Chinese dumplings name. Chinese dumplings: recipe with photo

Just less crumbly. But when you bite into it, it just melts in your mouth. When choosing a filling, you can dream up and, for example, instead of jam, fill cookies with melted chocolate.

Ingredients:

• butter– 100 g
• powdered sugar - 100 g (plus powdered sugar for sprinkling)
• egg white - 1 piece
• flour - 200 g
• salt on the tip of a knife
• fruit jam
• vanillin.

Cookie preparation:

1. Leave the butter for a while room temperature to make it soft. Put it in a mixing bowl, add powdered sugar.
   
   
2. Beat the mixture with a mixer. Add protein to this mass, mix.
   
   
3. Sift flour, stir.
   
   
4. Place the dough on a flat, floured flat surface. Knead the dough. Roll it into a ball and let the dough rest for 10 minutes.
   
   
5. Then roll the dough into a sausage with a diameter of about 2 centimeters and cut it into pieces about 3 centimeters long.
   
   
6. Roll each piece into a ball and make an indentation in it with your thumb.
   
   
7. Place the cookies on a parchment-lined baking sheet and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
   
   
8. Preheat the oven to 200°C and bake cookies. After 8 minutes, remove the baking sheet with cookies from the oven and again make indentations from them. Return the pan back to the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes. The cookies should be golden on the bottom and light on the top.
   
   
9. Once the cookies are baked, take them out of the oven and let them cool. Put it on a plate and sprinkle powdered sugar.
   
   
10. Fill the cookie indentations with jam or

- quite simple and at the same time original shortbread, which will appeal to all lovers of while away the time before the series over a cup of tea with cookies. By the way, I don't know why, but cookies with jam very popular in Europe.

Ingredients

• butter 120 g
• powdered sugar 100 g
• flour 300 g
• egg 1 PC.
• baking powder 1 tsp
• salt pinch
• jam

You can use any jam, for example, I opened a jar of delicious lingonberry jam. I have enough ingredients for 22-25 pieces with a diameter of 5.5 cm. Powdered sugar in this jam cookie recipe used to facilitate preparation, the powder dissolves easily. You can use sugar instead of powdered sugar, but during cooking you will have to try a little more to work with the whisk.

Cooking

We prepare all the products necessary for making cookies. The oil must be removed in advance so that it becomes soft.

Mix dry ingredients: sift together flour, baking powder and add a pinch of salt to them.

In a large bowl, beat butter with powdered sugar until creamy. This can be done with either a mixer or a whisk. Add the egg and stir with a whisk until smooth.

Add dry ingredients to the oil mixture and knead the plastic dough, form a ball out of it, wrap it in cling film or a bag and put it in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes.

We roll out the dough on a silicone mat (or on baking paper) into a layer 4-5 mm thick and cut out circles with a diameter of 5-6 cm (or any other shape). At half of the blanks, cut a small hole in the middle. Before you send the blanks to the oven, they should be placed in the freezer for 15 minutes, this is necessary so that the dough does not particularly spread during baking and keeps its shape.

Bake for about 10-12 minutes in an oven preheated to 180 ° C. Cookies cool on a wire rack or paper towel (to prevent the cookies from sweating and becoming wet). Now the fun part: putting the halves together. We smear the back of the whole cookie with jam and cover the top with the second half in the form of a ring.

Dumplings are used for food all over the world and it is not exactly established where this dish spread from. According to most researchers, it appeared in eastern countries. In China, this food is one of the most popular.

The difference between Chinese and those used in Russia is in their fillings. They add not only minced meat, but also vegetables or seafood. For some varieties of dishes, a filling is prepared from all of the listed components.

The benefits and harms of the dish

The usefulness of a dish depends on the quality of the ingredients included in it. Store dumplings do not always meet this requirement, but if you cook them at home, the situation changes. The product contains many valuable substances and vitamins that are present in flour, eggs, stuffing. If a person does not have problems with the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract, he can consume this dish very often. But it is advisable not to get carried away because of the high calorie content (it can be reduced by experimenting with the components).

