dumpy dumplings
connie organized a dumpling-making party on sunday, and we wanted to try making xiao long bao, those little steamed dumplings with soup inside. people wait in line for hours at restaurants that do these well. we made a test batch the night before to make sure the recipe would work.
you can't just use store-bought wrappers for this kind of dumpling because they won't cook properly, so i made wrapper dough from scratch, involving 4 hours of rise time. the secret to getting soup inside the dumpling is to solidify it before you seal the dumpling, so we also made our own soup gelatin (aka "aspic"). when you wrap the dumpling, you have to find a delicate balance between being able to close the wrapper and putting enough meat in to prevent an excess of dough on the top (leading to chewy tops). traditionally, xiao long bao involves 18 folds of the wrapper!
i now have deep appreciation for the convenience of ordering them and gulping them down 15 minutes later. i can't believe they're so cheap, considering how much manual labor goes into them. chinese people really don't value time...only hard costs.
wrapper dough
ugly children
beautifully steamed
homemade aspic
steaming
the dumpling dip
you can't just use store-bought wrappers for this kind of dumpling because they won't cook properly, so i made wrapper dough from scratch, involving 4 hours of rise time. the secret to getting soup inside the dumpling is to solidify it before you seal the dumpling, so we also made our own soup gelatin (aka "aspic"). when you wrap the dumpling, you have to find a delicate balance between being able to close the wrapper and putting enough meat in to prevent an excess of dough on the top (leading to chewy tops). traditionally, xiao long bao involves 18 folds of the wrapper!
i now have deep appreciation for the convenience of ordering them and gulping them down 15 minutes later. i can't believe they're so cheap, considering how much manual labor goes into them. chinese people really don't value time...only hard costs.
wrapper dough
ugly children
beautifully steamed
homemade aspic
steaming
the dumpling dip