Chi You Chao Mian (Soy Sauce Chow Mein)

Chi You Chao Mian (Soy Sauce Chow Mein)

One of the lesser known items enjoyed at Chinese dim sum restaurants is a chewy, savory noodle dish known in English as Soy Sauce Chow Mein.  This is not usually seen on the ordinary steam carts circling the dim sum restaurant; instead, you'll find it on a cold cart featuring other specials, such as salt-and-pepper squid, roast duck, steamed greens with oyster sauce, etc.  Its unique texture and flavor requires a thin steamed wheat noodle, often labeled  won ton noodle,  beansprouts, green and white onion, and soy sauce, all stir fried to perfection.  The Hong Kong style "won ton" noodles can be purchased fresh at most Asian groceries; however, it is essential to use the steamed version, which isn't always labeled as such, but you can also buy the raw noodle, and steam it yourself in a bamboo steamer: spread the noodles out in a steamer tray 1" to 2" thick, and steam for approx 7 minutes.   As soon as they are cool enough to handle, separate and fluff the noodles and set aside.

8 oz  thin steamed Chow Mein Noodles,  aka: "won ton noodles" (i.e. Wan Hua Foods brand) 

3/4 med yellow onion

2 or 3 green onion

7 oz beansprouts

3 Tab Soy sauce
1/2 tsp salt

2 rounded tsp sugar

Dash of vinegar

Dash of dry white sherry, or XiaoShing wine...

Sesame oil

Submerge steamed noodles in hot (150 degree) water for 2 minutes.  Drain well.

Cut yellow onion into tapered slivers, about 1/2 " wide.  Cut green onion into 1-1/2" sections; slice the white portions in half and break apart.  Mix soy with sugar and dash of vinegar and set aside.

Heat 3 Tablespoons of peanut oil in a wok, until just beginning to smoke, and add yellow and white portion if green onion.  Gently flatten the onions to the wok with the shovel, allowing to brown for 20 seconds or so; add beansprouts, green onion pieces, and a dash of wine, then stir-fry for 1 to 2 minutes, till the sprouts just begin to soften.  Add steamed noodles and soy sauce/sugar mixture; it's a good idea to chop into the mass of noodles with the spatula 2 or 3 times to shorten them, then toss until sauce is thoroughly incorporated and the noodles are hot.  Serve on oval platter and garnish with sesame oil.

Ha Gao (Shrimp Dumpling)

Ha Gao  (Shrimp Dumpling)

Ha Gao (Cantonese, also Romanized as Ha Gow, Har Gow or Ha Gau, meaning “Shrimp Dumpling”) is possibly the most classic dim sum delicacy, seen in every dim sum restaurant on earth, no matter how limited the menu.  It works excellently as an appetizer for a Western meal, however, in China it is exclusively a dim sum item or a street snack sold alongside other dim sum favorites.  When done well, Ha Gau has a spectacular appearance as well as taste.  Wheat starch is the key ingredient for the skin, and its sticky texture and semi-transparency, while very unusual to western tastes, is ubiquitous in Southern China and Southeast Asia.  When making this snack, you might find that handling the wheat starch wrapper for these dumplings is a challenge. The dough trades off its finished beauty with being sticky and structurally weak to work with. Having said that, because it has no gluten, the dough actually becomes easier to manipulate than wheat flour once you get used to it. I’ve tried to photograph the process in the hopes that this will help.  In any event, the effort will be rewarded...

Filling:

1       oz         Pork Fat, finely diced (Optional...)

10     oz         deveined and shelled shrimp

1       oz         bamboo shoots, rinsed, drained well, chopped fine.

1       egg       white only, lightly beaten

1       tsp         sugar

1/2    Tab       cornstarch

1/2    tsp         salt

1/2    tsp         sherry

1/2    tsp         sesame oil

Dash    white pepper

Finely mince and pound or puree 1/2 of the shrimp.  With the other half, cut the shrimp into 3 or 4 large segments, depending on the size.  (For appearance and texture, you want large pieces of shrimp in the filling; the finely minced provides an overall binder.)   In a bowl, mix the shrimp and beaten egg white thoroughly.  Add minced pork fat, bamboo shoots, sesame oil, salt, white pepper, sherry and cornstarch.  Mix thoroughly with a rubber spatula.  Refrigerate while you make the skins.

