Crab Soup Dumplings Dim Sum Recipes

SOUP DUMPLINGS (XIAOLONGBAO)

Steps:

• In a small pot, add the pork skin and pork bones and cover with cold water. Bring to a rolling boil, and immediately drain and rinse off the bones and the skin. This gets rid of any impurities. Rinse out the pot and put everything back in. Add 4 cups (950 ml) water, ginger, scallion and wine. Bring the pot to a boil and then reduce the heat to low. Cover and simmer for 2 hours.
• After 2 hours, turn off the heat, allow the soup to cool, and strain the liquid into a bowl. Once the liquid is completely cooled, cover and refrigerate overnight.
• In a mixing bowl, add the flour and the warm water 1 tablespoon at a time. Work and knead the dough for 15-20 minutes. The dough should be very soft and smooth. Cover with a cloth and let it rest for 30 minutes.
• Take your ground pork and put it in the food processor. Pulse for 30-60 seconds until the pork resembles paste. In a mixing bowl, add the pork and the rest of the ingredients except the aspic. Whip everything together thoroughly, for about 2 minutes. You want everything to be extremely well combined, and the pork should look like a light, airy paste. Gently fold in the diced aspic, and do not over-mix. Cover and transfer the filling to the refrigerator until ready to make the dumplings. If you're ready now, you can put it in the freezer for 15 minutes to allow it to firm up and make assembling the buns easier.
• Lightly dust a clean work surface with flour and roll the dough into a long cylinder/cigar, about an inch in diameter. Cut the dough into small equal pieces weighing about 11 grams each (the dough chunks should be a size resembling that of gnocchi). Roll out each piece into a round disc about 3 - 3 ¼ inches diameter. Keep everything under a damp cloth.
• Prepare your bamboo steamer. You can line it with cheese cloth, napa cabbage leaves, or these lovely bamboo steamer discs, which can be found in some Chinese restaurant supply stores (if using these, you must brush the discs with oil first!).
• When all that is prepared, take out the filling. You'll be making each bun one at a time. Place about 1 tablespoon of filling in the middle of your dumpling skin. Pleat with as many folds as you can muster: 12-20 folds should do it. Make sure the top is sealed. If the filling ever gets too wet or hard to handle, put it in the freezer for another 15 minutes and start again.
• Place the buns in the lined steamer basket, about 2 inches apart.
• In a metal steamer pot or wok, boil water. If using a wok, put the water at a level so that when you put the bamboo steamer into the wok, the water rises about ½ inch up the bottom of the bamboo base. You never want the water to touch the dumplings inside, though, so make sure not to fill it too high!
• Once the water is boiling, put the bamboo steamer in the wok or steamer pot, cover with the bamboo steamer lid, and steam over high heat for 8 minutes. Immediately remove the bamboo steamer from the pot and serve.
• Ok, so there is definitely a proper way to enjoy these dumplings. Put away the soy sauce because it has no place on the table right now. What you want is Chinese black vinegar. Pour some out into a small, round dish or bowl, and top with some very thin matchsticks of ginger.
• Take out your two utensils-chopsticks and a Chinese soup spoon (a fork would just butcher these and the soup would dribble out all over the table. It would be a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions).
• Carefully, slowly peel the xiaolongbao off of the steamer basket and dip it into the vinegar. Gently transfer the dumpling to your soupspoon and take a tiny bite out of the skin on the side of the bun to make a little hole. Proceed to slurp the soup out of the bun (Carefully. It's HOT). Then, with a little more vinegar, finish the whole thing off in one bite.

CRAB "SOUP DUMPLINGS" (DIM SUM)

Steps:

• Hours or a day before making the dumplings, cook the agar-agar in the chicken broth until completely dissolved. Pour into a shallow dish. Cover and refrigerate for a few hours until it gels.
• Mix all the filling ingredients.
• Dice the gelled agar-agar/broth into small pieces and mix with the filling ingredients.
• Refrigerate this mixture.
• To make the wrappers:.
• Mix flour and egg.
• Add water a little at a time until a soft but not sticky dough is formed.
• Knead until dough is smooth and elastic.
• Roll the dough into a long sausage, 1 inch in diameter.
• Cut the dough into walnut-sized pices, then roll them into round balls; cover the balls with a damp towel.
• You are now going to make crescent-shaped dumplings.
• Dust your work surface with a little flour.
• Roll a piece of dough into a paper-thin circle.
• Put about a tablespoon of filling (now including the gelled broth) in the center of the circle.
• Fold the circle in half to look like a half-moon.
• Pleat the top curved edge.
• Pinch the pleated edge and the unpleated edge together to seal.
• Gently tap the crescent's round bottom so that it can stand up.
• Place the crescent-shaped dumpling between towels.
• Make the remaining crescents in the same way.
• Place a layer of cheesecloth in the bottom of a steamer.
• Arrange the crescent dumplings on the cloth.
• Cover and steam over high heat for 10 minutes.
• Serve hot with ginger-vinegar-soy dip.
• To make the dip:.
• Mix all dip ingredients in a serving bowl, cover, and allow to stand at room temperature for at least 10 minutes before serving; it should keep for hours at room temperature.