People with food allergies should be careful with dumplings. For them, unfamiliar products and their combinations can be harmful. Those who have gastrointestinal diseases should carefully select a recipe, avoiding spicy and fatty options. With excess body weight, it is better to refuse this dish altogether due to the high calorie content.

Difficulty, cooking time

This dish is not difficult to prepare. With basic skills, you can cook any type of dumplings at home. This will take about an hour.

You can go the simpler way and buy a prepared semi-finished product in the store - then it will take even less time. But the quality and taste of such a dish will be significantly inferior to what is cooked with one's own hand.

Food preparation

Preparation should begin by choosing a variety of dumplings and a recipe. Based on the list of ingredients, determine what you need to buy.

Flour is required for the dough. It must be wheat and premium- so the dish will be tastier. It is worth buying flour with a good shelf life and in a whole package - this guarantees its quality.

Minced meat is often used as a filling. You can use the store if there are familiar sellers who will tell you exactly which semi-finished product is fresh. But it is better to make minced meat at home, from fresh meat. It can be anything. It is passed through a meat grinder several times and kneaded until a homogeneous consistency.

Minced meat recipe video:

After that, it is combined with spices, herbs and salt. Do the same with minced fish. If you plan to use shrimp or other seafood, you need to take care of their quality and freshness. Frozen for these purposes are not suitable.

Vegetables in the form of filling dumplings are also used very often. When buying them, you need to make sure that they are not sluggish, they do not have traces of mold and rot, as well as damage. Next, the vegetables are thoroughly washed and cut.

This dish is served with sauce. It is either cooked at home or purchased in a store. There is no fundamental difference. It is difficult to prepare a special sauce, so it is better to use ready-made. If it is allowed to replace it with another one, you can do just that.

How to cook Chinese baozi dumplings?

Baozi is one of the varieties of dumplings.

You need to prepare them from the following ingredients:

1. Dough:
   • flour - 0.5 kg;
   • warm water - 50 ml;
   • yeast (dry) - 5 g;
   • milk - 250 ml;
   • baking powder - 1 tsp;
   • sugar - 50 g;
   • sunflower oil;
   • salt;
   • soda.
2. Filling:
   • minced meat - 600 g;
   • green onion - 5 feathers;
   • cabbage - 1/4 small head;
   • fresh ginger - 5 cm.
3. Sauce:
   • sugar - 1 tbsp. l;
   • egg - 1;
   • sunflower oil - 2 tbsp. l.;
   • table rice wine - 1.5 tbsp.;
   • soy sauce- 2 tbsp. l.;
   • a mixture of five spices - 1 tsp;
   • sesame oil - 1 tsp;
   • ground white pepper - 2 tsp;
   • salt.

Using the listed components, it will turn out to cook 5-6 servings of the dish.

Recipe for Chinese baozi dumplings in the photo:

For baozi you need yeast dough. Therefore, yeast is combined with warm water and leave for 5 minutes. Mix flour with baking powder, add sugar and salt. Yeast diluted in water is added to these components. Milk and sunflower oil are also added there. When the dough is ready, leave it for about an hour.

Grind onion and ginger root in a blender.

Finely chop the cabbage, mix it with salt and let it brew for 20 minutes. After that, juice is drained from it.

Cabbage is combined with minced meat, ginger and onions.

All components intended for the sauce are added to the resulting mass, with the exception of sunflower oil. The composition is kneaded until smooth.

In almost ready stuffing pour oil and put the container in the refrigerator for half an hour.

After the dough has almost doubled in volume, you can begin to form dumplings. It is divided into 4 approximately equal parts. Each of them is given the appearance of a sausage, the diameter of which is 4 cm.

Sausages are divided into 6 parts. They form balls that need to be rolled out with a rolling pin.

Put a little filling in the center of each cake, lift the edges of the dough and wrap them counterclockwise. The filling must be completely hidden.

The dish is prepared in a bamboo double boiler, the bottom of which is covered with parchment. Workpieces are laid out on it and left there for 40 minutes. After that, without opening the lid, increase the heat to maximum and steam the dumplings for another 15 minutes.

