xiao long bao (小籠包) at home

I spent a lot of my day listening to Ginuwine hits from the early 2000s, doing a little vacation-daydreaming, and getting nostalgic about being in Asia on this dreary Sunday; so, I decided to make some soup dumplings (aka 小籠包).  This is my first time making XLBs, and it won’t be the last…

Gotta be compatibleeeeee…

The following is my v1 recipe for XLB; overall I thought the filling was perfect, though I’ll be iterating on the dumpling skins and “meat jelly”  sounds gross, right? but that’s the yum that turns in to soup inside the dumplings when you steam them. If this is too crucial for you, I guess: I DON’T THINK YOU’RE READY FOR THIS JELLY.)

HERE IT GOES:

• In a pot of about 4 cups of boiling water, add a pound of skin-on pork belly for about 5 minutes.
• Remove the pork rind, rinse in cool water and cut into small strips.
• Add back to a clean pot of 4 cups of water, 5 smashed ginger medallions and several green onion ends. Cook for 2 hours on low heat.
• Using a food processor or emersion blender, pulse the soup for a few seconds and put into a container and refrigerate for at least 5 hours (preferably over night).

• In another bowl, add about 6 tablespoons of finely minced ginger, 3 tablespoons of minced green onion, 1 pound of ground pork, 2 tablespoons of Maggi seasoning, 2 teaspoons of sea salt, 1 tablespoon of sesame oil, 1 tablespoon of sugar, 1 tablespoon of hoisin sauce. Mix well.
• Pulse this mixture with your blender/food processor until it becomes like a paste.  Add in the meat jelly.

• In another bowl, add 2 cups of flour and 1 cup of cold water into a large bowl and knead well until the dough is smooth and stretchy.  Let it rest in a covered bowl for 25 minutes before rolling it out.
• Roll out your dough and cut into even pieces
• Roll dough pieces into little balls about 4cm in diameter
• Roll out the little dough balls into circles a few millimeters thick
• be firm but delicate when making your dumplings!
• Add about 1.5 teaspoons of your filling in the center of a dough circle and pleat and pinch around until the dumpling is closed.
• I steamed my XLBs on porcelain spoons lined with thinly sliced carrots
• Steam each batch for about 8 minutes
• Enjoy with some black vinegar and grated ginger!

And of course because I CAN; I made myself a few pork belly buns too. HA!

goodbye.