Skins:

1       Cup      wheat starch

1/4    Cup      tapioca Starch

1       Tab       Peanut oil

1/4    tsp         salt

1       Cup       boiling water

Sift the starches and salt into a bowl; form a well in the powders, then add the oil.  Pour the boiling water, measured with a pre-heated measuring cup, into the well and stir quickly with a rubber spatula.  Scrape the sides as you mix, to incorporate all the ingredients.  Form a ball of dough.  As soon as you can handle the dough, knead it vigorously for a full 3 minutes, occasionally compressing the ball forcefully as you knead.  Wheat starch dough is firm to the gentle touch, but extremely malleable.  This enthusiastic kneading is to insure that the starches and water and oil are smoothly and completely incorporated.  Divide the dough into 4 pieces and let it rest in a plastic bag for 6 minutes.  In the meantime, make certain your steamer water is boiling.  Prepare a parchment paper liner for the steamer tray—punch or cut 1/4” holes randomly in the paper to allow steam to pass through.

Compress each ball into a smooth, round shape and then roll on a flat surface to make a 3/4”to 1” dia.   Rope.  Put three back in the plastic bag and cut the remaining into 3/4” to 1” segments.  To make the skins: working on a high density polyethylene cutting board, place a piece of 4” square piece of parchment paper over the segment and flatten it one at a time with rolling pin, Chinese cleaver, or tortilla press (works great), making sure the skin is a uniform thickness of between 1/16” and 3/16”  This disk will be slightly irregular in shape; you can proceed with making the dumplings and trim the excess with scissors if necessary, or cut the skin now to appx. 3-1/4” diam. using a cookie cutter, empty tin can or similar round object(An empty 6-1/2 oz.  tuna can works very well).  You can make the skins all at once, if they are kept covered with plastic or damp cloth at room temperature.

Pick up the skin very gently (these wrappers are soft and tear easily—even if you nick it with a fingernail, this will likely produce a tear in the dumpling as it steams) put a rounded tablespoon of filling in the middle, fold the skin patially around the filling to form a trough; hold this loosely in the fingers of your left hand, with the thumb resting in the middle, over the filling.   Gently pleat the side furthest from you only, from right to left, using the left thumb and right index finger to guide the pleats against the side closest to you, while the right thumb provides backing.  Pleat along the dumpling, until the dumpling is enclosed.   You need not tightly seal the wrapper as you pleat—the concern at this point is not to stress the wrapper resulting in a tear.  Once it’s pleated, you can press the edges, sealing the dumpling and cutting off the excess if the wrapper wasn’t pre-cut.  Place as many dumplings as you can (without touching) on the paper-lined steamer tray. It is best to use all the wrapper dough right away; it works best when still warm.

Steam the dumplings for 5 minutes.  If it is necessary to take the dumplings out of the steamer tray—as opposed to setting out the tray as a serving dish—you should wait 3 or 4 

minutes while the skins cool somewhat; they are very soft and sticky while piping hot.

If absolutely necessary, these dumplings can be frozen once they are steamed, but they lose about 15% of their texture.  Thaw them on parchment paper or polyethylene cutting board before reheating, and steam for about 3 minutes as before

Fun Gwor (Pork and Shrimp Dumpling)

Fun Gwor (Pork and Shrimp Dumpling)

This is another classic dim sum tidbit. One might want to refer to the recipe for Ha Gao, with its detailed description of wheat starch dough, as this dumpling uses the same wrapper. 

There can be confusion, even among native speakers, about the exact names of Chinese things, and food items are no exception.  The Cantonese “Fun” in the name is often mistakenly translated as “rice flour,” mistaken because there is no rice flour used in this recipe. The literal translation of “Fun (mandarin: Fen) can mean any number of things, but it most likely attaches to the meanings of powder and flour, especially bean and potato starch flours, which likely have been used in the past instead of wheat starch.  “Gwor” (guo) means fruit, and poetically alludes to its crescent shape, suggesting a section of fruit, or the delicacy of fruit.

8 oz Pork, minced 1/8” to 1/4”
4 oz peeled deveined shrimp, minced per pork
2 dried shitake mushrooms, minced per pork
7 peeled water chestnuts, minced per pork
1 heap tsp garlic, minced med fine
1 scallion, minced med.

