XLB demystified
September 23, 2007
I have previously blogged about my love for Xiao Long Bao. Pat found another recipe this week and we decided to give it another try.
For the most part, we only used the above mentioned recipe as a guide. I started deviating from the recipe when I couldn’t found “Agar-Agar” at the Asian supermarket I went to, instead I used unflavored gelatin packets instead. Another challenge that I faced was that I didn’t have a day in advance to prepare the broth/soup, so I used a few tricks to speed up the process. I had the pig’s feet cut into thick slices to create more surface area, I also accelerated the cooling process by dropping a few ziploc bags on ice in the broth/soup and also placing it on an ice bath. Fortunately, the broth/soup congealed up fairly quickly and with very little issue.
For the most part, the dumplings turned out very well. There was ample of soup inside the dumplings and it tasted pretty great. The skin needed a little bit more tweaking - it was a bit too thick. Overall, I’d still consider this a success.
You can see more pictures here.
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