Soup Dumplings (Xiao Long Tang Bao)

[yimay]

i live in austin. there are no soup dumplings to be found. sadness falls across the land. since i'm the chinese one, my friends have decided that i should try to make soup dumplings for them to eat. has anyone made them before and have a recipe they can share? i've found recipes online, but i'd like to try one that someone has already made and can attest for. my mom told me the soup needs to be made with aspic, frozen, then cut into little cubes and wrapped with the meat. but i found a tasty recipe online that calls for the thick soup to just be stirred in with the filling, i suppose it will just dissolve from the meat when it's cooked. any experience doing this?

i already know how to make the dough and roll out and wrap the little suckers (thanks to many summers cooking with my aunt!), i just need a good, tasty recipe for the filling/soup.

[Yuki]

I think that if you put enough bones into the soup, it should solidfy when placed into the fridge without any gelatin or aspic. It would be cut into little chunks and mixed into the fillings. Not so sure about the thick soup method, wouldn't it cause the fillings to be too wet?

[Laksa]

i live in austin. there are no soup dumplings to be found. sadness falls across the land. since i'm the chinese one, my friends have decided that i should try to make soup dumplings for them to eat.

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Sounds like you'd be a great person to have as a friend! I hope your friends appreciate what you're doing for them

You can't get even frozen soup dumplings at the Asian grocer? Well, that might not be a huge loss as the frozen ones I've had, while acceptable, don't match up to the ones I've had in restaurants.

[Jon Tseng]

A worthy topic title

There are two theories about how to get the soup into the dumpling. One is using frozen soup/aspic. The other is plenty of lard/fat. Both of these, obviously, melt to liquid when steamed. Fat more flavourful - sometimes seen as a "short cut". I suspect the truth is a combination of the two.

Also crab or no crab? Crab adds more flavour and makes the solid filling more moist/sloppy.

Finally wrapper - need to have it thick enough not to break, not not so thick as to make it doughy. A balance needed - how thin can you go without having it fall apart when picked up with chopsticks.

Another cheat - a thin slice of carrot on the bottom of the dumpling helps stop it sticking to the steamer - viz thin wrappers and risk they will tear.

Also size - smaller better/more prized, I believe.

regards

J

ps in London notable xiaolongbao from Hakkasan and the recently-opened China Experience. But in general I would say the quality of this delicacy in the UK notably poor and inconsistent versus other types of dim sum

[PCL]

Hakkasan xiao long bao definitely good.

[Tepee]

Recently, we made a discovery of a heavenly dim sum restaurant, called Dragon, in the Mid-Valley Megamall, in Kuala Lumpur. Actually, it's in the lobby of Cititel, the hotel annexed to the mall.

These xlb'swere sooooooooo good, I'm still dreaming about it. The dim sums were very fine and very reasonably priced for that standard (*whisper- don't tell them*), with each dish starting from RM6.00 (around US$2)!

Pardon the blurry pics, didn't take photos of all we ate, but this is some of them...

Edited July 21, 2005 by Tepee (log)

[Dejah]

Tepee! That's downright torture to show those xiao long bao!

Yimay, will you share your dough recipe? I want to try and make them this summer. Have only ever tasted one, and that was 10 years ago - frozen - steamed. I haven't been able to find any in Winnipeg and REALLY want to make some.

I have a jug of rich chicken stock in the fridge. If I boil that with agar or gelatin, will that work?

[Tepee]

Great! You get to be my victim, while hzwrt8 (somehow, I think I got that wrong) gets to torture mudbug.

My, were those xlb's juicy and sweet and....

[lexy]

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What are these? They look like jelly rolls to me, but I'm pretty sure that's not what they are …

[Tepee]

Lexy, have you tried ping pei (snowskin) mooncake before? It's exactly the same ingredients presented in a different way. One wing has red bean filling while the other is filled with peanut/sugar. I love it so much I'm going to attempt to make this real soon, since I've made ping pei mooncake before...and mooncake festival is around the corner. The pastry is made of koh fun (cooked glutinous rice flour).

Edited July 21, 2005 by Tepee (log)

[Laksa]

Teepee, great looking XLBs! It's lunchtime here and your photo is making me hungry and my mouth water. I can actually smell your XLBs... or maybe a colleague down the hall just came back with some takeout.

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What are these? They look like jelly rolls to me, but I'm pretty sure that's not what they are …

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They look like pretty butterflies to me. Teepee, how could you!?!? You're so cruel...

[lexy]

Lexy, have you tried ping pei (snowskin) mooncake before? It's exactly the same ingredients presented in a different way. One wing has red bean filling while the other is filled with peanut/sugar. I love it so much I'm going to attempt to make this real soon, since I've made ping pei mooncake before...and mooncake festival is around the corner. The pastry is made of koh fun (cooked glutinous rice flour).

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Ooh, those sound good. I wish there was a mooncake festival around here

[racheld]

Everything looks absolutely beautiful and delicious. The Soup Dumplings sound intriguing, with the frozen aspic to melt inside...I do a similar freeze-thing with a candy filling. The hunks are dipped frozen, then are creamy and rich inside the chocolate.

Way off topic, I know, but I had to say what a treat it is to see these lovely mooncakes, as well...my first and immediate thought (from making billions of palmiers over the years), was that it was dumpling dough, rolled into a rectangle, spread on one half with chunky peanut butter, the other with Nutella, then rolled and steamed in a long double-roll and sliced.

Just lovely. I've never been to this site before, and it's a nice treat.

[Ben Hong]

Teepee's post of the delectables that she just enjoyed has me working hard to get myself over to K.L. Brace yourselves! I am a dedicated "eater".