Stir-fry this mixture just until pork has cooked through—turn off the heat, then immediately add mixture of:

1/4 cup chicken stock
1 Tab cornstarch
1 Tab wine
2 Tab oyster sauce
1 tsp Kosher salt
2 tsp sugar
1 Tab soy sauce
1 scant teaspoon sesame oil

When the mixture has cooled, add:

1/4 tsp white pepper
2 tsp sesame oil
1/4 heap cup (loosely measured) chopped cilantro and stems

Mix and refrigerate, preferably overnight,.

To make dumplings, follow recipe and procedure for the wheat starch dough used for Ha Gau skins (1 cup wheat starch; 1/4 cup Tapioca Flour, 1 Tab oil, salt and 1 cup water.); place appx 1 rounded Tab of filling on the skin, fold over and press edge gently to seal and form a crescent.  Steam for 5 minutes.  Allow to cool for 2 or 3 minutes before serving or transferring to serving platter (serving in steamer tray is recommended, since the hot dumplings are very sticky and fragile).

Deep-frying this dumpling produces a nice variation.  Remembering that the filling is already cooked, the dumpling can be fried at 325° to 350° in peanut oil for 1 or 2 minutes until crisp.

Zhu Rou Bao Zi (Steamed Pork Buns)

Pork Buns zhu rou bao zi

You won’t find these tasty snacks at the fine dining palaces of Beijing—instead, you’ll see Zhu rou baozi in the side streets and alleys of that super-metropolis. Understandably, the city bureaucrats, and even the central government in Beijing, want to modernize out of existence the seamier side of Chinese life; unfortunately, this includes the unlicensed, unsightly, and occasionally unsanitary street vendors to whom iron-gutted foodies like myself owe their most memorable experiences. In Beijing, during the long run up to the Olympics, the city all but eradicated these makeshift entrepreneurs, and replaced them with spiffy, red-aproned employees in ticky-tacky boxes, all in a row, calling it street food. The China daily shows off these sanitized street stalls in a small photo gallery featuring the more exotic morsels sold there.  Nevertheless, try as they might, city administrators’ attempts to squelch Chinese capitalism is habitually doomed, and you will probably find delicious snacks sold by traditional cooks, out of site of the authorities, for decades to come.

So for now, north of the Yangtze river, in most cities, you will find some sort of baozi sold by sidewalk vendors; they are an inexpensive snack, and yet, along with noodles and rice, constitute the a major staple of the Chinese workers who buy them from their favored neighborhood purveyor. Along with baozi, especially in the morning, these same vendors will often sell mantou, which is steamed wheat flour bread with no filling.

Baozi are sold in many configurations, small to large, fried and steamed, steamed and in southern China, baked. They are close cousins of jiaozi, dumplings, but are usually larger and wrapped with a leavened dough. Baozi have many different fillings—pork and cabbage, vegetables, toufu, mushrooms, red bean paste, lotus seed paste, roast pork, chicken, all with local variations in seasonings and preparation. Nevertheless, the pork and cabbage version, zhu rou bao zi (猪肉包子) is most common.

The yeast dough:

3 cups of bread flour

1 cup warm water (110° F)

1-1/2 teaspoon dry yeast

2-1/2 Tab sugar

2 Tab peanut oil

1-1/2 teaspoon baking powder

The Filling:

1-1/2 lbs Pork (pork belly or rib meat)

1-1/2 lbs Napa Cabbage

1" x 3" washed, unpeeled ginger

1 cup water

2 scallions, minced

1/2 tsp white pepper

1 Tab soy sauce

1 rounded tsp salt

1" x 1/2" pc peeled ginger, minced

1 medium clove garlic, minced

1 tsp Shaoxing wine or dry sherry

2 tsp sesame oil

1 tsp cornstarch

Smash the unpeeled ginger with the flat of a heavy cleaver so that it will release its juices. Put the ginger in the cup of water, stir, and set aside--1 to 2 hours is preferable.

To the cup of lukewarm water, add the sugar and the yeast and stir until it dissolves. In the meantime, sift the flour into a bowl. When the yeast mixture is foaming, add it to the flour and mix vigorously until the mass begins to stick together. Add the oil, and when the dough coheres enough to remove to the counter and knead for 10 minutes, until it is smooth. It is very important that the dough be soft. Do not add more flour unless necessary to keep it from sticking to your hands and the kneading surface. Once the dough is kneaded, oil the surface with peanut oil and place in a covered bowl in a warm place.

