Monday, November 13, 2006

Xiao Long Bao

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This is specially for Lance, Sspaks, Anonymous1, Anonymous2. My apologies for taking so long to post this.

Xiao Long Bao (Soupy Dumplings)
Recipe reproduced with the kind permission of LeeLee.

Ingredients for the Fillings
250g minced pork
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp chicken stock granules
1 tsp light soya sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp potato starch
1 tbsp Chinese cooking wine
2 tbsp water
1/2 sugar

27gm gelatin powder
450gm water or chicken stock

Method:
1) Bloom gelatin in water/chicken stock. Heat gently till gelatin is dissolved.
2) Chill in fridge.
3) Dice set jelly into small cubes.
4) Mix minced meat with the seasoning ingredients.
5) Mix in the diced gelatin and leave filling ingredients in fridge for later use.

Ingredients for the Wrapper:

150gm plain flour
20gm potato starch
85-90gm water (original 115gm)
5gm shortening

Method:
1) Mix all ingredients till combined.
2) Leave aside to rest for 10-15minutes.
3) Pinch off small pieces of dough, flatten with rolling pin and wrapped with the fillings.
4) Place the wrapped dumplings on a small square of lightly oiled greaseproof paper. Alternatively, you can place the dumplings onto small cut-out rounds of iceberg lettuce.
5) Steam for about 5-6 minutes.

Wrapping the XLB

Mine are not the most beautiful of XLBs as I just gather up the dough and pleat them like a normal char siew bao. I have nontheless trawled the net for some illustrations and I found this XLB Tutorial. http://eatingchinese.org/xlbtutor/xlbtutor.html

This is the type of Potato Starch I used. It is commonly known as Windmill Flour here in Singapore and Hongkong.
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Hope this will give you a better idea. Enjoy.



24 comments:

Anonymous said...

hi ginny! thanks for sharing this recipe! btw, what does "bloom gelatin in chicken stock" mean? sorry i'm totally hopeless with technical terms.

TIA!


Melanie

Anonymous said...

Hi Ginny,
Congratulations on getting your own blog. :)
Whats potato starch??? the sweet potato or regular potato??? Thanks

Rusti said...

Melanie, to bloom gelatin means you place the room temperature water or stock in this case in a bowl, and then sprinkle the gelatin over it. Let the gelatin absorb the water and soften. After that you have to heat gently to melt the gelatin. Take care not to let your mixture boil as heat kills the jelling properties of gelatin.

Rusti said...

Putupiring: Regular potatoes. Potato starch is popularly known as Windmill Flour in Hongkong and Singapore because of the logo on the pack. I will try to take a picture and post it for you.

Anonymous said...

Mmm looks like they're bursting with yummy soup! ;D

Rusti said...

Sspaks, I have added an XLB tutorial in my post. Hope it helps.

Rusti said...

Sspaks, don't worry about the wrapping. It is going into the tummy in the end. :)

Hugbear said...

You are welcome about sharing the recipe. Hope you have fun wrapping and eating your XLB.

Leelee

Anonymous said...

hi! i'm really interested in tryin this recipe...how does it taste? like those from crystal jade? thanks so mych! it looks awesome :p

Rusti said...

Meefe, not exactly Crystal Jade standards but good enough nonetheless.

Anonymous said...

Whao..thanks i'm tryin this on Monday :p thanks so muych!!!

Anonymous said...

hi. i wanted to try this recipe today then i started out with the skin and it seems too sticky.. i dunno why..so cannot even roll with the pin it just sticks i added more flour but no effect...
did i do something wrong? how will the dough look like? thanks!

Rusti said...

Meefe, sprinkle some additional HK flour and slowly work it to a non-sticky soft dough. Let it rest before using. Dust table and rolling pin well with the HK flour.

Anonymous said...

Thanks Rusti for taking time to take pix of the potato starch for this "potato" hehehe

Anonymous said...

hi!
today i tried to oil my hands and use more flour and yes the dough was finaly more like it but overall still failed cause i couldnt do the bun even after reading the online tut provided :(
in the end i just boil the meat in water and have bak chor soup.. :p ! i'll try again and let you know! :p thanks so so so much !

Rusti said...

Meefe, I had the same problem as you but after adding a little bit more flour it was okay. I suggest you use 85-90gm of water first. The dough should be soft but not sticky. Do not overknead as you do not want to develop the gluten in the flour.

Anonymous said...

ok..will try agauin! thanks so much hon!!:p

Rusti said...

Hi Sspaks, I guess you may have missed the amendment to the recipe. I too had the same problem the first time round (which was why I did mentioned in my original post that I was not entirely satisfied with the skin). I made the XLB again last week. I measured out 100gm of water and slowly mixed it in till I reached the consistency I wanted. In the end I was left with 12gm of water. So in all I used 88gm to achieve the soft dough that I wanted. I have amended the recipe to read 85-90gm of water. Different batches of flour also reacts differently to the quantity of water, so you have have to use your gut feelings a little bit. Yes, mind was soft piping hot but a bit chewy when cold. Roll your skin thinner and try not to have too heavy pleating at the top (something I am still trying to achieve) otherwise you will end up with a big morsel of dough on top and finally don't oversteam them. I guess our skill level is still not there yet. LeeLee made the XLB right before my eyes based on the actual recipe. It was a bit wet too but she just added more flour to it. Amazingly, her turned out very good. They were nice and soft.

Anonymous said...

Hi I have been reading the comments on the XLB. Whenever you are making dough like bao or other stuff, try not to add all the liquid all at once. Add a little at a time and work your way through by adding more water when needed. Sometimes, you may not need to use up all the liquid the recipe specifies. By rolling the skin to be thinner, you will get better tasting XLB. Hope you will have better results this time round.

Rusti said...

LeeLee, thanks for the tips. Will definitely give it a try again.

Anonymous said...

I used this recipe and adjusted the water slowly ( i think diff weather temp affects it) and I tried using hot water and the dough turns out softer compared to regular water. I have one question with the thickness of the dough. I was able to pleat the 18 folds but it was so thick on the top that I had to tear off some. Anyone has tips on how to roll the side thinner than the rest of the skin?

Rusti said...

Sinmal, thanks for tips on using hot water. This is why I love forums and blogging. There is so much to share and exchange. I am hopeless when it comes to pleating but perhaps you can roll the circle of dough thicker in the centre and thinner along the circumference?

Quinn said...

Can I omit the 1tsp potato starch in the minced pork filling and substitute with cornstarch instead?Can't find potato starch here in Australia and I'm using readymade skin so don't need the potato starch in the skin ingredient. Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Hi, I've tried making XLB and sad to say all of them turn out 'deflated' and without the 'soup' T.T. What have I done wrong? Hope you can advise me. Thank you.

Melody