December 31, 2020
We are heading towards the end of such an unpredictable 2020. Every year, Kevin and I try to spend time visiting family and reconnecting over good food. This was the first year we skipped our holiday traditions and stayed home instead. Kevin spent all of his time working and squeezing in a few rounds of gaming here and there. I spent almost all of my free time outside of work in the kitchen testing out new treats. I resolved to take the holidays to test, retest, and refine recipes with the goal of creating the best possible versions of some of my favorite foods.
Here are some photos from our holiday weekend:
I made all of Kevin’s favorite foods Christmas morning.
I made all of my favorite foods Christmas night.
During the holidays, the one food Kevin looks forward to the most is xiao long bao, or soup dumplings. It was a dish he grew up eating when he lived in Hong Kong. He would request soup dumplings whenever possible whether or not there was a momentous occasion to celebrate. In the days leading up to the holidays, his anticipation for soup dumplings would build day by day since he knows the destination we eventually head to (either New York City or Hong Kong) would have some form of authentic, truly delicious soup dumplings waiting for him. Since we couldn’t actually travel to New York City or Hong Kong for the holidays this year, I set out to recreate his favorite dish of all time at home. Soup dumplings are a bit tricky to get just right. The dumpling wrapper has to be thin, delicate, and sturdy. The filling has to be savory, juicy, and plump. Most importantly, there has to be soup filled in each and every dumpling. To get the soup into the dumplings, I had to take one of two steps – either cook up some soup filled with tons of pork bones, chicken bones, or a combination of the two or find a way to gel up homemade or store-bought stock. For a truly savory broth, I knew I had to take the extra step of cooking up some savory stock. I had already intended on roasting a whole chicken for dinner over the weekend, so I saved the bones of the chicken to use in creating a wonderful stock. I let the chicken stock cook low and slow for almost 24 hours in the slow cooker. When the stock was ready, I transferred it to a couple containers to use as a base for soup, pho, and noodle soup later in the week. I reserved a few cups to use as the base for my soup dumplings. While the stock was still hot, I dissolved ½ a packet of unflavored gelatin for every 1 cup of chicken stock. Then, I set out to test, retest, and refine my soup dumplings. Seven trials later, I was able to get my desired soupy, plump soup dumplings. The most important taste test was making sure it met or exceeded Kevin’s expectations of a legit soup dumpling. With each trial, I had Kevin provide feedback on the soup dumplings. I had to navigate through too thick dumpling wrappers to not soupy enough dumplings until I got to my sixth trial of soup dumplings. The sixth trial met Kevin’s expectations of a soup dumpling – thin, delicate wrapper, juicy, plump dumpling, and sufficient soup in the dumplings. He described the sixth trial as the most successful trial of the bunch. To make sure I could replicate the same results, I made a couple more batches of soup dumplings following the lessons I learned in the sixth trial. The seventh trial resulted in success once more. By the seventh trial, I was ready to share my findings. These soup dumplings were so good, I added them to my permanent rotation of celebratory meals to make no matter where our holiday adventures take us in the future. When our bellies were full from all of the food I’ve been recreating over the holidays, we finally made our way to opening the presents we received from family and friends. I kept the gifts in the original packages until I was ready to use them. The sheet pans, baking molds, and cookware were just what I needed to replenish the kitchen tools I’ve been putting into overdrive during the holiday season. This holiday season, while different from all of the prior holiday seasons, still turned out pretty good. Kevin got to enjoy all of his favorite foods (especially soup dumplings). I got to experiment with even more foods in the kitchen. Our 2020 holiday was finally complete.