Separate and blanch the cabbage leaves for 2 or 3 minutes in a large pot of boiling water. Remove, drain, and cool. When it is cool enough to handle, roughly chop the cabbage and put in a clean hand towel. Wring out as much of the water as possible, then mince.

Mechanically grind or chop with a cleaver all of the pork into a dice of approximately 1/4". Set aside about a third of this, and mince the remaining pork very fine. Mix together the cabbage, the minced ginger, minced scallion, minced garlic, salt and pepper. Mixing thoroughly with a wooden spoon or paddle of a kitchen mixer, add the cup of strained ginger water, soy, wine and sesame oil. Add cornstarch, and mix in one direction for several minutes. The filling should be moist, almost like batter; add chicken stock if the filling seems stiff or dry.

Making the Baozi:

Have the steamer ready before you begin.

When the dough has doubled in bulk, and you are ready to make the baozi, punch down the dough and make several indentations in the dough with your fingers. Sift the baking powder into these holes, fold up the dough and pinch the edges together to contain the baking powder. Knead for five minutes, or until the baking powder is thoroughly incorporated. Cover the dough ball and let it rest for five or ten minutes. Form the dough into two ropes, approximately 1-1/2" in diameter, then cut the ropes into sections approximately 1-1/2" long. Roll each segment into a ball, place, separated, on a tray, and cover.

To make a baozi, flatten one of the balls with your hand, keeping it as round as possible. Roll the discs into approximately 4” rounds, as thin as possible on the edges, and 1/8” or so in the center. Roll out several rounds and keep them covered as you begin to fill the baozi (Doing these somewhat ahead once again rests the dough and makes them more manageable). Smear a couple of heaping tablespoons of filling to the skin, leaving a border of a half inch or so, and begin pleating the very edge with your fingers and thumb, overlapping the dough by a quarter inch or so. The pleat should be squeezed firmly and pulled slightly vertically to prevent the top of the finished bun from being too thick. As you pleat, rotate the baozi clockwise, making sure the filling remains well below the edges of the bun. Complete the process by closing the top with a spiral twist. Place the pleated baozi, separated from one another, on a steamer tray lined with perforated parchment paper or (napa) cabbage leaves and steam, covered, for 14 to 15 minutes. It is very important to make one or two sample baozi to test for salt and seasonings. When you've done this, you are ready to complete the batch of 20 - 30 baozi.

Zhu Rou Bao Zi can be frozen, once they are steamed and cooled, with very little deterioration. They can also be microwaved to re-heat, but steaming for 12 minutes (from frozen) is far superior.

Loh Baahk Gou (Turnip Cake)

Turnip Cake (Loh Baahk Gou)

Loh Baahk Gou, or Turnip cake, is a classic of Dim Sum and will be found in virtually every Dim Sum restaurant in the world.  (I usually translate names into pinyin, now the standard form of Romanization.  However, Dim Sum is so well known by its southern Chinese nomenclature, deriving from the Cantonese dialect, that I use the Yale system when translating Dim Sum recipes and notes).   Perhaps the greatest attraction of this dish, as with many Chinese offerings, is texture.  When steamed properly, and lightly fried, Loh Baahk Gou is slightly crisp on the surface, while moist and meltingly tender within, punctuated by small morsels of savory sausage, bacon, dried shrimp and mushroom.  The main ingredient, actually Chinese white radish, is nearly identical to Japanese Daikon, the latter being a perfectly usable substitute in the US.  Loh Baahk Gou cannot be frozen, but it will keep in the refrigerator, wrapped in plastic wrap, for a week.

Note: the rice flour/liquid slurry will seem too thin to solidify the cake, and you may fear that it will “separate” while it sits in the steamer.  However, the weight of the non-liquid ingredients displace the slurry perfectly, and the cake will be surprisingly homogenous and firm in the end.

1+ oz (35g) (Lop Yok) Chinese Bacon

1 +oz (35g) Lop Cheong Chinese Sausage (about 1 link)

2 med Shitake dried mushrooms

6 g dried shrimp

2 small green onions, chopped roughly, include greens.