Baozi should be served at the table slightly cooled - as a breakfast or snack.

This variety of Chinese dumplings contains 162 calories per 100 g of the product. It contains: proteins - 10.6 g, carbohydrates - 9.5 g, fats - 8.3 g.

Baozi is often stuffed with mushrooms or vegetables. Among the preferred vegetables are Chinese cabbage, carrots and peppers. Sometimes these components complement chicken meat and tofu cheese.

There is also a sweet variety of the dish. As a filler, red beans with sugar or pasta are used for it. In the north of China, baozi is cooked with beef filling.

Video recipe:

Jiaozi

List of ingredients for this dish:

• water - 1 glass;
• minced pork - 400 g;
• flour - 2 cups;
• starch - 1.3 cups;
• onion - 1;
• ginger - 50 g;
• dill - 200 g;
• pepper;
• salt.

The flour is mixed with starch and sifted into a prepared container. Water is added little by little to form a homogeneous and thick dough.

Dill and peeled onions are crushed, ginger root is rubbed on a grater. These components are added to minced meat, salt and pepper the resulting mass. During kneading, give it uniformity. Small pieces are torn off the dough, which are immediately rolled out with a rolling pin.

In the center of the resulting cakes, a stuffing of minced meat with vegetables is placed. The edges of the dough are folded up and fastened, giving the appearance of a flower. Semi-finished products are cooked in a double boiler for 20 minutes or boiled in salted water.

For jiaozi, multi-component vegetable fillings are suitable. The main ingredient is Chinese cabbage. If they do meat dumplings, then pork is used as a filling. It can also be combined with vegetables.

Video recipe:

You can cook with the following ingredients:

• water - 125 ml;
• chicken breast - 150 g;
• flour - 300 g;
• egg - 1;
• canned corn - 100 g;
• onion - 100 g;
• red beans - 100 g;
• lemon - 0.5;
• bell pepper - 1;
• cheddar cheese - 50 g;
• olive oil - 150 ml;
• garlic - 2 cloves;
• worcester sauce;
• salt - 1 tsp;
• ground black pepper - 1.4 tsp.

The dough is kneaded from wheat flour, water, eggs and salt. It is wrapped with a film and allowed to brew for about 40 minutes. On a heated frying pan spread the onion cut into small cubes. While it is fried, the core is removed from the pepper, and its upper part is cut. These pieces are attached to the bow.

Finely chop the peeled garlic and also put in the pan. Next, corn and beans are added to the mixture. They are followed by crushed chicken breast. After a few minutes, the contents of the pan are laid out in a bowl.

Top the mixture with grated cheese, add pepper, lemon juice and Worcestershire sauce. The infused dough is rolled out in a thin layer, cut into squares (10 cm on each side). On each of them spread a little stuffing. The blanks are fastened in the form of triangles. Fry the wontons in a deep frying pan in large numbers olive oil. The duration of frying is 2-3 minutes on each side.

The fillings for this dish are very diverse. It can be pork or chicken, Chinese mushrooms, various vegetables, shrimp. Very often they are made with fruits.

Video recipe:

Dim Sum is made using:

• rice flour - 2 cups;
• water - 1 glass;
• salt;
• minced pork - 0.5 kg;
• ginger - 15 g;
• onion - 1;
• garlic - 2 cloves;
• sesame oil - 2 tbsp. l;
• rice oil - 2 tbsp. l.

The dough is made from flour, salt and water. When it becomes homogeneous, it is covered with a napkin and left to rest. Grate ginger, chop onion and garlic. All this is combined with minced pork. Lightly salt the resulting mass, add sesame and rice oils to it.

The stuffing should be mixed well. Then cut the rolled dough into squares. A small amount of filling is laid out on each blank. The edges of the dough are lifted up and slightly collected. The inside of the dumplings does not need to be completely closed. It is advisable to cook the dish in a double boiler. This takes 10-15 minutes.

Video recipe:

So that the filling does not tear outer part do not use harsh ingredients. If they are needed, it is necessary to grind them well. Dust your work surface with flour before rolling out the dough to prevent sticking. Chinese dumplings can be eaten hot or cold.

