Xiao Long Bao - Little Soup Dumplings

After throwing out the question "Which would you prefer?" in that painfully short post I made last month, I was pleasantly surprised that the majority of commenters loved the dumplings. I grew up eating xiao long bao for breakfast almost every morning when I lived in Shanghai. I think it's one of those things you absolutely must eat in your lifetime; you'd be hard-pressed to find a more perfect morsel of food. Of course, I may be biased since they are my favorite food item but if you've seen the No Reservations: Shanghai episode, I'm sure Anthony Bourdain would agree with me (even though he hates food bloggers or something like that). Hopefully no one falls asleep reading this thesis-length post--I swear I tried to edit out as much as I could. Both xlb and croissants, which will come a little later, were in the top 5 of that huge long list of things I wanted to make this summer. I was able to cook about 1/3 of the list even though I only blogged about a handful of them. As for the rest of the items, the time frame is extended... indefinitely? Gotta love personal deadlines.

The xiao long bao, also called soup dumpling, is a bite-sized dumpling in a thin flour wrapper with a pork, sometimes crab, filling and a rich broth. The soup is what sets the xiao long bao, its pan-fried cousin the sheng jian bao, and the larger relative the tang bao, apart from all other dumplings and buns. The trick to getting the soup inside the dumpling is make a gelatin rich soup that solidifies at room temperature (think meat soup Jello) then mash it up into small chunks and mix it with a ground pork filling. As the buns steam, the pieces of gelatin soup in the filling melts back into a liquid that's now magically encased in the delicate wrapper. Pretty cool huh? A well made xiao long bao will have nearly two dozen pleats in the thin, almost translucent wrapper, a tender meaty filling, and is bursting with savory soup.

Xiao long bao originated in Shanghai over a hundred years ago and have now become an iconic symbol of Shanghainese cuisine. They were created by the Nanxiang Steamed Bun Restaurant, which still sells these dumplings to this day. In Shanghai, you don’t have to travel far to find this morning staple but here in North America, there are only 3 major metropolitan areas that I know of serving this niche food item. Unfortunately, here in Seattle, you won’t be able to find any that are worthwhile. Instead, you'll have to make the drive up to the Vancouver/Richmond BC area, which has half a dozen or so restaurants serving decent xiao long bao (my favorite location being Shanghai River in Richmond). For elsewhere in the US, I've heard good things about the xiao long bao you can find in Southern California and New York City. Outside of Vancouver, SoCal, and NYC, I’m afraid you might be out of luck but if anyone finds a good city in the States do let us know! You may be tempted to buy the frozen xiao long bao sold at Asian grocery stores but usually they’re utterly disappointing-the skin is too thick, the soup leaks, and the filling is tough and studded with overwhelming chunks of ginger. But when a craving gets really, really, really bad, I'm not gonna say no.

When faced with a fresh basket of soup dumplings, don’t stick the whole thing in your mouth and chomp down. Hot juices will spurt out, dribble on your shirt, and worst of all, scald the inside of your mouth. Instead, after dipping the dumpling in a little black vinegar, place it on your spoon and gently nibble the wrapper and slowly slurp up the soup so you don't burn your tongue. Then dip the dumpling again in the black vinegar if you like a more vinegary kick before eating it. Some places will give you some ginger slivers to add to your black vinegar.

If you really want to try making this at home, I have to warn you that it’s long and time consuming. It was the most tedious recipe I have ever attempted but I'm weird and I like spending my weekend cooking something that takes 2 days to prepare. Even though the majority of my dumplings look misshapen and half of them leaked, the flavor was spot on! I did a pretty good job for a first attempt but I won't be making these again for years... So next time we'll just drive up to Vancouver for our fix.

