Crab and Pork Chinese Soup Dumplings

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OcadoLife

4 serving

Prep time: 45 mins

Cook time: 40 mins

Serves: 4

Ever wondered how the tasty broth gets trapped inside xiaolongbao (Chinese soup dumplings)? YouTube stars and authors Julie and Amy Zhang – aka the Dumpling Sisters – reveal how it’s done with their Crab and Pork Chinese Soup Dumplings. “The secret is to jellify the broth before mixing the filling, which melts during steaming to create the soup. To eat them, pop one on your spoon and pierce a little hole to release the broth; sip it up (give it a second to cool so you don’t burn your mouth), then enjoy the rest.” Looking for more Chinese recipes? Look no further.

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Ingredients Method

Ingredients

500ml chicken stock
4 salad onions, 3 sliced into 5 cm lengths, 1 finely chopped
1 (5cm) piece ginger (approx.), 3 thin slices cut from it, plus ½ tbsp finely chopped or grated
2½ tsp powdered gelatine (or 4 gelatine leaves, soaked)
150g pork mince (at least 12% fat)
100g white crab meat
1 garlic clove, finely chopped or grated
1½ tsp light soy sauce
2 tsp sesame oil
½ tbsp shaoxing rice wine
¼ tsp salt
2 pinches ground white pepper
1 tsp caster sugar
½ tbsp cornflour
200g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
2 tsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp chilli oil (approx.), to serve (optional)

Method

Step 1

To make the jelly, put the stock, sliced salad onions and sliced ginger in a pan and bring to the boil. Simmer, covered, for 15 mins. Strain 250ml into a measuring jug (discard the rest) and sprinkle over the gelatine; mix to dissolve. Chill for 4 hours or overnight.

Step 2

For the filling, combine the pork mince, crab meat, chopped salad onion, ginger and garlic, soy sauce, sesame oil, rice wine, salt, pepper, sugar and cornflour in a large mixing bowl. Stir thoroughly until you have a paste – this helps bind the mixture well and means the dumplings will hold their shape better when steamed.

Step 3

Turn out the jelly and chop it into small pieces (approx. 3mm), then add it to the pork mixture. Use a fork to blend it in, lightly mashing the jelly as needed. Chill the mixture for at least 30 mins, or overnight if you’re making it ahead.

Step 4

For the dough, put the flour in a bowl with 2 pinches of salt. Add 80ml boiling water and mix to ‘crumbs’. Add 40ml cold water and the oil; mix to form a dough. Knead on a floured surface for 10 mins until smooth. Cover; rest for 30 mins.

Step 5

Divide the dough into quarters; roll each into a long sausage, then cut into 8 x 8g pieces (weigh for accuracy). Roll out each into an 8 cm disc using a narrow rolling pin. Place, covered, on a floured surface. You’ll have 32 discs – wrappers – in total.

Step 6

Put a heaped tsp of the filling in the centre of one wrapper. Using your index finger and thumb, pleat around the edge of the wrapper, pinching firmly to create a little ‘moneybag’ that closes in around the filling (just like curtain pleats). When you reach the last pleat, twist the wrapper slightly to close the gap (making sure none of the filling escapes) and pinch to seal. Repeat with the remaining wrappers and filling until you have 32 dumplings ready for steaming.

Step 7

Oil a steamproof plate or line a steamer with baking paper (poke a few holes in it). Cover and steam in batches, leaving a 2 cm gap between each, over vigorously boiling water for 7 mins, until cooked. Rest for 1 min; serve with chilli oil, if you like.