Illustration: Beatrice Toreborg
China - Soup dumplings
By: Georgina Laskari
26th of May 2022
Let’s travel to China today, with this delicious recipe suggested by Yulu!
Chinese soup dumplings, also referred to as Shanghai Soup Dumplings, xiaolongbao or tang bao, are a steamed dumpling consisting of a paper thin wrapper enveloping a seasoned pork filling and hot soup. It is not a very easy recipe, but it is worth trying!
Ingredients
For the aspic
- ½ pound pork skin(225g, cut into 1-inch strips)
- 1 pound pork neck bones (450g, you want neck bones that still have meat on them!)
- Water
- 2 slices ginger
- 1 scallion (cut into 3 pieces)
- 1 tablespoon shaoxing wine
For the dough
- 1 cup all-purpose flour(130g)
- 6 tablespoons warm water (90 ml)
For the filling
- 1 pound ground pork(450g, 70% lean 30% fat)
- 2 tablespoons shaoxing wine
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
- 3/4 teaspoon sugar
- 3 teaspoons light soy sauce
- 3 tablespoons water
- 1/8 teaspoon ground white-pepper
- 1 tablespoon ginger (minced)
- 1 heaping cup aspic (diced into ½-inch pieces)
To serve
fresh ginger (julienned)
Method
(Click to expand)
In a small pot, add the pork skin and pork bones and cover with cold water.
Bring to a rolling boil, and immediately drain and rinse off the bones and the skin.
Rinse out the pot and put everything back in.
Add 4 cups (950 ml) water, ginger, scallion and wine.
Bring the pot to a boil and then reduce the heat to low. Cover and simmer for 2 hours.
After 2 hours, turn off the heat, allow the soup to cool, and strain the liquid into a bowl.
Once the liquid is completely cooled, cover and refrigerate overnight.
Take your ground pork and put it in the food processor. Pulse for 30-60 seconds until the pork resembles paste.
In a mixing bowl, add the pork and the rest of the ingredients except the aspic.
Whip everything together thoroughly, for about 2 minutes. You want everything to be extremely well combined.
Gently fold in the diced aspic, and do not over-mix.
Cover and transfer the filling to the refrigerator until ready to make the dumplings.
If you’re ready now, you can put it in the freezer for 15 minutes to allow it to firm up and make assembling the buns easier.
Lightly dust a clean work surface with flour and roll the dough into a long cylinder/cigar, about an inch in diameter.
Cut the dough into small equal pieces weighing about 11 grams each (the dough chunks should be a size resembling that of gnocchi). Roll out each piece into a round disc about 3 - 3 ¼ inches diameter. Keep everything under a damp cloth.
Prepare your bamboo steamer. You can line it with cheese cloth, napa cabbage leaves.
When all that is prepared, take out the filling. You’ll be making each bun one at a time. Place about 1 tablespoon of filling in the middle of your dumpling skin. Pleat with as many folds as you can muster: 12-20 folds should do it. Make sure the top is sealed. If the filling ever gets too wet or hard to handle, put it in the freezer for another 15 minutes and start again.
Place the buns in the lined steamer basket, about 2 inches apart.
- In a metal steamer pot or wok, boil water.
If using a wok, put the water at a level so that when you put the bamboo steamer into the wok, the water rises about ½ inch up the bottom of the bamboo base. You never want the water to touch the dumplings inside, though, so make sure not to fill it too high.
- Once the water is boiling, put the bamboo steamer in the wok or steamer pot, cover with the bamboo steamer lid, and steam over high heat for 8 minutes.
- Immediately remove the bamboo steamer from the pot and serve.