If you're still set on making these at home, I implore you, please don't take short cuts. Don't make the stock with that can of Swanson's sitting in the pantry from 2001 *blech*. What makes these little gems special is the flavorful soup inside so spend the time to make a good soup base. It's worth it! While you could take some homemade chicken stock set it with gelatin, it will lack the velvety, almost creamy richness of a traditional slow simmered stock made collagen-rich pork feet or pork skin. For my stock, I used a combination of chicken wings, chicken backbone, and some pig feet along with aromatics like ginger, green onion, and star anise. You can use pork skin too but the meat in the pig feet will adds to the flavor. Make the wrappers fresh too because if you spend all that time making the soup and filling, it's a shame to use storebought wrappers.

Xiao long bao – Shanghai Soup Dumplings

Aspic/Gelantized Stock
1 pound chicken wings
2 chicken backbones (carcasses from roast chicken will work too)
1 pork trotter (foot) or a large piece of pork skin
3 1/4 inch thick slices of ginger
4 green onions
1 star anise
8 cups of water
Salt

Wrappers
3 C all purpose flour
1/3 C hot water
2/3 C cold water
Pinch of salt

Filling
1 pound ground pork
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp rice wine
1 tsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp grated ginger
1/2 tsp sugar
2 C gelatin stock, chopped/mashed into small pieces

Serve with
Black vinegar
Fresh ginger slivers

Make the aspic
When working with pork feet make sure to wash it well, then boil it twice in a change of water to get the smell, bacteria, and scum out. If you're using raw chicken wings and backbones, it's best to boil those once too to get any scum out. Add the pork feet to a pot (large saucepan, stock pot, Dutch oven whatever works) and cover them with water and bring it to a boil. Boil for a minute, drain, and rinse off any scum on the feet in cold water. Wash out the pot as well or use a new pot because there will be scum on the side. Return the pork feet, and the raw chicken wings and backbones to the pot and fill with cold water and bring back to a boil again and boil for a minute. Drain and rinse off any scum and wash the pot again

Add 2 teaspoons of oil to your pot over medium heat. Smash the ginger slices and green onion with the side of a knife and add to the oil and until they are fragrant, then add boiled and rinsed off chicken wings and pork feet, 1 star anise, and 8 cups of cold water. Bring to a boil then simmer gently uncovered, skim any scum on the surface, for 6+ hours. Never let the soup boil again because it will cloud. The stock is ready when it can solidify at room temperature. Test the stocks gelling ability by spooning some of it into a small bowl and allow it to cool down to room temperature. If it solidifies then the stock is ready. Strain soup and season it with some salt. Set aside 2 cups for the dumpling filling. Save any excess for adding to sauces or soups. Let the soup cool to room temp then transfer it to the fridge. The soup can keep for up to 3 days in the fridge. You can scrape off any fat that solidifies on top or mix it into the filling, up to you.

Make the dough
In a large bowl, add 2 1/2 cups of flour. First add the 1/3 cup of very hot water and stir that into the flour. Then add the 2/3 cup of cold water and stir it into the dough. Bring the dough together and knead while incorporating additional flour if you need to, until the dough is not sticky. Don’t overknead or it will be too tough and gluteny to work with. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and let it rest for an hour while you prepare the filling.

Prepare the filling
Mix the ground pork with all of the seasoning ingredients. Roughly chop the aspic then use a pastry blender or two forks to mash it into smaller pieces. Mix this into the ground pork mixture. Keep it in the fridge until the dough has finished resting.

Wrapping the dumplings
Divide the dough into 3 portions. Work with one portion and keep the other two covered. Roll the dough into a long snake. Then cut a small cylindrical piece off of the snake. Flatten with your palm and roll the dough out into a 2 1/2 inch diameter wrapper. The best rolling device for making Chinese wrappers is a small wooden dowel thats about 6 inches long and 3/4 inch in diameter.

The first 4 pictures in the eating Chinese xiao long bao tutorial shows the process of making the dough and wrappers. You want the wrappers to be a bit thicker than wonton wrappers. If the wrappers are too thin, the soup will dissolve it and leak out.

