← Nouns Cooking · Chinese

Ingredients

• 300 ml rich chicken or pork stock
• 10 g Powdered gelatine
• 200 g plain flour
• pinch of salt
• 110 ml water (half just-boiled, half cold)
• 250 g fatty pork mince
• 1 tbsp Ginger, finely grated
• 2 Spring onion, very finely chopped
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tbsp Shaoxing wine
• ½ tsp Sugar
• ½ tsp Salt
• ¼ tsp White pepper
• 1 tsp Toasted sesame oil
• 4 tbsp Chinkiang black vinegar
• 2 cm piece ginger, cut into fine shreds
• napa cabbage leaves, to line the steamer (optional)

Method

1. Make the jelly: warm the stock in a pan (do not boil), sprinkle over the gelatine and stir until dissolved. Pour into a shallow dish and chill for 3–4 hours, until firm. Chop it finely.
2. For the dough, mix the flour and salt, stir in the hot water, then the cold water, and knead for 5 min until smooth. Cover and rest for 30 min.
3. Stir the pork with all the other filling ingredients in one direction for 2–3 min until sticky. Fold in 200 g of the chopped jelly and keep the filling in the fridge.
4. Roll the dough into a log and cut into 24 pieces. Roll each into an 8 cm circle, keeping the edges thinner than the middle. Keep the rest covered as you work.
5. Put a heaped teaspoon of filling in the centre. Pleat the edge all the way round, pinching each fold, and twist the top closed. Set on cabbage leaves or baking paper in a steamer basket, 2 cm apart.
6. Steam over boiling water on high heat for 8 min, until the skins look slightly translucent and the filling is cooked through (71°C / 160°F).
7. Serve at once with the vinegar and ginger. Lift each dumpling into a spoon, nibble a small hole, sip the soup, then eat.

Tips

• The soup inside is scalding: always let people know before their first bite.
• Freeze uncooked dumplings on a tray, then bag them; steam from frozen for 10–12 minutes.

Sources

Written in our own words after cross-checking these recipes:

Omnivore's Cookbook Taste of Asian Food Marion's Kitchen