Whenever in Shanghai, I must have xiao long bao,  Or whenever it is on any menu!  Din Tai Fung, a Shanghainese, or maybe Taiwanese chain, is able to make a fast food production out of making these delicate soup dumplings.  It is fascinating watching their staff fold these dumplings so swiftly.  One would think they pay their staff based on how fast they can churn out these dumplings.

Chef’s tip: The trick to getting the soup in the middle is by gelling up some aspic with the filling, so when you steam it, the aspic melts to become a soup.

Soup:
1 lb chicken wings tip
3 cups water
2 oz Hunan smoked pork, whole
1 stalk green onions, cut into 3 inch lengths
3 slices ginger
1 Tablespoon Chinese rice wine

Dough:
½ cup high protein/ bread flour
¼ cup all purpose flour
¼ cup + 1 Tablespoon (or more) boiling water
1 teaspoon canola oil

Filling:
1 Tablespoon green onions, white part, very finely minced
1 Tablespoon ginger juice, from 1 Tablespoon fresh ginger, grated
1 Tablespoon soy sauce
1 Tablespoon Chinese rice wine
½ Tablespoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon sugar
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
8 oz ground pork

Napa cabbage leaves or parchment paper

Sauce:
¼ cup red wine vinegar + 2 Tablespoon water
5 slices ginger, julienned

Preparing the soup

1.     Place all ingredients in a pot. Bring to boil and gently simmer till stock has reduced into half. Cool.
2.    Remove solids and pass the soup through a sieve into a wet pan.  Chill.
3.     When soup has gelled, scrape it up and break it up with a fork.  Set aside in the refrigerator.
Preparing the dough.
4.     Combine the 2 flour together. Form a well in the center. Gradually add the boiling water, stirring until a ball forms.  Cool a little, while still warm, stir in the oil.  Transfer to a lightly floured board and knead for a few minutes until soft and smooth.  Wrap in plastic and let rest for 1 hour.
5.     Divide the dough into 2 balls. Roll each piece of dough into a 1 inch cylinder.  Cut each cylinder into 12 pieces. Roll each piece into a ball. You should have about 24 pieces. Cover as you work.
Preparing the filling
6.     Mix all the ingredients together.  Add in the crushed stock.  Gently mix together.
Making the dumpling
7.     Take a dough portion, work into a round ball, flatten it into a 2 1/2 inch round with a rolling pin.  Make a well in the center and place 1 tablespoon of filling, pat it into a mound, leaving a ¾ inch edge around.  Carefully pull up the dough edge with your right thumb and index finger to make the first pleat, while your left thumb centers the filling.  Next, gather the edge of the wrapper with your left index fingers and start to make the subsequent pleats, while your right thumb and index fingers seal the pleats that are formed.  Aim to make 18 pleats per dumpling. Pinch the top together and give it a twist to seal.  Peel off any extra dough at the top.  Placed onto a steamer that is lined with cabbage leaves.
8.     Steam over simmering water for 8 minutes or until the dumplings are translucent.
Preparing the dipping sauce:
9.     While dumplings are steaming, julienne ginger, and mix with red wine vinegar and water.  Serve with dumplings.

Serves: 4

Tags: Chinese, dim sum, Shanghainese.

We always eat Tang Yuen during the winter solstice  - December 22 to be exact.  That’s the date for the Chinese family reunion dinner – similar to Thanksgiving here.  As a child, I remember helping my grandmother roll these balls.  We would of course, make them in all sort of shapes – I remember making a dice, too.

Chewy and sweet, it gives you a satisfying burst of flavor when you bite into one of these glutinous rice balls.  You can serve it with a simple syrup cooked with ginger, or in this recipe below, Shanghainese style with fermented rice wine.  Served this way, it is also supposedly a good galactogogues.  Don’t worry if you don’t know what that means, if you had needed it, then you would already know what it means!

Chef’s tip: Make a batch to freeze.  Place them on a small baking sheet, freeze.  When it is frozen, transfer to a ziplog bag.

½ lb glutinous rice flour
1 Tablespoon powdered sugar
½ cup boiling water
½ cup room temperature water

Red food coloring, optional

½ cup mashed red beans filling, from a can or prepare from scratch

8 cups water

½ cup rock sugar
½ cup dried longans
¼ cup red dates, pitted
2 eggs
1 cup store-bought jiu niang (fermented glutinous rice and wine)

Preparing the dumplings:
1.     Whisk together the rice flour with the powdered sugar.  Form a well in the center. Gradually add the boiling water, stirring to mix.  Slowly add the room temperature water and keep mixing until the dough comes together as a ball and no longer sticks to your hand.
2.     Transfer to a lightly floured board, add food coloring and knead for 2 minutes until dough is soft, smooth and malleable.
3.     Divide the dough into 2 balls. Roll each piece of dough into a ½ inch cylinder.  Cut each cylinder into ¾ inch pieces. Roll each piece into a ball.  Cover dough with a damp tea cloth as you work.
4.     Take a ball and flatten it into a 2 inch round, about 1/8 inch thick with a rolling pin.  Place the wrapper in your palm. Place ½ teaspoon of filling into dough.  Bring the sides together, pinch to seal and roll between your palms to create a smooth ball, making sure filling is totally concealed,
5.     Bring a large pot of water to the boil and drop in the balls. Once they float, they are cooked.  Remove and plunge into a bowl of room temperature water.
Preparing the sweet soup:
6.     Bring water, rock sugar, longans and red dates to boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Turn off heat.  Break the eggs into the sweet soup, wait 20 seconds, then stir very slowly to break the yolks to form “egg flower”.  Add in the jiu niang and stir once.
7.     Ladle the sweet soup into bowls and ladle in the rice balls.  Serve piping hot.

Serves: 4

Tags: Chinese, Dessert.

Not your mom’s little brother but the chewy wheat gluten aka seitan.  I think all the modern seitans you get at health food stores these days that are braised in a soy-based sauce has its roots in this classic Shanghainese appetizer.

Chef’s tip:  To simplify the recipe, you may skip the deep fry (steps 3 and 4).  The deep frying lends a more complex flavor to the dish.  It also balances the sauce that is soaked in the gluten.  The gluten, as the most absorbent item, is intensely flavored.

2 pieces star anise
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup peanuts, peeled, raw
2 cups water

4 oz fresh wheat gluten, torn into bite size pieces
2 cups canola oil

1 cup shiitake mushrooms, sliced thickly
2 cups wood ear mushrooms, reconstituted from 1/2 cup dry, trimmed of hard stems
1 cup lily buds, reconstituted from 1/2 cup dry, trimmed of hard stems, knotted
1 cup bamboo shoots, rinsed, sliced

1 Tablespoon sesame oil

1. Place star anise, soy sauce, sugar, water, peanuts and water in a pot and bring to boil.  Turn low to simmer 20 minutes.
2. In the meantime, soak what gluten in hot water, rinse.  Repeat.  Squeeze very dry between tea towels.
3. Bring oil to 350F.  Deep fry gluten pieces till golden brown.  Drain on a cookie rack on a sheet pan.
4. Plunge cooled gluten into a big bowl of room temperature water.  Give it a few good squeeze.  Squeeze dry.
5.  Add mushrooms, lily buds, bamboo shoots and gluten to the sauce mixture and bring to boil.  If the sauce does not cover the ingredients, add a little more water.  Turn heat to low and simmer till almost dry, stirring occasionally, about 1 hour.
6. Drizzle with sesame oil.  Toss to mix.  Chill and serve cold.

Serves: 4

Tags: Chinese, Shanghainese, vegan, Vegetarian.