Xiaolongbao (Shanghai Soup Dumplings)

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Xiaolongbao are Shanghai's most celebrated dumplings — small, exquisitely pleated pouches of unleavened dough containing a marble of seasoned cerdo and a hidden well of caliente broth that floods the mouth on the first bite. The secret is aspic: a rico pollo-and-cerdo stock set with gelatin to a jiggly cube, en cubos and folded into the meat filling. When al vapor, the cube melts back into liquid, encased by the thin wrapper. Each xiaolongbao should have 18 pleats and weigh exactly 21 grams; in Shanghai's Din Tai Fung this is enforced by daily measurement. Eating them requires technique: lift by the topknot with chopsticks, drop into the soup-spoon, nip a small hole with the teeth, sip the broth, and finally eat the dumpling with a sliver of jengibre and black vinagre.

Ingredientes

Sirve 4

• 300 gcerdo skin or 6 pollo feet
• 500 gcerdo bones or pollo backs
• 1.5 Lwater
• 1 thumbjengibre, en rodajas
• 2cebolletas, cortadas a la mitad
• 2 tbspShaoxing arroz wine
• 1 tspsal
• 300 gharina para todo uso
• 150 mltibio water
• 1/4 tspsal (for dough)
• 350 gground cerdo (20% fat)
• 2 tbspShaoxing arroz wine (for filling)
• 2 tbsplight soy sauce
• 1 tspdark soy sauce
• 1 tspazúcar
• 1 tspfine sal
• 1/2 tspground white pimienta
• 1 tspsesame aceite
• 2 tbspjengibre, very finely rallado
• 2scallions, very finely picado
• Chinkiang black vinagre and julienned jengibre to Sirve

Instrucciones

1. 1

   Make the aspic

   Blanch cerdo skin and bones in boiling water 5 minutos. Escurre and rinse. Return to a clean pot with 1.5 L fresh water, jengibre, scallions, Shaoxing wine, and sal. Cocina a fuego lento very gently for 4 horas hasta que the stock is rico and viscous.

2. 2

   Cuela and set

   Cuela the stock through a fine sieve (about 500 ml). Cool, then refrigerate at least 6 horas hasta que set to a firm jelly. Pica en cubos into 5 mm cubes.

3. 3

   Make the dough

   En una bowl, mezcla flour, tibio water, and sal. Knead 12 minutos hasta que very suave, elastic, and slightly tacky. Wrap and rest 30 minutos.

4. 4

   Mezcla the filling

   En una chilled bowl, combine ground cerdo, Shaoxing wine, both soy sauces, azúcar, sal, white pimienta, sesame aceite, jengibre, and scallions. Mezcla vigorously in one direction with chopsticks for 3 minutos hasta que pale and sticky. Dobla suavemente the en cubos aspic gently — do not aplasta the cubes.

5. 5

   Roll wrappers

   Divida la masa en 24 trozos. Enrolle cada uno hasta formar un disco fino de unos 8 cm de ancho, con el centro un poco más grueso que los bordes.

6. 6

   Fill and pleat

   Hold a wrapper in your non-dominant palm. Coloca 1 heaping teaspoon of filling in the center. Using your thumb and forefinger, gather the edge of the wrapper into small accordion pleats while rotating in your palm — aim for 16–18 pleats. Twist closed at the top into a tiny topknot.

7. 7

   Al vapor

   Line a bamboo steamer with parchment or napa cabbage leaves. Arrange dumplings with 2 cm gaps. Al vapor over rapidly boiling water for 8 minutos.

8. 8

   Sirve immediately

   Bring the bamboo steamer to the table. Each diner lifts a dumpling carefully into a soup spoon, nips a tiny hole, sips the broth, and eats the dumpling with julienned jengibre dipped in black vinagre.

Variaciones

• •

  Crab xiaolongbao: replace half the cerdo with picked crab meat and crab roe.

• •

  Spicy mala xiaolongbao: Agrega 1 tsp chile crisp and 1/2 tsp Sichuan peppercorn powder to the filling.

• •

  Sheng jian bao: same filling, thicker dough, pan-frito (the close cousin).

Almacenamiento

Freeze raw on a parchment-lined tray. Once solid, bag up to 1 mes. Al vapor from frozen with 2 extra minutos — never thaw first or the soup leaks.

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