Place about 2 teaspoons of filling in the center of the wrapper. Hold the outer edge of the wrapper with the thumb and index finger of your dominant hand. Using the other thumb and index finger, hold the edge of the wrapper and bring it to your dominant hand to pleat. Pleat around the circumference of the entire wrapper, turning the dumpling as you go, and seal the tip to close. The third and fourth pictures in the third row of the eating Chinese xiao long bao tutorial gives a somewhat helpful guide. The hardest part for me was getting my thumb out of the inside of the dumpling and sealing the tip.

Steam and serve
Bring some water to a boil in a wok or large pot with a steamer insert. Line a bamboo or metal steaming basket with cabbage leaves or damp cheesecloth. Place the dumplings in the basket and steam on high for 5 – 7 minutes. (5 minutes was enough for my dumplings but make sure the filling is cooked all the way before eating)

Serve hot with ginger slivers and black vinegar.

Pork, Shrimp, and Shiitake Mushroom Potstickers

Dumpling making was a frequent weekend family activity when I was young. First, my dad would mix the filling, adding a splash of this and and a dash of that. Then we would start the assembly line. My brother's job was to separate any wrappers that were stuck together, lay them out, and, the most important part, place them flour side down so when we pick up the wrappers, the flour side would end up on the outside of the dumplings. My mom and I would wrap the dumplings, using up the wrappers as fast as my brother could separate them. Dad would help with the wrapping sometimes but his other job besides making the filling was boiling the dumplings. Of course, my mom would always get on his case about how he would boil them too long.

The way Chinese people boil dumplings has always puzzled me. Here’s how my family did it:
1. Bring a large pot of water up to a boil
2. Add your dumplings, bring it up to a boil again
3. Add a cup of cold water, boil again,
4. Add another cup of cold water, and after it comes up to a boil again, they are ready to be served.

Every Chinese person I’ve asked about this says the same thing: add water, boil, add water, boil. Even all of my Chinese cookbooks say to boil this way. Nowhere does it specify how much water you start out with or how much is a “cup” of cold water, sometimes my dad used a mug, sometimes a bowl. Because I'm a food science nerd, I wonder, what is the science behind the principle of adding the cold water? I could BS something and say that the cold water solidifies the gluten in the wrappers making the dumplings chewier but honestly, I don’t think a cupful of cold tap water in a stockpot of boiling hot water is going to make a difference. What's the difference is between doing this versus a steady gentle simmer? Anyone want to hazard a guess? Anyways, since I like to be precise, or at least try to, I gave time frames for boiling, steaming, and panfrying the dumplings. You can always cut open a sacrificial dumpling to check if the inside is cooked through.

My family always used storebought wrappers for their convenience so I thought these were the way to go. The last time I tried to make homemade wrappers, I ended up with some painful and diastrous results (I won’t go into details). So I went back to buying my wrappers, thinking that they would solve my problems. But... they don’t! Now I find that the storebought wrappers are too dry and rigid. Having to wet the wrappers with water is an extra step and it's especially annoying when the wrappers don't seal properly. Homemade wrappers definitely taste better and have a much better chew but is it worth the trouble? I’ll have to try again.

With so many possible fillings and three different ways of cooking them, I'll never get tired of making and eating dumplings. Dumpling or jiao zi are filled with a combination of protein and veggie. They are usually filled with ground pork because that is the most common meat eaten in China, but they can also be filled with shrimp, beef, pressed tofu, or even scrambled egg. There's even greater variety of vegetables you can use: napa cabbage, salted mustard greens, Chinese chives, etc. Then you can either boil the dumplings (shui jiao) or steam them (zheng jiao) or panfry them (guo tie/potstickers).