For the pork and chicken soup dumplings:
For the soup filling:
· 1 cup homemade chicken stock or stock of your choice
· ½ packet (0.125 oz) unflavored gelatin
For the dumpling wrappers:
· 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus additional flour for kneading the dough
· ½ teaspoon kosher salt
· ¾ cup lukewarm water
· ½ tablespoon vegetable oil
For the filling:
· 3 cloves garlic, finely grated
· 1 inch knob of ginger, grated
· ½ pound ground pork
· 3-4 leaves of Napa cabbage, separated in half*
· 3 stalks of scallions, finely sliced
· 2 teaspoons light soy sauce
· ½ teaspoon sesame oil
· 1 teaspoon oyster sauce
· 1 teaspoon confectioners’ sugar
· ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
· Dash of white pepper
*I reserved the top leafy parts for lining my steaming basket and chopped up the bottom thicker parts to add into the filling
For steaming the dumplings:
· 6-8 cups water
For the dipping sauce:
· 3 tablespoons soy sauce
· ½ tablespoon rice wine vinegar
· ½ tablespoon Chinkiang vinegar
· ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes, for garnishing (optional)
· ¼ teaspoon sesame seeds, for garnishing (optional)
· 1 stalk scallion, thinly sliced, for garnishing (optional)
Directions:
1) Prepare the soup filling by heating up the chicken stock and dissolving ½ packet of gelatin into the stock. Transfer the mixture to a shallow flat container and chill in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes, until the soup filling turns into the consistency of gelatin.
2) To make the dough, combine 1½ cups all-purpose flour and kosher salt in a bowl. Add the lukewarm water to the mixture. Use your hands to thoroughly mix the dough. The dough will be sticky at this point. Gradually add the ½ cup of all-purpose flour slowly into the bowl as you continue kneading the dough for about 3-5 minutes. Add in the vegetable oil and continue kneading until a smooth dough forms, about another 1-2 minutes. Let the dough rest for 30 minutes. While the dough is resting, start making the filling.
3) To make the filling, combine the grated garlic, grated ginger, ground pork, chopped cabbage, soy sauce, sesame oil, oyster sauce, confectioners’ sugar, salt, and white pepper in a large bowl. Use your hands to combine all ingredients until well mixed. Set aside.
4) Line two bamboo steamer baskets with top parts of the Napa cabbage leaves. Set aside.
5) After 30 minutes has passed, heat a large pot filled with 6-8 cups of water on medium high heat. Remove the soup filling from the refrigerator. The soup filling should have gelled up and become the consistency of gelatin at this point. Scoop the gelatin soup filling into the pork filling. Use your hands to combine all ingredients until well mixed.
6) As the pot of water is heating, roll the dough out into a circular shape. Cut the dough in half horizontally. Then, cut the dough in half vertically until you form four triangular pieces. Cut each of the four pieces in half to form eight pieces. Cut each of the eight pieces in half once more to form sixteen triangular pieces of dough. Roll each piece of dough into a ball. To make the dumplings, prepare a small bowl of all-purpose flour. Sprinkle a bit of flour onto a surface. Begin rolling out the pieces of dough into a circle one by one onto the lightly floured surface. Place about one tablespoon of the pork and soup filling on each piece of dough. Bring the edges up, pleat and pinch around the edge of the dough wrapper about 17-19 times until you form a rounded, pleated dumpling. Pinch and fold the top of the dumpling to seal the dumpling. Continue this process with the rest of the dough balls and filling.
7) Place 8 of the dumplings on top of the Napa cabbage lined steamer basket. Repeat with the remaining steamer basket.
8) Once the pot of water begins to boil, fit one of the steamer baskets on top of the pot. Steam the soup dumplings in the steamer basket over the pot of water for about 9-10 minutes. Repeat with the second steamer basket. As the dumplings are steaming, make the dipping sauce by combining soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, Chinkiang vinegar, and the optional garnishes in a small sauce bowl.
9) When the dumplings are done steaming, serve immediately. The soup dumplings will be very hot at this point. They are best enjoyed steaming hot, but be careful when enjoying the dumplings to ensure you do not burn your mouth.
Takeaways: Kevin likes to enjoy each soup dumpling by biting off the top, adding a bit of the sauce, slurping the soup, and dipping the remaining dumpling into the sauce before devouring the dumpling whole. His sauce of choice for soup dumplings is just plain vinegar. I prefer to bite off a piece of wrapper on the side, sip the soup, dip the rest of the dumpling into the sauce, and eat the dumpling whole. My sauce of choice is vinegar, soy sauce, and tons of garnishes all mixed in.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM OUR FAMILY TO YOURS!
GOODBYE TO 2020! SEE YOU IN 2021!