Shanghai Stuffed Soup Buns Recipes

SHANGHAI PAN-FRIED PORK BUNS (上海生煎馒头)

Steps:

• Add the pork skin and bones to a thick-bottomed medium pot with just enough water to cover them. Bring to a boil, and boil for 1 minute. Turn off the heat, and rinse the pork skin and bones under running water to clean them. Clean the pot as well.
• Trim away all the fat under the pork skin and cut into very thin slices. This makes it easier for the collagen to release.
• Fill the clean pot with 3 cups of water. Add the pork skin and bones, along with the Shaoxing wine, ginger, and scallion. Bring to a boil, and lower the heat to medium low. Simmer for 1 hour. (It should bubble gently at a low simmer).
• After 1 hour, the pork skin should be very tender, and the stock should look thick and almost milky. Strain to remove all solids, and add salt to taste. Let the liquid solidify in a covered container in the refrigerator overnight.
• This should yield 1½ cups of aspic, the perfect amount for this recipe.
• In a large bowl, combine the ground pork, Shaoxing wine, salt, sesame oil, sugar, water, dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, ground white-pepper, grated ginger, and minced scallions. Whip in one direction for 5 minutes until it has the texture of a thick paste.
• Dice the aspic into ¼-inch cubes. Carefully stir it into the filling to evenly distribute. Transfer the bowl to the refrigerator. Chill for at least 1 hour, preferably 1 ½ - 2 hours while you make the dough.
• In the bowl of an electric mixer, add the cake flour, all purpose flour, salt, and instant yeast. Attach the dough hook, and turn the mixer on to the lowest setting. Slowly stream in the water. Knead the dough for 10 minutes until smooth. The dough should be soft but hold its shape.
• Shape the dough into a smooth ball, brush the top with oil, and cover the mixing bowl with a plate. Proof at room temperature for 30 minutes.
• These buns will go straight into the pan as you assemble them, so prepare the pan first by lightly oiling it with a neutral flavored cooking oil. A wide non-stick pan works best. A cast-iron pan also works, but can be more challenging when it comes to preventing the buns from sticking. You'll need to pre-heat it until it's just smoking, cover it with a thin layer of cooking oil, and let it cool completely. Now you're ready to assemble your buns.
• Once the dough finishes proofing, knead it for 3 minutes on the lowest setting of your stand mixer. (If kneading by hand, knead for 5 minutes.) Remove ⅓ of the dough, and keep the rest covered to prevent it from drying out.
• When you're ready to start rolling out the dough, take your filling out of the refrigerator. If it's warm in your kitchen (especially in the summertime), rest the bowl of filling in an ice bath to keep it cold while you assemble the buns.
• On a clean and lightly-floured surface, roll the dough into a long tube and cut it into small 20 gram pieces, measured with a kitchen scale. Keep in mind, this recipe makes about 30 buns, so your piece of dough (⅓ of the total) should divide into ten 20g pieces.
• Take each piece, roll it into a round ball, and press to flatten. Roll it out using a rolling pin from edge to center, rotating the dough as you roll. You should have a 4-inch round wrapper where the edges are thinner than the center.
• Add about 2 tablespoons of filling in the center, and pleat to close the top. Make sure you keep your fingers as clean as possible during this process. Wet or greasy fingers make it challenging to seal the buns.
• As you make the buns, arrange them in your pre-oiled pan. Placing them pleated-side down is traditional, but only do this if you're confident that your buns are well shaped and sealed. If not, place them pleated side up! Each bun should have half an inch of surrounding clearance. (You'll see I put them a bit closer together in my pan, which made them more difficult to separate!)
• Once the pan is filled with your first batch of buns, immediately move it to the stove, and turn on the heat to medium. Add enough oil such that the buns are sitting in about ⅛-inch of oil.
• As the oil heats up, move the pan around so the edges of the pan are also heated. The oil should start bubbling lightly all around the pan as the buns slowly begin to shallow-fry. DO NOT be tempted to turn up the heat. We don't want to burn the bottoms. Also, at this point, DO NOT touch the buns with any kitchen tool WHATSOEVER. They can be easily damaged, as they are not yet set.
• After about 8-10 minutes, the oil should be bubbling evenly. The bottom edges of the buns should be beginning to brown lightly, and the buns will expand a little as they cook.
• At this stage, add enough water so it comes up about ½ an inch (1.25 cm) in the pan. The water should come up about a third of buns' height. Immediately cover the pan with a tight-fitting lid, and cook for another 8-10 minutes on medium-low heat.
• Next, uncover the pan. The water should be mostly gone. Sprinkle the sesame seeds and chopped scallions over the top, put the lid back on, and cook for another 5 minutes over medium-low heat. (If there's still a significant amount of water left in the pan at this point, you can turn up the heat slightly, but do take care not to burn the buns.)
• The buns are done once you've cooked off all the water and the bottoms are golden brown. Use a dull kitchen tool to remove the buns, and avoid puncturing them. A stiff rubber spatula works well.
• Serve immediately with Shanghai rice vinegar or just eat it as is, taking care with the hot soup inside!