Pork, Shrimp, and Mushroom Potstickers

1 lb ground pork
1/2 lb shrimp, finely chopped or briefly pulsed in a food processor
1/2 C chopped shiitake mushrooms
1 tsp grated ginger
2 Tbsp Shao Hsing rice wine
2 Tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp sesame oil
1/4 tsp white pepper
1/2 tsp sugar
1 egg
1 Tbsp cornstarch

1 pack of potsticker wrappers or fresh wrappers
And a bowl of water

or

Fresh potsticker wrappers
3 C all purpose flour
2/3 C boiling water
1/3 C cold water
1 tsp salt

Makes about 32 to 36 potstickers

Make the wrapper (optional)
Mix flour, salt, and hot water. Stir together with a spoon or pair of chopsticks until the dough comes together. Add the cold water and stir. Knead until smooth. The dough should not be sticky. Let the dough rest at least 30 minutes. You can make the filling at this time.

Divide the dough in 4 pieces and keep 3 pieces under cover so it doesn’t dry out. Take one portion and roll it out into a long snake. Cut off a piece of the snake to and roll it into a 3 in wrapper. Ideally it should be thinner around the edges and thicker in the middle.

Repeat for the other half of the dough. Keep the dough covered when you work with out to prevent it from drying out.

Make the filling
Mix all of the ingredients for the filling together in a bowl.

If you're using storebought wrappers, make sure you place the filling on the side with less flour. Place a tablespoon of the filling on a wrapper. You can pleat the edges or fold them in half. If I’m boiling them, I get lazy and fold them in half. If I’m panfrying them for potstickers, then I like to pleat them so they can sit neatly on their flat bottoms in the pan. When using storebought wrappers, make sure to have a bowl of water to moisten the entire perimeter of the wrapper in order to tightly seal the dumpling. You won’t need the water for fresh wrappers since the dough is soft enough to seal together nicely. If you’re looking for how to pleat the dumplings, the very best folding guide I've come across is Jen’s dumpling guide. I didn’t even bother taking my own pictures especially with my dirty hands because Jen’s guide is an A+. There was a good one on Epicurious a while back but I can’t find it anymore. Place the wrapped potstickers on a lightly floured tray and keep them covered until you are ready to cook them.

Boil:
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the dumplings and stir so they don’t stick to each other or to the bottom of the pan. Cover and lower the heat to a simmer. Simmer for 7 – 9 minutes, or until the filling is cooked through. Frozen dumplings will take an additional 1 – 2 minutes. Drain and serve with dipping sauce.

Steam:
Bring the water in the steamer up to a boil. Place some cabbage leaves or a layer of cheesecloth in the steamer. Arrange the dumplings so they are not touching. When the water in the steamer comes to a boil, steam the dumplings for 10 - 12 minutes. Frozen dumplings will take an additional 1 – 2 minutes.

Pan fry:
Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a nonstick skillet over medium high heat. Arrange the dumplings in a circular ring around the pan and squeeze some into the middle, making sure that they do not touch. Pan fry until the bottoms are light golden, about 1 minute. Add 1/2 C of water and immediately cover. Turn the heat down to low or medium low and steam the dumplings in the skillet for 10 minutes (12 minutes for frozen). After 10 minutes, remove the lid and turn the heat up to medium high to evaporate any remaining water and crisp the bottoms, about 2 – 3 more minutes. Place a plate over the potstickers and invert the pan to serve the potstickers crispy side up.

Freeze:
Freeze the dumplings on a lightly floured tray, making sure they are not touching. When they are frozen solid, transfer them to a freezer bag.


Dipping sauce

2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp rice vinegar
1/4 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp toasted sesame oil
Thinly sliced scallions (optional)
Minced ginger (optional)
Minced garlic (optional)
Chili oil or chili sauce/paste (optional)

Mix everything in a bowl and serve with dumplings. Double if needed.

Wonton Soup

The best wontons I've had were made with pork and ji cai, or shepherd's purse. You're probably thinking, "what the heck, that sounds like a weed". And according to wiki, yeah basically it is a weed. I've never been able to find it here in the States, since I don't think it's grown here commercially. My dad brought back some seeds from China to grow at home but his idea of growing vegetables was basically taking the fistful of seeds and throwing it on the ground. Whatdoyaknow nothing grew. Anyways so I make my wontons with salted Chinese mustard greens that I salt at home. I'll post a guide for this eventually (I included the recipe at the end) but you can also use napa cabbage or even bok choy but make sure to salt them first for about 30 minutes and squeeze out all the excess water.

