Xiaolongbao
Proper soup dumplings need a chilled aspic, a rolled wrapper and eighteen pleats made by someone with steadier hands than either of us. This is the honest shortcut: shop-bought wrappers, a juicy pork filling and a gelatin-set broth, folded loosely and steamed. Still bursts. Still worth it.
- Total time
- 19 min
- Serves
- 2
- Effort
- Medium
What you need
Written for 2 — nudge the counter and the numbers follow.
0 of 9 in the basket.
How you make it
Sprinkle the gelatin over the cold stock, leave 2 minutes to bloom, then microwave 20 seconds to dissolve and put it in the freezer for 6 minutes until set to a loose jelly.
Meanwhile mix the pork with the soy sauce, sesame oil, ginger and spring onions, stirring in one direction for a minute until the mixture turns sticky and holds together.
Chop the set jelly finely and fold it through the pork, then keep the bowl cold until you fill.
Put a heaped teaspoon of filling on each wrapper, wet the rim with water, and gather the edges up into loose pleats, pinching the top firmly closed.
Line a steamer with baking paper punched with holes or with cabbage leaves, arrange the dumplings 2cm apart, and steam over rapidly boiling water for 8 minutes until the pork is cooked through and firm with no pink.
Serve at once with black vinegar and slivered ginger, and warn everyone that the first bite is molten.
Read all that and thought “absolutely not”?
Completely fair. Xiaolongbao is sitting in the Chinese kitchen right now, it costs nothing, and it will never arrive.
Order it insteadMore from the Chinese kitchen
Wok breath you can taste from the doorway.