Dish from Culinary Class Wars 2!
If you’re also a fan of Netflix’s latest show, Culinary Class Wars Season 2, then you’re in luck.
This recipe is my take on the popular Snow Crab Dumplings with Champagne Sabayon sauce, apple & celery relish and caviar from the show. This is black spoon chef Culinary Monster‘s dish.
It’s a fine dining that uses a combination of Asian and French techniques. But don’t worry, I’ve broken this recipe down into many steps and tips so you can recreate it at home!
Prawns instead of crab
I know the original recipe on the Netflix show uses snow crab. However, as a home cook living in Australia, I don’t have access to this luxurious ingredient.
In fact, on the day I went shopping for this recipe, there were no crabs at my local grocery store or local fish shop!
So instead of using crab, I used king prawns!
Prawns are super accessible yet very flavourful if cooked right. In this recipe, I used the concentrated prawn sauce in the dumpling filling.
I also made white spoon chef Son Jong-Won’s Egg Custard with Champagne Sauce and Caviar. Go check out that recipe if you’d like to recreate his dish too! Funnily both these dishes were from the same challenge in episode 10 of Culinary Class Wars 2.
The CONCENTRATED prawn sauce
This sauce is VERY concentrated and reduced. For that reason, I absolutely love how this sauce pairs with something more neutral in flavour, such as the dumpling filling.
So how do you make a GOOD concentrated prawn sauce?
Use every part of the prawn – including its head, shells and meat!
The other tip? To air fry it or roast it in the oven before cooking in a pot. This adds so much more umami and depth to the sauce.
The sauce contains air fried prawns, carrots, onions, celery, canned tomatoes, water, Brandy and Champagne. You can use Cognac instead of Brandy if you have access to it.
This is how much prawn sauce my recipe yielded. There’s definitely a lot that goes into this sauce, and while it doesn’t yield too much, it’s enough to serve 12 dumplings.
Sabayon sauce
This was my first time making Sabayon sauce with Champagne.
It’s a sauce made from combining egg yolks, Champagne and the concentrated prawn sauce.
It’s luxurious, creamy yet slightly acidic and absolutely delicious.
The key is to emulsify the sauce over a double boiler. I ended up whisking continuously for 15 minutes before the sauce thickened.
Side note: double boiler method is where you place the sauce in a heatproof bowl, and place this bowl on top of a pot of gentle boiling water. This prevents the sauce from being too hot and from splitting.
If you watched my long-form Youtube video, you’ll know that my sauce split once I cooked it directly in the pot. So remember, double boiler is a must!!
Dumplings
I was actually quite surprised that Culinary Monster decided to make dumplings.
I personally felt that making a ravioli with the prawn filling would’ve paired well with the creamy Sabayon sauce. But who am I to judge?
The dumpling filling is made of silken tofu, the concentrated prawn sauce and melted butter, emulsified over a double boiler using egg yolks.
Caviar
If you find caviar expensive, you can omit it from this recipe.
I really wanted to add that touch of luxury to this dish, so I used Lumpfish Caviar instead. It was only $12 AUD from my local seafood shop – super affordable and it adds fine dining vibes.
Watch the entire recipe video
Check out my other recipe for white spoon chef Son Jong-Won’s Egg Custard with Champagne Sauce and Caviar!
Prawn Dumplings with Sabayon Sauce and Relish
Ingredients
Method
- Air fry the raw prawns in a preheated air fryer without oil for 6mins at 200C.
- Wrap the prawns in a paper towel and gently smash with a pan or rolling pin.
- Heat a pot with cooking oil. Add prawns, celery, carrot, and onion. Stir-fry until lightly caramelised.
- Turn heat on high. Deglaze with cognac and allow alcohol to cook off for 2mins.
- Add champagne and let it come to a boil.
- Add canned tomatoes and water. Keep stirring.
- Simmer gently for 30 minutes, reducing to a rich, brown sauce.
- Strain and return the sauce back to the pot.
- Add in corn starch slurry mixture and keep stirring, until slightly thickened. Season lightly with salt.
- Set aside.
- In a bowl, combine the apple, celery, vinegar, lime juice and sugar.
- Mix well and set aside.
- In a blender, add soft tofu, melted butter and prawn sauce.
- Blend for 30 seconds, until well combined.
- Place the mixture into a large heatproof bowl.
- In a pot, add water and let it come to a gentle boil.
- Place the heatproof bowl on top of the pot. This is a double boiler method for emulsifying the sauce.
- Add 2 egg yolks into the sauce and whisk for 10-15 minutes. Ensure the water underneath is still boiling gently.
- Note: if your sauce has not thickened yet, you can add a cornstarch slurry (mix 1 tsp corn starch with 1 tbsp water) and keep mixing until thickened.
- Let the sauce cool down, then add in chopped raw prawns and mix. Set aside.
- In a large heatproof bowl, add 3 egg yolks and whisk together.
- Add in champagne and prawn sauce. Whisk together again.
- In a pot, add water and let it come to a gentle boil.
- Place the heatproof bowl on top of the pot. This is a double boiler method for emulsifying the sauce.
- Whisk the sauce over the double boiler for 15 minutes, until the sauce has thickened.
- Once thickened, take the heatproof bowl off the pot and let the sauce cool down.
- Scoop 1.5 tsp of dumpling filling into the centre of each dumpling skin.
- Using your fingers, smudge some water around the edges of the skin.
- Fold into a half moon, then connect both ends to form a dumpling.
- Steam the dumplings on medium heat for 6 minutes, until dumpling skin and prawns are cooked.
- Let it cool down slightly.
- In a bowl, add the apple and celery relish at the bottom.
- Scoop some sabayon sauce on top of the relish.
- Place 3 dumplings on top of the sabayon sauce.
- Add tiny scoops of caviar onto each dumpling.
- Garnish with finely chopped parsley. Enjoy!
