While in Beijing, I took a dumpling cooking class at The Hutong to learn the art of making Xiao Long Bao (also known as XLB, Shanghai Dumplings, or Soup Dumplings). If you are in Beijing, I highly recommend you check out their calendar to check for neighborhood and market tours as well as a diverse set of cooking classes including how to make various noodles, dumplings, and regional cuisines of China.
XLB is a unique type of dumpling because inside the wrapper is a broth-based jelly mixed with ground pork that transforms into a soup as it’s steamed. Eating it for the first time can be a challenge that often ends in a burnt tongue from the scorching hot soup (eating instructions can be found here); however, when done right, the steam vents out a small hole of your making that cools the soup before you devour the meatball inside.
I have been enjoying these glorious baskets of pork for roughly five years in San Francisco and New York thanks to a friend’s introduction at Shanghai Dumpling King; so, it was a long time coming and truly special to eat them in China. Their preparation requires patience (the jelly requires a days advance preparation, for example) and expert handling, so sit back, relax, and take a glimpse into how one makes the greatest food on earth.
Pork Jelly: Start with pork bones and back skin to make a broth with ginger & onions. Reduce and chill overnight until it’s a cloudy yellow jelly.Wrapper Dough: Using chopsticks, mix flour, salt, and hot water. Knead dough into a ball for rolling later and cover with a damp cloth.Dipping Sauce: Combine vinegar, sugar, soy sauce, ginger strips, and sesame oil to your liking!Minced Pork: Using chopsticks, mix pork with green onions, ginger, soy sauce, cooking wine, salt, pepper, sesame oil, and sugar. Mix in the jelly uniformly.Dough Stretching: Form a hole in the dough creating a loop.Wrappers: Cut the dough every 1 cm to form each of the wrappers. Rolling out each round 2/3 of the way before spinning it and repeating the process 2-3 times results in a thicker base capable of holding in the XLB soup as it melts and prevents tears.Dumplings: Spoon filling into the wrapper and get ready to do the twist! Our jelly was a bit frozen from the day before and thus we had to plop the yellow-ish globs on the filling rather than mix it in.To achieve the iconic seal at the top of XLB, there’s a complicated process of pinching using your first two fingers on your right hand while your thumb pushes the filling down and the other hand shapes the dumpling from the bottom and sides.Feel Accomplished: The wrapping technique is quite complicated with one thumb pushing filling down, two fingers pinching dough, and the inside of your hand supporting and shaping the dumpling. Once you have successfully twisted the seal at the top one can not help but grin from ear to ear.Pure Excellence.Fill. Twist. Repeat.Steaming Time: Steam XLBs until cooked – about 6 minutes. Crucial that only the best ones with thick enough skins go into the steamer to prevent losing the soup as it liquifies during cooking.So. Many. Dumplings.If you have a number of dumplings with stretched or thinner skins that will burst while steaming you can still steam them with a bit of oil in a pan. As the skin bursts and the soup pours out it forms a crunchy base.A map of traditional Chinese dishes and their origins (Peking Duck from Beijing, Hot Pot from Mongolia, Xiao Long Bao of Shanghai). Did you know Kung Pao chicken is an authentic dish from China?
And, now, a lesson in how not to make Xiao Long Bao:
You’re a dumpling queen!