These beginner friendly homemade Xiao Long Bao, also known as soup dumplings, are so juicy and delicious, bursting with flavorful hot soup. This faster recipe skips the commonly used traditional method which includes hours worth of boiling bones and feet and instead mimics the concealed soup broth by using a gelatin-based soup jelly.
Prepare the soup jelly (Make at least 8 hours before the rest of the recipe including the dumpling filling)
Bloom the gelatin by sprinkling the gelatin on to the top of ½ cup of cold water, each time a layer is sprinkled, wait until it goes clear on the water before sprinkling the rest then leave for 5 minutes
½ cup cold water, 12 g gelatine
In the meantime, in a saucepan combine all of the soup ingredients except the bloomed gelatin, bring to the boil then immediately reduce to a simmer and add the bloomed gelatin, stirring until dissolved
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
Pour the soup mixture in to a container and store in the fridge for at least 8 hours but ideally overnight
Make the dumpling filling
In a large mixing bowl combine all of the ingredients for the dumpling filling including the pork mince, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, spring onions, chives, sesame oil, garlic and ginger and mix together. Once the soup jelly has set, remove from the container and chop into lots of small cubes then mix in with the rest of the dumpling filling
Assemble the dumplings
Place a dumpling wrapper in the palm of your hand then place 1-2 teaspoon of filling in the centre
Brush cold water around the edges with your finger pinch the dumpling wrapper inwards, moving around as you do so then twist in to a pleated dumpling
Cook the dumplings
Fill a pan halfway with water and bring to the boil. Add a steamer basket and a steamer paper or some parchment paper with 4-6 small holes on top
Place 6-8 dumplings at a time on top of the paper and steam with the lid on for 8 minutes
Once done, remove the dumplings and serve hot topped with spring onions and chili oil