XIAO LONG BAO (SHANGHAI SOUP DUMPLINGS)

Steps:

• Stock your pantry
• Look for the ingredients and supplies featured here at an Asian market or online at adrianascaravan.com: Chinese-style cured smoked ham (or use Smithfield ham), dried shiitake mushrooms, Shaoxing (also spelled Shao Hsing) wine, black vinegar, dumpling wrappers (don't use wonton wrappers; they are too thin), and bamboo steamer sets.
• Make the soup
• Combine 10 cups water and all remaining soup ingredients except gelatin in large pot. Bring to boil, spooning off any foam that rises to surface. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, until chicken pieces are very soft and beginning to fall apart, adding more water by cupfuls if necessary to keep chicken submerged, about 2 hours 30 minutes.
• Strain and chill
• Strain soup; discard solids. Return broth to same pot. Boil until reduced to 2 cups, about 35 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Pour 3 tablespoons water into small bowl; sprinkle gelatin over. Let stand until gelatin softens. Add to hot broth; stir until gelatin is dissolved. Transfer to 13x9x2-inch glass dish. Cover; refrigerate aspic overnight.
• Make the sauce
• Mix 1 cup black vinegar, 6 tablespoons soy sauce, and 2 tablespoons fresh ginger strips in small bowl. DO AHEAD Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate. Bring to room temperature before serving.
• Make the filling
• Combine all filling ingredients in large bowl and mix with fork just until blended. Cut aspic into 1/3-inch cubes. Add aspic to pork mixture; stir gently with wooden spoon just until incorporated. DO AHEAD Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate.
• Assemble the dumplings
• Line 2 rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. Place 1 dumpling wrapper on work surface. Spoon 1 very generous teaspoon filling onto center of wrapper, including at least 2 or 3 aspic cubes.
• Pleat the wrapper
• Lightly brush edges of dumpling wrapper with water. Bring 1 corner of wrapper up around filling, then pleat remaining edges of wrapper at regular intervals all around filling until filling is enclosed and wrapper forms bundle-like shape with small opening at top.
• Twist the top
• Gather top edges of wrapper together and twist at top to enclose filling. Place on baking sheet. Repeat with remaining wrappers and filling. DO AHEAD Can be refrigerated, covered, for 1 day, or frozen in single layer in covered containers for 2 weeks.
• Prepare the steamer
• Line each layer of bamboo steamer basket with cabbage leaves; place over wok filled with enough water to reach just below bottom of bamboo steamer basket. (Or line metal steamer rack with cabbage leaves and set over water in large pot.) Place dumplings atop cabbage, spacing apart.
• Steam the dumplings
• Bring water to boil. Cover; steam until cooked through, adding more water to wok if evaporating too quickly, about 12 minutes for fresh dumplings and 15 minutes for frozen. Serve dumplings immediately, passing sauce alongside for dipping.

SHANGHAI SOUP DUMPLINGS

Steps:

• To prepare the soup, combine the stock, ham, scallion, and ginger in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and cook, uncovered, for about 8 minutes, or until the stock has reduced by half and you have a generous 2/3 cup. Strain the stock, discarding the solids, and set aside to cool for 15 minutes. Return the stock to the saucepan and sprinkle in the agar-agar or gelatin; there is no need to soften the gelatin in the stock beforehand. Heat over medium-high heat, stirring until the agar-agar is dissolved. After the stock comes to a boil, turn off the heat. Pour it into an 8 by 8-inch baking pan or a shallow bowl to make a thin layer that will cool quickly and be easy to cut up. Refrigerate for 20 to 40 minutes, until the soup is completely cooled and hardened. Quarter it and then peel from the pan. Finely chop and set aside. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate if you are preparing the soup in advance.
• Make the dough as you would for the Basic Dumpling Dough (page 22). Combine the two flours in the food processor or a bowl. Measure out the just-boiled water and add the oil. With the machine running, add the water and oil through the feed tube, or stir it in by hand, until you have a soft , warm dough. Add additional water by the 1/2 teaspoon, if needed. Gather the dough into a ball and transfer to a very lightly floured work surface. Knead processed dough for about 2 minutes and handmade dough for about 5 minutes, or until the dough is smooth and a tad elastic. Press your finger into the dough and it should bounce back fairly fast, but with a shallow indentation remaining. Place in a zip-top plastic bag and seal well, expelling excess air as you seal the bag. Let rest at room temperature for 1 hour before using. (The dough can be refrigerated overnight and returned to room temperature before proceeding.)
• To make the filling, thinly slice 1/2 inch of ginger and put it into an electric mini-chopper. Add the scallion, salt, white pepper, sugar, soy sauce, rice wine, and sesame oil. Process until creamy and fragrant. Transfer to a bowl, add the pork, and use a spatula to combine. Add the gelled stock and continue mixing until well blended and firm. Cover and set aside for 30 minutes to develop the flavors. Makes about 1 2/3 cups. (Unlike other fillings, this one can break down if it sits overnight. If you prepared the gelled soup a day ahead, combine it with the meat the day you make the dumplings.)
• To make the dipping sauce, cut the remaining 1 1/2-inch piece of ginger into fine shreds. Divide the ginger and vinegar between two communal bowls. Taste, and if the vinegar is too tart, add a bit of water. Set aside.
• To make the wrappers, remove the dough from the bag, turning the bag inside out if necessary; the dough will be sticky. On a very lightly floured surface, gently shape the dough into a ball. Cut it in half and replace one of the halves in the plastic bag, sealing well. Roll the other half into a 10 to 12-inch log. Cut into 16 pieces and then roll them into balls, dusting them with flour afterward to prevent sticking. Work on 8 dough balls at a time, keeping the others covered by a dry kitchen towel or inverted bowl to prevent drying. Shape each ball into a circle 2 1/2 inches in diameter, with a 1-inch diameter "belly" in the center; this helps to prevent the soup from leaking out and to keep a consistent thickness throughout. The finished outer rim should be thin enough for you to see the shadow of your fingers when you hold up the wrapper. (For guidance on shaping and rolling, see pages 24 to 25.)
• Before assembling the dumplings, line steamer trays and/or a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside. (If you are making the dumplings in advance, or freezing them, lightly dust the parchment paper with flour to avoid sticking.) Hold a wrapper in a slightly cupped hand. Scoop up about 2 1/2 teaspoons of filling with a bamboo dumpling spatula, dinner knife, or fork and position it in the center of the wrapper, pressing and shaping it into a mound and keeping about 1/2 to 3/4 inch of wrapper clear on all sides. This will seem like a lot of filling. Use the thumb of the hand cradling the dumpling to push down the filling and keep it in place while the fingers of the other hand pull up the dough edge and pleat and pinch the rim together to form a closed satchel (see page 52), the only shape for these dumplings. Make sure to pinch and twist the dough at the end to completely close. The finished dumpling will look very pregnant. If you are steaming right away, place each finished dumpling in a steamer tray, sealed side up, spacing them 3/4 inch apart, and 1 inch away from the edge if you are using a metal steamer. If you are unable to steam all the dumplings at once, or if you are going to steam them later, place the waiting ones on the prepared baking sheet with a good 1/2 inch between them. Loosely cover the finished dumplings with a dry kitchen towel or plastic wrap as you form and fill wrappers from the remaining dough.
• While these dumplings can be prepared in advance and frozen like the other dumplings in this chapter, they are at their very best when steamed as soon as they are made. Freeze them on the baking sheet until hard (about 1 hour), transfer them to a zip-top plastic bag, pressing out excess air before sealing, and keep them frozen for up to 1 month; partially thaw, using your finger to smooth over any cracks that may have formed during freezing, before steaming.
• To cook the dumplings, steam them over boiling water (see steaming guidelines on page 17) for 6 to 8 minutes. The dumplings should have puffed up and become somewhat translucent. Remove each tray and place it atop a serving plate.
• Serve the dumplings immediately with the sauce. To eat, pick up a dumpling with chopsticks and place it in a soup spoon; think of the spoon as a tiny bowl. Either bite or poke a small hole at the top with a chopstick. Carefully slurp out the hot soup inside or pour it into the spoon and sip it from there. Finish off the dumpling by eating it straight or dunking it first in the dipping sauce; to be more graceful, spoon a bit of sauce onto the dumpling or into the hole.