[Dejah]

Teepee's post of the delectables that she just enjoyed has me working hard to get myself over to K.L. Brace yourselves! I am a dedicated "eater".  

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...................................of everything! Couldn't resist, Ben Sook!

[Tepee]

Ben, you know, I've been compiling a mental list of "must eats" for you, which includes curry fish head. Now is that a greater incentive or what?

[Tepee]

Welcome, Racheld! Your culinary concoctions sound delicious too! Oh, tby the way, those are not mooncakes. For pics of mooncakes, stay tuned....

[hzrt8w]

Ben, you know, I've been compiling a mental list of "must eats" for you, which includes curry fish head. Now is that a greater incentive or what?

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Would the following make the list?

Char Quay Teow?

Laksa?

Satay chicken/beef?

Hainan Chicken Rice?

Bak Kut Teh?

[Tepee]

hz, you've been here before? You've got the list spot on!

...And Claypot chicken rice

Yong dau foo

Talking about laksa, there are many kinds...

Chilli Crabs

and.....

[hzrt8w]

hz, you've been here before? You've got the list spot on!

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No I have never been to Malaysia. But some of these Malaysian/Chinese dishes are popular in Hong Kong. I like Char Quay Teow very much. Besides, I have some cyber friends living in Penang. I IM them often and they often tease me with local food pics.

[racheld]

Welcome, Racheld! Your culinary concoctions sound delicious too! Oh, tby the way, those are not mooncakes. For pics of mooncakes, stay tuned....

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You bet!!! My musings are confined mostly to the USA threads, especially Southern Food Culture, as that's where I'm originally from. Sorry I mistook the mooncakes---someone said they look like butterflies, and I just went on from there. Thanks for the lovely pics---Hubby is an avid photographer, and he says they're great.

And I DO happen to have a jar of red bean paste just sitting waiting in my pantry. Go figure.

And is the other "wing" just ground peanuts and sugar? Gotta try those for a party.

thanks for the gracious welcome!!

rachel

[racheld]

We were out for the afternoon, and stopped for an early dinner at a lovely place which cooks squid about five ways---Hubby likes them all.

On one of the buffets, I noticed six of the nice silver covered pans which usually denote delicious dumplings, and lifted the lids one by one---one had tiny open-top meat dumplings, one was a scrumptious shrimp paste inside a fluffy dumpling, and two of the others were also meat-filled. I placed one each of four kinds on a plate and ladled in a tiny bit of the dipping sauce, making a savory moat around all the beautifully-shaped white islands.

But one was just the most beautiful dumpling I've ever seen---it was perfectly-shaped peach, about 3/4 the size of a real peach, with blushed cheeks and two tiny green dough leaves adhered to one side. It may have been from the Chinese version of Sysco, but it was just almost too beautiful to eat. That one I balanced upon two of the others til I could get back to the table and put it on a little plate.

So I lifted each dumpling with my chopsticks and took a bite of each. Their labels had read, Meat Dumpling and Shrimp Dumpling and Peach Dumpling, and they were all just delicious--wonderful fillings inside the most ethereal steamed dough.

I left the peach one for dessert, but before I finished the others, the last one I tasted seemed to be all dough, so I thought it was just a little steamed plain bun.

When I took about the third bite of it, I regretted that I had floated it on the little bit of garlicky, gingery sauce, because it was filled with a delicate vanilla custard, like a slightly-thicker creme Anglaise. It was a pale creamy yellow inside, with the taste of a perfect, eggy vanilla custard, much like the filling in a Southern Chess Pie, or a delicate flan.

The peach one had a traditional sweet bean filling, and perhaps the vanilla one was also bean-based, though it was a pale yellow. Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed each and every one---especially the second one of the vanilla ones, which I went up and got for my dessert course. I totally ignored all the chicken and beef and pork dishes on the buffet, which I usually enjoy while Hubby has all the seafood he likes (especially what he calls "eating piranha"--they always have a tray of beautiful silverskinned whole fish topped with intricately-cut steamed vegetables, and the fish have MANY sharp little teeth).

Anyway, I really enjoyed my dumpling dinner---I ate six of them. And I wondered as I ate---how do you EVER get them so seamlessly perfect? Several of these had tiny squares of parchment on the bottom as I lifted them from the steamer, and I KNOW they were too perfectly formed and uniform in size to have been other than machine made---I think. So I imagine them to be a bought item, frozen for transport and steamed on the premises. But there was not a seam, a crevice, an ANYPLACE into which that bean paste or vanilla custard could have been injected.

They were lovely, and I thank you for the idea to skip everything else and enjoy all those lovely dumplings.

Edited July 23, 2005 by racheld (log)

[Dejah]

Dim sum chefs DO make these dumplings by hand.

If you ever get a chance to watch a skillful one, watch how they smash a lump of dough with their cleaver into perfectly round, perfectly thin pastry before they make the shrimp dumplings (har gow)

The parchment conceals the "seam" and prevents the dumpling from sticking to the bottom of the basket.

I had several "aunties" making dim sum for me when I had the restaurant. They were home trained, and trust me, each of their dumplings were perfectly pleated, and uniform in size.

[SuzySushi]

I had several "aunties" making dim sum for me when I had the restaurant. They were home trained, and trust me, each of their dumplings were perfectly pleated, and uniform in size.

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When you've made 40,000 of them, you get pretty proficient....

[hzrt8w]

When you've made 40,000 of them, you get pretty proficient....   

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I wonder who got fed the first 39,999 har gow...