Chinese · Snack · Hard
Soup Dumplings (Xiao Long Bao)
Shanghai's thin-skinned dumplings that burst with hot soup. Eighteen pleats, one perfect bite. A project worth doing.
The whole recipe in 60 seconds
Soup Dumplings (Xiao Long Bao), in 5 ideas
- Keep everything cold. If the filling warms up, the aspic melts and the magic is gone before they hit the steamer. Work in batches, keep the rest in the fridge.
- Thin in the middle is wrong. Roll the edges thin but leave the center slightly thicker. It has to hold a tablespoon of hot soup without tearing.
- Do not overfill. A tablespoon is plenty. Overstuffed dumplings burst in the steamer and you lose the soup to the basket.
- Pleats are practice, not perfection. Your first ones will be ugly. They will still taste incredible. Eighteen is traditional; sealed shut is what matters.
- Steam in batches. Crowded dumplings stick together and tear. Give them room and keep the steamer lid on tight so the heat stays in.
What you need
Ingredients
- For the aspic: 2 cups rich pork stock, 1 tbsp gelatin bloomed in 3 tbsp cold water
- For the filling: 1/2 lb ground pork, 2 tbsp finely minced ginger, 2 scallions (minced), 1 tbsp Shaoxing wine, 1 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tsp sesame oil, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp white pepper
- For the dough: 2 cups all purpose flour, 3/4 cup hot water, pinch of salt
- Black vinegar and julienned ginger, to serve
How to make it
Directions
- The day before, warm the pork stock and stir in the bloomed gelatin until dissolved. Chill overnight until set into a firm aspic. Dice it into small cubes.
- Mix the ground pork with the ginger, scallions, wine, soy sauce, sesame oil, salt, and white pepper. Stir in one direction until sticky and tacky, about 3 minutes. Fold in the aspic cubes and chill 30 minutes.
- Make the dough: pour the hot water into the flour and salt, stir, then knead 8 minutes until smooth. Rest covered for 30 minutes.
- Roll the dough into a log and cut into 24 pieces. Roll each into a thin 3 1/2 inch round, thinner at the edges than the center.
- Place a tablespoon of filling in the center of each wrapper. Pleat around the edge, gathering and pinching, aiming for 18 pleats, and twist to seal at the top.
- Line a bamboo steamer with cabbage leaves or parchment. Steam the dumplings over boiling water for 8 minutes, working in batches with space between them.
- Serve immediately with black vinegar and ginger. Nibble a small hole, sip the soup, then eat. Do not burn your mouth; the soup is genuinely hot.
The aspic is the trick. Rich stock set with gelatin melts back into soup inside the steamer. Without it, you just have regular dumplings. Make the stock as rich as you possibly can.