1 lbs (450g) Daikon (after peeled and topped)

1-2 tsp Shaoshing wine or dry sherry

3 level tsp sugar

1 cup (130 g)  Thai rice flour

1 level tsp salt

1/2 quart (16 oz) water

White pepper

Peanut oil

Submerge mushroom in one cup hot water and soak 30 min. to an hour. Add 1 cup boiling water to dried shrimp, soak 30 min. to an hour.

Cut bacon into 1 or 2 or pcs and place in a small heatproof bowl.  Steam in steamer for 20 minutes, until bacon softens. 10 minutes into the steaming of the bacon, put sausage in bowl and steam on another rack for ten minutes. Reserve any juices which collect in the bottom of the bowl.  When cool enough to handle,  trim the rind, if any (the tough outer layer), off the bacon and dice 1/8” to 3/16th” and dice the sausage in the same way.

Drain shrimp, reserving liquid, and chop 1/4” minus.  Squeeze water from mushrooms, reserving liquid, cut away stems and dice, 1/4”.   The combined soaking liquids from the shrimp and mushroom should be at least 1 cup.

Shred the daikon radish and place in a 3 qt sauce pan.  Compact the vegetable gently, add 1/2 quart cold water and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat, cover and simmer for about 30 minutes until very tender.   In the meantime, heat a wok to med-high, add 1 or 2 tablespoons peanut oil, and stir fry sausage and bacon for 2 or 3 minutes just until meat browns slightly.  Be careful not to brown this very much—the sausage and bacon will become tough.  Add mushrooms, shrimp and scallions, and stir-fry another 2 or 3 minutes; toss in wine, sugar, a dash of ground white pepper and reserved bacon juices.  Toss to combine and set aside.

While reserving the liquid, drain the shredded radish and combine it in a large bowl with the meat and scallion mixture—including residual oils—and the salt.  Into a mixing bowl, measure the rice flour; pour in the 1/2 cup combined shrimp and mushroom water, then 1-1/4 cup hot turnip water, and combine with whisk until smooth.  Add this slurry to the turnip mixture and combine thoroughly.  It will be something like a rice pudding in texture.

Pour mixture into a well-greased (or parchment lined) small loaf pan appx. 8X4X2-1/4” deep, and place in steamer without touching sides or lid of steamer.  (A Chinese cook will often use a covered wok as a steamer, since it is large, in conjunction with a wire rack which supports the pan above the water.)  Gently pat the mixture down to consolidate and distribute slurry.  Steam 45 minutes until firm.  Remove and allow to cool for an hour, then refrigerate for 2 or 3 more hours.

When ready to serve, run a butter knife or spatula along sides of pan; turn over on plate or cutting board; cover for a couple of minutes with a hot towel, then rap the loaf pan to release the cake.  With a sharp knife, cut 1/2 inch pieces crosswise, like bread; cut each of these in half,  to create servings of approx 2-1/2 x 3” and a half inch thick.  Fry the pieces in a flat pan with peanut oil til golden brown and warmed through.   Serve with soy dipping or oyster sauce.

Bang Bang Ji Si (Bang Bang Chicken)

Bang Bang Chicken (Bang Bang Ji Si)

Here’s a classic Sichuan dish that you'll find in many stateside Chinese restaurants, sometimes called “Bon Bon Chicken," but this recipe strives to follow the traditional method based on our experience of it Chengdu, Sichuan.   

It is widely understood that the name of the snack comes from the Mandarin word for stick or club, in addition to the onomatopoeia of bang, which refers the noise the stick makes as the cook loosens the breast meat fibers before shredding.  Today’s chefs will find this dramatic step helpful but unnecessary, however, as most poultry is tender enough to begin with. This shredded, cold dish is considered an appetizer, and often goes by the name "Strange Flavor Chicken"(Gwei wei ji si).

Many recipes for this dish call for poached chicken: I prefer to steam breast meat, considering it to produce a more tender result.  Also, various arrangements and garnishes are employed with bang bang ji; I usually use the bed of fen si, (bean thread noodles). 