SHANGHAI MEAT BUNS

Steps:

• Make the outside by mixing the first 4 ingredients together.
• Let rest for 30 minutes; refrigerate for 10 minutes.
• Divide into 15 equal portions.
• Roll out into small circles.
• Place meat and cabbage filling in and twist tops to seal.
• Steam over boiling water in a steamer for 20 minutes until cooked through.

SHANGHAI NOODLE SOUP

Steps:

• Cook noodles in a large pot of salted boiling water according to package instructions. Drain and divide among 4 bowls.
• Meanwhile, in another pot, bring broth to a simmer over medium-high heat. Add ginger, lemongrass, white and light green scallions, shitake mushrooms, and squash. Reduce heat to medium-low to maintain a simmer. Cook until squash is crisp-tender and easily pierced with the tip of a knife, 8 to 10 minutes. Discard ginger and lemongrass. Stir in broccoli and bok choy; continue cooking just until broccoli darkens slightly and is crisp-tender, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in 3 tablespoons each soy sauce and fish sauce, and 1 tablespoon vinegar.
• Divide soup and vegetables evenly among noodle bowls. Top with dark green scallion tops, eggs, and chicken or pork, if using. Serve with herbs and lime.

SHANGHAI STUFFED SOUP BUNS

Steps:

• Blanch cabbage leaves in a large pot of boiling water until softened, about 1 minute, then drain well in a colander.
• Bring all aspic ingredients to a boil, uncovered, in a 4-quart heavy saucepan, stirring until sugar is dissolved, then simmer, uncovered, until liquid is reduced to about 1/2 cup, about 2 hours. Pour liquid through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl, discarding solids. Pour liquid into a measuring cup and let stand until fat separates from broth, about 1 minute. (If you have less than 1/2 cup broth, add water. If you have more, boil broth to reduce it to 1/2 cup.) Chill broth, covered, until it jells into a solid aspic, about 6 hours.
• Lightly scrape off any fat from aspic with a spoon and discard, then coarsely chop aspic. Chop ground pork with a cleaver or a large heavy knife until very finely minced and fluffy.
• Beat together aspic, pork, and remaining filling ingredients with an electric mixer at medium speed until combined well, about 30 seconds. Form filling into 24 mounds (2 teaspoons each) on a plastic-wrap-lined baking sheet and cover with another sheet of plastic wrap. Chill while making bun wrappers.
• Put 2 cups flour in a medium bowl, then add boiling water and stir with a fork until a shaggy dough forms. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes (dough will have the texture of a slightly sticky marshmallow). If dough is too sticky, knead in more flour, 1 tablespoon at a time. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature at least 10 minutes and up to 30 minutes.
• Stir together vinegar and ginger.
• Line steamer rack with cabbage leaves.
• Form dough into a snakelike roll about 12 inches long on a lightly floured surface, then cut crosswise into 24 equal pieces with a floured knife and cover with plastic wrap.
• Have a small bowl of water ready. Keeping remaining dough covered, place 1 piece of dough cut side down on a lightly floured surface and flatten slightly to form a round. Pick up flattened round and move hands around edges of dough (like turning a steering wheel), allowing dough to stretch slightly, until about 3 inches in diameter. Using small rolling pin with one hand and rotating dough round with other hand, gently even out dough round until it is 3 1/2 to 4 inches in diameter. (Do not roll out center 1 inch of dough; center of round should be slightly thicker than edge.)
• Lightly moisten outer 1/4 inch of dough round with a finger dipped in water, then put 1 mound of meat filling in center of round. Pleat edge all around, then pinch and twist pleats together. Place bun on cabbage in steamer and cover with steamer lid to keep bun from drying out. Make more buns with remaining dough and filling in same manner and arrange in steamer, spacing evenly in 1 layer and covering with lid.
• Fill wok with enough water so that bottom rim of steamer (not rack) will rest in water. Bring water to a rolling boil over high heat (without steamer in wok), then place steamer in wok and steam buns, covered with steamer lid, over boiling water until buns are firm (not gummy) to the touch and skins are slightly translucent, 10 to 12 minutes. Serve immediately, with dipping sauce.