Crab and Pork Dumplings

Thursday, 2 Jul 09

You know that feeling when someone walks past and asks what the heck do you think you’re doing..?

I haven’t been following Masterchef religiously. Blasphemy, I know. But when I do tune in, I do tend to enjoy it. Minus the dramatic video editing and swelling music, and the keep-watching-after-the-break cliff hangers, there are some really talented chefs on the program, some truly delicious looking food being cooked, and the occasional Adriano Zumbo eye-candy. So when I saw the Hong Kong yum cha battle, it elicited a serious craving for dumplings. So, inspired and with time to spare, I got cooking. Warning, pic heavy, text light post.

I went straight to the recent host of the Daring Cooks, Jen at Use Real Butter for her dumpling recipe. First flour is sifted, and some water poured in.

And then combined with chopsticks until incorporated. This part was really tiring. Little by little, more water is added until a firm but slightly sticky dough results. Then give your hand a break while you rest it under a damp cloth for 15 minutes.

Now just chill under here for a bit, okay?

During this time, I also defrosted my filling – its actually Mum’s ‘meatball’ mixture for bun rieu, a vermicelli soup, with crab and pork meatballs/paste and tomatoes. Much more subtle than the ubiquitious pho, but delicious all the same. I also called up to make sure I was actually allowed to use it. ^_^;;

Form into a dome shape, then cut into long rectangles. Then, chop chop…

…and roll as thin as possible. This part is probably the most intensive part. The dough needs to be slightly thinner at the edges than in the centre, and rolling out 50 pieces is really wearing on the palms and the back. It reminded me of cake decorating class and how I used to come home with bruised feeling palms.

Dollop filling into the centre, and shape into a rough quenelle. You need enough room around the outside to make the pleats, but I think I tended to err too much on the side of too little filling. If I had a helper in the kitchen, I’d be able to show you the pleating process, but as it is, you only get the end result of my very first dumpling…which was a…

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…fail. They do get better really quick though, as you see. Pleat just one side (the side closest to you tends to be easier, and press the other side firmly against the pleat.

That way, you end up with the pretty curve that is characteristic of these dumplings. I should become a hand model.

Try to have the curves as even as possible, though I liked to make it get smaller towards then end.

What are these? All will be revealed later. They were an attempt at a xiao long bao shape, but I wasn’t quite sure how to seal it. The dough probably needed to be a touch thinner.

Plates of dumplings ready to be cooked. I made about 50 of them all up from the recipe. These were boiled or steam-fried over the next few days. Be sure to liberally coat the plate with flour though – I made that critical mistake and  spent far too long trying to prise them off the plate..and off each other.

Steam – frying – not quite golden enough, but getting there…

deep fried Nutella xiao long bao

Time consuming as it may have been, I would make the dough again in an instant – if only to fill them up with Nutella and deep fry them.

11 Comments

1. the nutella one looks awesome!! :)
   this seems all too complicated for me to want to try it out, so well done!!

   Comment by betty — July 2, 2009 @ 7:45 pm

2. Woah dude yumyumyum hahaha! Didn’t know you can do that with Nutella too!!!

   Comment by Trisha — July 2, 2009 @ 8:03 pm

3. Omigod! Yu-um….whoever/whatever inspired you to do the nutella dumpling deserves a medal!

   Comment by Reemski — July 3, 2009 @ 12:01 am

4. mmmmm i can almost smell it. and totally feel like getting some nutella toast right now

   Comment by jason — July 3, 2009 @ 12:43 am

5. Your last picture took me by surprise, lol! Those look just perfect! I am not that patient in the kitchen :) Hmm, what’s that? I think I hear my Nutella calling. . .

   Comment by Jennie — July 3, 2009 @ 2:23 am

6. Very nice pleating there :) My fat fingers are too clumsy for that delicate pleating. Oh my god deep fried Nutella xiao long bao!!!

   Comment by Steph — July 3, 2009 @ 9:48 am

7. Your pastry looks so perfectly smooth, nice! But a Nutella xiao long bao – sacrilege!

   Comment by Belle@OohLook — July 7, 2009 @ 11:31 am

8. OMG nutella xiao long bao.. hahaha looove the idea

   Comment by Linda — July 7, 2009 @ 5:38 pm

9. Deep fried nutella dumpling! That’s such a cool idea! :)

   Comment by Simon — July 9, 2009 @ 1:42 am

10. Great job! And the nutella XLB sounds fabulous! A cross cultural dumpling :)

    Comment by Lorraine @NotQuiteNigella — July 10, 2009 @ 10:36 am

11. Ooh, I have crab dumplings planned for one of these weekends. Might have to convert from a dim sum dumpling to a xiao long bao style one as these look so good!

    Comment by Forager — August 12, 2009 @ 1:03 pm

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