1 full chicken breast, bone in, skin on, split through breast bone

sesame oil for marinade

10 – 11 oz pickling cucumber

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp chili paste

1 TAB sugar

1-1/2 Tab sesame oil

1-1/2 Tab sesame paste (editor: you can sub natural peanut butter)1 TAB soy sauce

1 TAB rice wine vinegar

1/2 tsp Sichuan peppercorn,  lightly toasted and ground

1 – 2 dried chilis, chopped

1 TAB ginger, finely minced

1 or 2 med cloves garlic, finely minced

2 green onions—white portion minced, green finely shreds for garnish

2 oz bean thread noodles (fen si)

Sesame seeds, lightly toasted

Wash and dry split breast  and rub well with sesame oil. Steam 12 minutes with towels covering steamer trays and lid.  After the 12 minutes, remove towels, and turn off heat.  After 2 minutes remove from steamer completely and set aside to cool.  When chicken is cool enough to handle, remove skin and slice into 1/2 “ pieces if you wish to include it.  Tear chicken breast flesh with the grain to produce 3/8 “ by 2 or 3” shreds and set aside in the refrigerator.

Wash cucumbers; leaving skin on, split cucumbers lengthwise and scoop out seeds and pulp.  Continue slicing cucumbers lengthwise into wedges splitting each wedge until it is approximately an eighth inch thick.  Cut these wedges in half, so they are 1-1/2 inch or so long.  In a bowl, toss with 1/2 tsp of salt and marinate two hours or so until water puddles in the bottom of the bowl.  Drain cucumbers, rinse to wash away excess salt and dry with towel.  Set aside.

In the meantime mix chili paste, sugar, sesame oil, sesame paste, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, ground Sichuan peppercorn, dried chili, ginger, garlic and green onion.  Mix very thoroughly to break up sesame paste lumps.  Set aside.

 Soak the bean thread noodles in hot tap water for 20 minutes; cut to 3” length if desired, and put in boiling water for 1 – 2 minutes.  Remove, rinse with cold water and drain.

Create a bed of bean thread noodles on a serving plate.  Scatter cucumbers over the noodles, allowing the noodles to show all around the edge.  Heap the chicken shreds on top of the cucumbers and pour sauce in the middle of the mound, allowing some of the chicken to remain visible.  Garnish with sesame seeds and green onion shreds

Jiang Ji Si (Shredded Ginger Chicken)

Shredded Ginger Chicken (Jiang Ji Si)

As a cold appetizer, Jiang Ji Si is not, strictly speaking, a traditional dish; it does, however, utilize a well-known combination, a shredded ginger/salt/oil dipping sauce and steamed chicken, (Zheng Ji), two things traditionally served separately as a warm main course.  It is intensely flavored and ridiculously easy to make.

3 boned, skinned chicken breasts,  (appx. 1 lb)

1-2 Tab Sesame oil for marinade

Sauce:

1-1/2 Tab Sesame oil for sauce

1-1/2 Tab Peanut oil for sauce

1/4 – 1/2 tsp salt to taste.

1” x 1” pc of peeled fresh ginger

Garnish:

2 green onions, minced

After boning and skinning, wash and dry the chicken breast then rub well with sesame oil; place in an oiled steamer tray or one that is lined with parchment paper.  Make sure pieces are not touching.  Steam chicken about 8 minutes, or until the chicken meat is just firm to the touch (larger pieces will require more steaming, smaller ones, less).  Allow to cool, then refrigerate, loosely covered.

In the meantime, prepare the sauce:  Mince the ginger as finely as possible.  (This can be accomplished by finely mincing with a knife; shredding with grater using the smallest holes, or, combined with the oil, in a food processor—the important thing is to retain as much of the ginger juices as possible)  Mix the minced ginger and any juices with the oil and salt.  Be sure to taste the sauce as you are adding salt—it should be somewhat salty, since the sauce with be mixed with the chicken and lose some of it’s pungency.

When ready to assemble the dish, shred the chicken by pulling the meat apart with the grain—you are separating the muscle fibers, and it will tear in small elongated threads in this way.  Discard any cartilage or bone fragments.  Mound chicken shreds on a small platter, drizzle ginger/oil sauce over it, then garnish with minced green onion.  This can be prepared ahead of time, but add the sauce and garnish at the last moment.