CRAB DUMPLINGS - SLIMMED

Steps:

• To make the salad: In a small non-stick skillet, stir together the oil, jalapeno, and garlic. Stir-fry over medium heat until fragrant, about 5 minutes. Remove the skillet from the heat and add the sugar. Transfer the mixture to a medium bowl, and cool slightly. Toss the carrot, coriander, lime juice, fish sauce, and scallion together with the jalapeno mixture. Set aside.
• To make the dumplings: In a medium bowl, combine the crabmeat, water chestnuts, egg white, 1 tablespoon of vinegar, coriander, and salt.
• Lay 6 to 8 wontons out on a work surface. Trim into rounds with the biscuit cutter. Lightly brush the surface of each wrapper with vinegar. Place a level tablespoon of the crab filling in the center of each wrapper. Gather the wrapper around the filling, in a loosely-pleated open dumpling. The dumpling should be flat on the bottom with about a 1/2-inch of the wrapper unfilled at the top in order to hold the salad after steaming. Repeat until the filling is used up.
• Arrange the dumplings about 1/4-inch apart in 2 lettuce leaf-lined bamboo steamers. Fill a wok or pan with enough water to come up to the bottom of the steamer rack, and bring the water to a boil over high heat. Stack the steamers in the pan, cover, and steam the dumplings until the filling is set, about 10 minutes.
• Remove the steamer from the pan. Top each dumpling with 1/2 heaping teaspoon of the carrot salad. Serve immediately in the steamer pan.

2-DAY CRAB AND PORK SOUP DUMPLINGS RECIPE BY TASTY

Steps:

• Make the pork broth: Add the pork necks and skin to a large pot. Cover with water by 2 inches and bring to a boil over high heat. Drain and rinse the necks and skin under cold water, then return to the pot.
• Add 4 cups of water, the ginger, scallions, rice wine, and peppercorns. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to low and simmer for 2 hours, skimming the surface occasionally.
• Strain the broth through a fine-mesh strainer into a shallow baking dish and stir in the salt. Let cool to room temperature, then cover with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator overnight, until set.
• Make the chile oil: In a small pot, combine the star anise, cinnamon stick, bay leaves, Sichuan peppercorns, garlic, and canola oil. Cook over low heat until small bubbles appear around the garlic cloves, about 10 minutes.
• Add the Sichuan red chile flakes and salt to a heat-proof jar. Strain the oil into the jar and stir to combine. Let cool, then cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.
• Make the filling: Add the ground pork, ginger, scallions, soy sauce, sesame oil, rice wine, sugar, and water to a medium bowl and mix until evenly combined. If the filling feels too thick, add another tablespoon of water and stir until light and airy. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.
• Make the dough: In a medium bowl, combine the flour, salt, and warm water. Stir to combine, then turn out onto a floured surface. Knead for about 20 minutes, dusting with more flour as needed, until very soft and smooth. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and let rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.
• Divide the dough in half and cover one portion with a damp towel. Roll the remaining portion into a 1-inch wide log, then cut into 12 pieces, rotating the log as you cut. Cover 11 pieces with the damp towel. Roll the remaining piece into a ball, then flatten with your palm. Dust with flour as needed to prevent sticking. Use a small rolling pin to roll the dough into a 3-inch round, then use the rolling pin to roll the edges thinner than the center, until the diameter of the wrapper is 3½-4 inches. Cover with the towel and repeat with the remaining dough.
• Fill the dumplings: Remove the chilled pork broth from the refrigerator and cut into ½-inch cubes.
• Scoop about 1 tablespoon of the filling on the center of a dumpling wrapper. Add about ½ teaspoon crab paste and 1 pork broth cube. Hold the dumpling in the palm of one hand and use the other to pleat the edges of the wrapper around the filling, pinching and twisting at the top to seal. Set on a baking sheet and repeat with the remaining filling and wrappers.
• Fill a large pot ⅓ of the way with water to a boil over high heat. Place a bamboo steamer basket on top and line with Napa cabbage leaves. Place the dumplings on top of the cabbage, leaving space for them to expand. Stack a second steamer basket on top and repeat to add more dumplings. Cover and steam for about 8 minutes, until the wrappers are slightly translucent and the filling is cooked through.
• Serve the dumplings with the chile oil, black vinegar, and ginger.
• Enjoy!