweet and chili sauce.

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