Xiaolongbao, Shanghai soup dumplings

As tradition built it

Serves 4 to 6. Aspic overnight, assembly and steaming 1.5 hours.

Ingredients

For the aspic

• 1 old hen, or 1.5 kg chicken bones and wings
• 500 g pork skin
• 4 to 5 spring onions, 200 g ginger, sliced spring onion, ginger

For the dough

• 500 g plain (low-gluten) flour
• 250 g strong bread flour
• 1 pinch pinch of salt
• 230 to 240 g water

For the filling

• 500 g pork shoulder, hand-chopped or coarsely minced
• 30 g ginger, 30 g spring onion, 15 g Shaoxing wine, 15 g light soy, 10 g salt, pinch of white pepper, 10 g sesame oil ginger, spring onion, Shaoxing wine, light soy, salt, white pepper, sesame oil

Method

1. The aspic: simmer the hen or bones with the pork skin, spring onion and ginger for over 10 hours, topping up water as needed. Strain, chill until fully set, then grind or finely chop into small granules.
2. The dough: combine the flours and salt, add the water gradually, knead to a firm, smooth, unleavened dough. Rest 30 minutes, covered.
3. The filling: season the chopped pork with the aromatics and seasonings, then fold through the aspic granules at roughly 40 percent of the filling's total weight.
4. Roll dough portions of around 25 g, thicker at the centre than the edges. Fill with roughly 14 g filling per wrapper.
5. Pleat a minimum of 14 pleats per dumpling, gathering and twisting to seal at the top.
6. Steam over rapidly boiling water in a lined bamboo steamer, spaced so the dumplings don't touch, for around 8 to 10 minutes.

What a modern chef changes

The aspic quality-control standard, taken at its word.

Rung 3

Method

1. Build the aspic from a genuinely reduced, deeply gelatinous stock, testing the set with a chopstick exactly as the professional standard demands: puncture it, and the liquid released should fill a spoon, no more, no less. Adjust the reduction until it does.
2. Chill the aspic in a shallow tray for faster, more even setting, then dice rather than grind it, for a cleaner, more controlled distribution through the filling.
3. Weigh every wrapper and every portion of filling to the 8-gram-and-14-gram professional standard rather than eyeballing it, for genuinely consistent results across a whole batch.