Cantonese steamed and fried dumplings, buns and rolls served from bamboo baskets and trolleys. Manchester's Chinatown has poured them since the 1970s.

Manchester's Chinatown, the largest in northern England and second-largest in Europe, grew around Faulkner Street from the 1970s. Cantonese rooms shaped the steamer-cart dim sum tradition through the 1980s and 1990s; Mei Dim and other Faulkner Street basements still serve the rolling trolleys today. Manchester families gather in Chinatown for weekend yum cha through the year.

Where to eat Manchester Chinatown dim sum in Manchester

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Make it at home

Serves 322 hrAdvanced

Ingredients

  • For the wrappers: 200g wheat starch
  • 50g tapioca starch
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 250ml just-boiled water
  • 2 tablespoons lard or vegetable shortening
  • For the filling: 400g raw peeled prawns roughly chopped
  • 100g pork back fat finely diced (or use Chinese smoked bacon)
  • 100g bamboo shoots finely diced
  • 1 spring onion finely sliced
  • 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon sugar, 1 teaspoon Shaoxing wine, 1 teaspoon sesame oil, 1 tablespoon cornflour, white pepper
  • Sunflower oil for the steamer base
  • Black vinegar and ginger threads to dip

Method

  1. For the filling: combine the prawns, pork fat, bamboo shoots, spring onion, salt, sugar, Shaoxing, sesame oil, cornflour and white pepper. Mix vigorously for 2 minutes until tacky. Refrigerate 30 minutes.
  2. For the wrappers: combine wheat starch, tapioca starch and salt in a heatproof bowl. Pour the boiling water in all at once, stirring with chopsticks to form a shaggy dough.
  3. While still warm, add the lard and knead 5 minutes to a smooth, slightly translucent dough.
  4. Cover with a damp cloth (it dries out very quickly).
  5. Roll the dough into a 3cm thick log. Cut 10g pieces. Press each between two sheets of cling film with an oiled flat-bottomed cleaver into a thin 7cm round.
  6. Place a teaspoon of filling in the centre. Pleat one side of the wrapper 7 to 9 times to seal into a half-moon shape.
  7. Line a bamboo steamer with oiled parchment punched with holes. Place the dumplings 2cm apart.
  8. Steam over a hard boil for 5 minutes only; the wrappers turn translucent and the prawns just cook through.
  9. Lift the steamer to the table and serve immediately with black vinegar and ginger threads.

Editor tip. Wheat starch (not wheat flour) gives har gow their translucent skin; any Chinese grocer stocks it. The dough dries fast, keep it covered constantly.

Common allergens: Gluten, Soy, Shellfish.