Pork and Vegetable Wontons

1 lb ground pork
1 1/2 C finely chopped napa cabbage, bok choy, packed + 1/2 tsp salt
or 1 C salted (not preserved) mustard greens (instructions below)
1 egg
1 tsp minced ginger
2 Tbsp rice wine
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1/4 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp white pepper
1/4 tsp salt
1 Tbsp corn starch

1 pack of wonton wrappers
Bowl of water for dabbing the wrappers
Flour for dusting surface

For serving:
Chicken stock
Spinach leaves (optional)
Seasame oil

Toss the napa with the salt and set aside for 30 minutes. Squeeze the excess liquid out with your hands or in a cheesecloth and add to a large bowl. Add the rest of the filling ingredients and mix until everything is throughly combined.



Add 1 teaspoon of the filling to the center of the wrapper (pic 1). Keep the rest of the wrappers covered while you wrap each wonton. Apply water to the perimeter of the wrapper on all four sides. Fold the wrapper in half, make sure not to trap any air in the center, press firmly to seal the edges (pic 2). Holding the wonton lengthwise crease the wonton by folding it in half (pic 3). Bring the two corners together (pic 4), dab a little water and press firmly to seal (pic 5). (Doing this with one hand and having to take pics was hard.) They'll look like nurse caps or sometimes like gold ingots like mine (pic 6).

While your folding the last of the wontons, bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil. Add the wontons and turn the heat down so the water is simmering. Give the pot a stir once you add in the wontons so they don't stick to the bottom of the pot or to each other. Cover and simmer for 3 minutes or until they float and the filling is cooked through (you can cut one open to check). If you over cook the wontons, the warpper will be all flabby and mushy, which is not very tasty. Always boil wontons in water and never directly in the chicken stock because the flour on the wrappers will cloud the chicken stock.

Meanwhile, have your chicken stock/chicken soup ready. Bring your chicken stock up to a boil in a separate saucepan. Homemade is best but a good quality canned/boxed kind will do in a pinch. If you want to add spinach leaves, add it at the very end to quickly blanch them in the soup. Serve the wontons in the chicken soup with a drizzle of sesame oil on top.

Freezing Wontons
You can freeze the extras and simmer them whenever you feel like soup. Freeze the wontons in one layer not touching each other on a tray lightly dusted with flour so they don't stick. When the wontons are frozen solid, transfer them to a big freezer bag.

Simmer for 4 minutes (rather than the 3 minutes for fresh ones) in water, or until they float.


I'll post a more in depth guide next time I do this.
Salting Mustard Greens


1 bunch of Chinese mustard greens (xue li hong/sher li hong)
Plenty of salt

Break each leaf off and wash the mustard greens and spin them dry or pat them dry with a paper towel. Place them in a pyrex and sprinkle liberally with salt. Let them stand overnight.

Then keep in the fridge in it's salted juices for up to a week.

Use in stir fries, dumpling, or wonton fillings.

Egg Dumplings and Stuffed Cakes

Back in Shanghai, my relatives would make these egg dumplings for a special occasion or big family get together. A thin layer of beaten egg rather than a flour dough is used as a wrapper; think of it like a mini omelet. Traditionally, a wok or a ladle is used to make the egg wrapper and it's a very delicate and time consuming process.

I used way too much egg for the first wrapper and ended up with a thick egg taco. The next few wrappers spread into blobs that resembled various landmasses rather than circles. Many wrappers tore when I tried to close the dumpling, some exploded with filling. After botching almost a dozen dumplings, I finally got the hang of it. A few hours later, I made a little over two dozen dumplings. They were delicious but I would not recommend making them; they just aren't worth the time and effort.

