Xiǎolóngbāo – day 2

So, before day 2 had even arrived, I checked in on the broth/aspic after returning from Thanksgiving dinner. It was clear that the broth and aspic were not forming into a gelatin. So, I took a ladle full of the broth, heated it in the microwave and stirred in another teaspoon of agar agar powder. At the time, I realized that I had been halving the recipe all along, but I hadn’t halved the broth. That is, the recipe calls for 3 cups of broth, and I had 3 cups (actually 6 – but in two 3 cup containers) of broth. So, adding a second teaspoon made sense. I mixed this back into the rest of the broth and returned it to the refrigerator.

Woke up the next day, and found that the broth was still liquid. In fact, I could barely tell the difference between the broth with the agar agar and the other 3 cup container that I had not added any agar agar to…so, I decided I’d add yet another teaspoon. This time, I took all the broth and heated it on the stove until it was just boiling, then turned off the heat. I took a ladle full, and added another teaspoon, then incorporated this back into the broth. I also noted that the recipe called for a glass container, so I transfered the broth to a glass bowl.

I’m guess it was something to do with the fact that when I added the second teaspoon of agar agar powder, I did not heat the broth completely when I added it, and not the glass container, but with 3 teaspoons of agar agar powder, heat and a glass container, the final outcome was a very solid gelatin — a lot more solid then I had imagined was necessary, and I suspect more then is desired. Nonetheless, I had aspic, and I was ready to use it now.

I chopped up about half of it until I had a cup and a half to add to the filling I made the day before. I mixed it together before starting on the dough for the wrappers. I strayed a bit from the directions here and used my Cuisinart rather then a spoon and my hands to mix and knead the dough. Once I had the dough, I started to make the dumplings.

I was surprised that I managed to create dumplings that look generally right. Initially, they were bigger then they ought to be. I started rolling out smaller, thinner pieces of the dough into rounds. In hindsight, I’d say that even the smallest thinnest ones I made could have been a tiny bit smaller, and definitely thinner. Overall, I was pleased with my pleating efforts, and at least the dumplings visually looked right. So, all that remained at this stage was to steam them and eat them.

***

Turns out, my suspicion was correct…the dough was too thick, and it made for a less then delicate dumpling. Not bad, but not what I wanted. Further, I suspect that the dumplings were surprisingly dry and lacking any broth because the dough soaked up any liquid it could find.

All told, the dumplings looked pretty good, but they didn’t taste as I had hoped. However, I still have some meat filling left, and I’ll make another go at thinner wrappers!

Tags: Xiaolongbao