Xiao Long Bao (Shanghai Soup Dumplings)

My passion for this morsel began in Shanghai, in the year 2001, when my wife and I went in search of xiao long bao, an adventure that culminated in a uproarious cab ride out to Nanxiang, the suburban enclave that gave birth to it.  We made an 18 minute video detailing this quest:

Of the hundreds of Chinese dumplings and snack foods, some consider xiao long bao to be the best.  In my opinion, it ranks as one of the great achievements of any cuisine: understated in appearance, this sensuous dumpling hides within it a savory, ginger-laced combination of crab or shrimp and pork, surrounded by a velvety broth which literally bursts in your mouth when eaten whole…

As far as the "technology" of these xiao long bao, combining meat and soup within a wheat wrapper dumpling might seem impossible, but it depends on a simple, ingenious device: the soup is gelatinized and cooled before being mixed with the meat filling.  When the xiao long bao is steamed, the soup “melts” and remains contained within the dumpling until it is breached, as it were, by a hungry enthusiast, of which there are millions in China and the rest of the world.

All of this is the good news.  The bad news is, these little devils are tricky to make.  They will taste divine, but don’t expect them to look like the dumplings you’ll find in Shanghai.  My test of the recipe was a two day adventure, not counting the hours of cleaning flour off my clothes, the counters, floor and ceiling.

Xiaolongbao, literally translated means, “little steamer buns,” and I’m slightly puzzled as to why, when so many of China's national dishes have lyrical or descriptive names, this most wonderful of dumplings was given such a mundane moniker.  "Dumpling of Heaven" might be more appropriate, or even "Nanxiang soup dumpling" (i.e., Nanxiang tang bao), after the suburb of Shanghai where it was probably invented.  From the student chef’s point of view, however, xiaolongbao’s ethereal taste and texture is in direct proportion to how difficult it is to pleat these dumplings; it is all the more discouraging when you see the lightning fast ease with which specialists fold them, for example, at Shanghai’s famous Nanxiang Mantou Dian, where they make a pork and crab version .   Youtube has several videos showing the workers at this Nanxiangsnack restaurant pleating xiaolongbao, for example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7mXiSjHrLc&feature=related

While the xiao long bao is made in countless dumpling and noodle restaurants in Shanghai, its suburbs, and elsewhere in China, it also has an international following, though it isn’t as well known outside of China as potstickers (guo tie), or even ha gau.the shrimp dumpling featured at dim sum.  A very respectable xiao long bao is being served at Din Tai Fung, a chain with stores in 9 countries, including the United States.

See http://www.dintaifungusa.com/   Overall, I think the student chef will find this delectable dumpling a lot of work to make at first; but, like any worthwhile dish in the 

repertoire, well worth it.

“Soup” for dumpling filling:

2-1/2 lbs chicken parts (backs, necks, wings, etc)
2-1/2 lbs Pork feet and skin (including reserved skin above)
2” x 3” pc ginger, smashed with cleaver
4 garlic cloves, smashed
3 scallion, smashed with cleaver
1 pkg Gelatin
1 – 2 tsp Salt (to taste)
6 –7 quarts of water

Ginger Scallion water:

2” x 3” pc of ginger (for ginger/scallion water)
3 green onions (for ginger/scallion water)

1 cup water

Filling:

12 oz lean pork
12 oz pork belly, skin removed and used for soup
7 to 8 oz shelled de-veined shrimp (net weight)
1 Tab light soy sauce
2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp white pepper
3/4 or so coarse salt
1-1/2 Tab rice wine or dry sherry
3/4 cup Ginger/Scallion water
1 - 1/2 Tab cornstarch
2 tsp sesame oil
2 - 1/2 cups jellied pork and chicken soup, above

Dough for wrapper:

10 oz All purpose flour
12 oz Bread Flour
1 cup boiling water
1/2 cup cold water

Dipping Sauce:

Finely shredded peeled ginger and Chinkiang vinegar makes a traditional dip.

To make the soup: Wash the pork and chicken pieces with cold water.  Cut the pork skin into a large dice, and chop part way through the chicken bones and flesh to expose meat and marrow.  To eliminate much of the scum and off-flavors blanch the meat pieces in boiling water for a couple of minutes, strain, rinse and strain again.  Put the rinsed meat in a stock pot with about 6 or 7 quarts of water, along with crushed ginger, scallions and garlic, and bring to a simmer.  Attend to this broth for a half an hour or so after it simmers, skimming any foam and scum from the surface.  Cover, and simmer for 2 1/2 to 3 hours.  Remove bones and flesh with bamboo strainer or slotted spoon, then strain the broth through several layers of cheesecloth.  Return stock to the heat, this time uncovered, and simmer vigorously for 2 or 3 hours to reduce the stock to 3 or 4 cups.  Simmer time is not precise; the point here is to create a delicious, intensely flavored pork and chicken soup which is partly gelatinized.  (You will need 2-1/2 cups of finished, de-fatted broth for the filling).  Refrigerate the soup overnight, and skim off the congealed fat.  Put one packet of gelatin into 1/2 cup cold water to soften; warm 2-1/2 cups clarified, de-fatted soup and salt to taste.  Heat to 180 or 190 degrees (below simmer) and add softened gelatin and stir.  When the gelatin has completely dissolved, refrigerate until cooled and set.