Notes:
- The recipe makes a lot of filling, enough for a full dumpling dough recipe: (3 C flour, 1 C water, 1 tsp salt). Any leftover filling can be stir fried and eaten with rice.
- The mushrooms are cooked first to bring out their flavor and the chives are cooked a bit to wilt them down.

Pork, Chive, and Mushroom Filling

3/4 lb ground pork
3 C packed chopped Chinese chives/leek
1/2 C chopped rehydrated dried shiitake mushrooms
2 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp Shao hsing rice wine
1 egg
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1 tsp grated ginger
1/4 tsp white pepper
1/2 tsp sugar

Heat 1 tsp of vegetable oil in a nonstick skillet over medium high heat. Add the shiitake mushrooms and stir fry for a minute, then add the chives and cook just until the chives start to wilt (do not cook them fully). Set aside to cool.

Mix everything together to make the filling.

Egg Dumplings
1/2 of the pork and chive recipe
4 eggs beaten with some salt and 4 Tbsp of water/milk
Vegetable oil

Heat 1/2 tsp of vegetable oil in a small nonstick skillet or wok over medium or medium low heat. Add only a tablespoon (resist the temptation to add more) of the beaten egg mixture to the skillet and tilt the egg mixture around to form a very thin circular wrapper about 3 to 3 1/2 inches in diameter. The skillet should be hot enough so that the egg slightly sizzles when it hits the pan. The pan is too hot if the egg sizzles loudly and sets immediately as it hits the pan before you can finish swirl the wrapper. I found that the best technique is a combination of tilting the pan and using the back of the tablespoon to push the egg out to make a circle.

Add a mounded teaspoon of filling to the center of the egg wrapper and use a spatula to flip half of the wrapper over the filling. Press around the crescent edges to seal the filling in as the egg fully cooks. Allow the dumpling to cook for a few more seconds in the pan then set aside. At this point the filling is not cooked. Repeat with making the rest of the dumplings. 4 beaten eggs will make around 26 dumplings.

Traditionally, the dumplings are fully cooked in hot pot or soup but I'm sure you can also steam them to fully cook the filling. I gently boiled them in some chicken stock for about 10 minutes to cook them through.




I ended up making way too much filling because I drew the line at 4 eggs, so I made a flour dough to make stuffed cakes. The dough is a basic dumpling/potsticker wrapper dough. The stuffed cakes are very similar to a potsticker but are circular and bigger.



Pork, Chive, and Mushroom Stuffed Cakes
Dough (halved basic potsticker wrapper
1 1/2 C flour
1/2 C cold water
1/2 tsp salt


Mix the flour, salt, and water together and form a uniform smooth dough.

Let the dough rest for 30 minutes.

Divide the dough in half and then each half into 4 - 5 pieces. I got about 10 stuffed cakes from this recipe.

Roll a piece of dough into a circle that's about 4 - 5 inches in diameter. Keep the wrapper thicker in the middle and thinner towards the edges.

Add a mounded tablespoon of filling to the center of the wrapper. I wanted to stuff these cakes as full as possible.

Gather up all the edges and pinch close. Then flatten the cake gently into a patty. Set aside on a flour lined sheet and continue to make the rest. Dust off excess flour before cooking. You can also freeze these cakes; first freeze them on a tray then transfer them to a zipper lock bag.

Heat 2 tsp of vegetable oil in a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Pan fry the cakes until both sides are golden brown. Then add 1/4 C of water to the skillet, cover, turn the heat down to low, and steam for 10 minutes. If the pan gets too dry, add another tablespoon of water.

After 10 minutes remove the cover and turn the heat up to medium high. Boil off any remaining water and recrisp both sides.


More dumpling recipes:
Pork and Cabbage Potstickers
Shrimp and Edamame Dumplings (Har Gau)
Sticky Rice Siu Mai

This month's WTSIM is hosted by Johanna of The Passionate Cook. Be sure to check the roundup for more great dumpling recipes.