Yay, Soup Dumplings!

June 28, 2018

After eating my first soup dumpling (xiao long bao) six years ago, I immediately fell in love. I try to sample them whenever I'm in a city that has them (and I dream that one day I can try the famous ones at Din Tai Fung). 

In case you are new to Xiao Long Bao, they are soup-filled dumplings. However, this isn't a dumpling that you merely pop into your mouth; that would result in scalding and burning and just bad news. This is a good video on how to eat one properly. But essentially, it involves nibbling off a little bit of the dumpling wrapper and then sucking out the hot broth from the dumpling. Then you can scarf down the rest of the dumpling without fear of burning your mouth off.
(In case you're wondering how soup is magically put into the dumpling, gelatin is the miracle worker. It's added to the cooked broth and after it solidifies, the gelatin chucks are added to the filling).

Twin Sista made them years ago and since I wanted a cooking project on my summer break, I thought I would follow her lead and tackle soup dumplings. While this recipe isn't too tricky, it does involve several parts: making the broth and gelatinizing it and then making the dough and the filling---and finally assembling them.

The Result: The dumplings were super tasty! The warm broth was soothing and the filling was flavorful. And since soup dumplings aren't readily available in KC, I'll happily make these anytime I'm craving them. (But there's also the Trader Joe's variety, which aren't too bad either).
The Recipe: Andrea Nguyen's Xiao Long Bao has a simple broth and easy-to-follow steps with helpful pictures and even an accompanying video. Just make sure you have a scale to weigh out your ingredients.

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