To make the ginger/scallion water:

Crush the ginger with the flat of a heavy cleaver or rolling pin; cut the scallion in 3 or 4 sections and crush in the same way.  In a bowl combine ginger, scallion and one cup of water, and squeeze the ingredients to extract their juices.  Set aside while you continue making the filling.

To make the filling:

Wash and dry the pork, shell and de-vein the shrimp, and chop together into a coarse mince; mince half of the meat very fine.  (If using a meat grinder, put the pork and shrimp through a 1/4” plate, then half of that again through a 1/8” plate).   Add the soy sauce, sugar, white pepper, salt, rice wine and ginger/scallion water, stirring the filling thoroughly in one direction with a wooden spoon handle or spatula.  Sprinkle cornstarch evenly over the mixture and stir thoroughly.  If the 2 1/2 cups of gelatinized pork and chicken soup is cold and set, de-mold it onto a cutting board and dice the gelatin very small, 1/8” or less.  Add it too the meat mixture and stir very thoroughly.  See comment below about testing the filling and dough.

To make the dough:

Combine the two flours in a mixing bowl.  Add hot water and mix thoroughly; when it is combined well, and crumbly in texture, add cold water and continue mixing with a spoon or dough hook if you’re using a mixer.  When dough cool enough to handle, begin kneading; the dough should be soft and a slightly sticky.  If doing this by hand, you should knead the dough for fifteen minutes or so, adding flour if it begins to stick to your hands.  Be aware, however, that a soft, very stretchable dough is required to make xiao long bao, so too much flour will make a stiff, difficult material to work with.  On the other hand, the challenge is to make a dough that is strong enough to contain a hot soup during the time it is being cooked and served.  To balance both concerns, I suggest kneading as much flour into the dough as it will absorb, then letting it rest in the refrigerator overnight, wrapped in plastic.  Bring to room temperature before using.

At any time after you’ve mixed the dough and filling, you can make and steam a small test dumpling to check seasonings, stock to filling ratio, and a sense of whether the dough is right for the dumpling.

To make the dumplings:

Once the dough is at room temperature, place on a well-floured surface,  and divide it into 4 or 5 equal pieces.  Roll the pieces into ropes, approximately 1” in diameter.  Cut the rope into equal sections, about 1” long, and flatten into thick discs.  Roll the discs into 3” rounds, as thin as possible on the edges, and 1/8” or less in the center.  Roll out several rounds and keep them covered as you begin to fill the dumplings (Doing these somewhat ahead once again rests the dough and makes them more manageable).  With a butter knife of flat stick, apply a round tablespoon of filling to the skin, leaving a border of a half inch or so, and begin pleating the edge with your fingers and thumb, overlapping the dough by a quarter inch or so.  The pleat should be squeezed firmly and pulled slightly vertically to prevent the top of the finished dumpling from being too thick.  As you pleat, rotate the dumpling clockwise, making sure the filling remains well below the edges of the dumpling.  When you’ve done approximately 14 pleats, the dumpling should be nearly, but not quite, closed at the top.

(I rolled the sections just under 1/8” or so thick, then cut the disc with a cutter, between 2-3/4” and 3.”   Before you add the filling, flatten the edges of the round to make it easier to pleat.  I rested the dumpling on the floured surface, instead of holding the dumpling as you see them do in Shanghai.
Place the pleated dumplings, separated from one another, on a steamer tray lined with perforated parchment paper or (napa) cabbage leaves.  Steam for 10 or 11 minutes.

Serve the xiao long bao in their steamer trays, since, loaded with hot soup, they are very fragile.  A Chinkiang vinegar/shredded ginger dipping sauce can accompany the dumplings.