pork dumplings

Din Tai Fung is among my favorite restaurants, as you can see from my earlier restaurant tip on this blog. The best dumplings are the pork xialong baos, which I tried to copy. They need a bit of time, but believe me, the result is worth it!

Ingredients for 2:

Dough:

- 125g of white flour

- 80ml hot water

- a pinch of sugar and salt

Filling:

- 200g minced pork meat

- 1 spring onion, finely chopped

- 2 TBS brown sugar

- 3 TBS soy sauce

- 1 garlic clove, pressed

- 1 TS grated fresh ginger

- 2 TBS sesame oil

- half a chili pod, finely chopped

and:

- 100ml chicken stock

- 3 TBS soy sauce

- 3 leafs of gelatin

Directions:

Soak the gelatin leafs in cold water. Prepare the chicken stock, add the soy sauce, then switch off the stove and stir the soaked gelatin leafs in the stock until well dissolved. Pour the mix into a large dish (as shown in the picture) and put in the fridge until it gets jelly. Cut it with a knife / stir it with a fork in order to receive small pieces of the jellified stock. Set aside.

For the dough, mix the ingredients in a large bowl with a spatula, finish it with your hands until smooth. Cover with plastic foil and let rest (not in the fridge) for at least half an hour. Roll the dough as thin as possible, then cut out rounds of a diameter of about 12 cm, but roll the dough very very thin!

Mix together all the ingredients for the filling - now you can start making the dumplings:

- take one piece of dough, brush the edge with a bit of water (natural glue)

- put a piece of the filling (small ball) on the dough

- put a piece of the jelly on top (this will make it juicy once cooked as it will liquefy with the steam)

- fold in half, then work your way around until you have a nice bundle. Youtube can help if you struggle (how to fold a dumpling)

Place the dumplings into the bamboo basket, on top of bakeproof paper as otherwise they will stick.

Place the bamboo basket on top of a pan, filled with about 5 cm of water, place the lid and steam at medium heat for about 15 minutes.

Finished! Take a dumpling with the sticks, stick it in a mix of soy sauce and vinegar, then place it on a spoon. Pick the dumpling with your stick, so the juice comes out, then eat it without burning your mouth.

Send me your pics once you tried - they're amazing!