First, let's prepare the dough for Chinese dumplings, as it will need to stand for a while.

Pour the sifted flour into a bowl, add water and stir quickly.

When the dough starts to come together, transfer it to a floured work surface and knead well with your hands. The dough is not very tough and it is not difficult to make it.

You need to knead the dough for 3-5 minutes, it should become smooth, uniform and elastic, stop sticking to your hands.

Ready dough cover cling film and let stand for 30-60 minutes.

While the dough is resting, you can make the filling.

First you need to chop the cabbage quite finely. You can use a food processor, but it is important to stop in time and not grind it into "dust", I prefer to cut it with a knife.

Sliced ​​cabbage should be transferred to a bowl and mixed with salt. Let stand 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes, when the cabbage begins to release water, it must be squeezed out, the water drained. The volume of cabbage will decrease significantly. We do this so that the filling of dumplings is not too wet.

Then we'll cut green onion.

Then peeled ginger must be grated. For the filling of dumplings, you need a tablespoon of grated ginger. If you're making a sauce, grate more at once.

In a large bowl, mix the ground beef, sesame oil, ginger, soy sauce and green onion. Mix thoroughly in one direction.

Then add cabbage and mix well again. The filling is ready! You can make dumplings.

But first, try to cook literally one tablespoon of the filling to make sure that it has enough salt and seasonings.

Cook in the microwave or in a small skillet, it only takes a few minutes, taste and adjust the salt and pepper. This way you can check the taste of the filling before all the dumplings are made.

Divide the rested dough into two parts. We roll out half of the dough with a long sausage, of uniform width, about 20-25 cm long. Cut the sausage into 12 parts.

Each piece of dough is lightly crushed with your fingers and rolled into a circle. Lightly dust the rolling pin and surface with flour if necessary. It is convenient to roll out 6 circles, make 6 dumplings, then roll out the next ones, etc.

Ready dumplings can be laid out on a cutting board. Roll out mugs, ready-made dumplings and dough that is waiting in line, cover with cling film.

We put the filling in the center of the circle, then we form dumplings. In shape, they are more like dumplings familiar to us, but do not lie on their sides, but "stand" on the base.

Thus, we sculpt all the dumplings. You will get 24 pieces.

Now the dumplings can be fried. We put a large frying pan on a strong fire, heat up 2 tbsp. vegetable oil and lay out the dumplings. Try not to let them touch each other.

As soon as the dumplings begin to sizzle strongly, you need to add about half a glass of water (so that the water completely covers the bottom of the pan) and close the lid. Cook with the lid closed for about 5 minutes.

After five minutes, remove the lid and check the readiness of the dumplings. All the water should evaporate, and a golden crust should form on the base of the dumplings. If the crust is not ruddy enough, you can fry the dumplings a little more without a lid.

If you decide to boil dumplings, boil water with a pinch of salt, dip the dumplings into the water and mix gently. Wait for the water to boil again and add a cup of cold water.

This trick will allow the filling to reach readiness, and the dough will not boil. Bring the water back to a boil and add another cup of cold water. Then, when the dumplings float to the surface and 5-7 minutes pass, you can take them out.

If you are cooking pre-frozen dumplings, increase the cooking time by 2-3 minutes.

To serve dumplings, you can quickly make a sauce: soy sauce, grated ginger, chopped green onions, dark rice vinegar (you can replace balsamic) and mix a little sesame oil in a bowl.

Xiao Long Bao, or Steamed Shanghai dumplings, - traditional steam Chinese dumplings, an extremely popular dish in the cities of the right bank of the Yangtze River, Jiangnan Historical Region (Chinese 江南, pinyin Jiangnan) - Changzhou, Hangzhou, Nanjing, and especially in Shanghai and Wuxi. By the way, it was in Shanghai that these amazing dumplings were invented. This type of dumpling is a type of Baozi (Chinese: 包子, pinn Baozi), so to speak, "little baozi" steamed patties, which are mainly prepared in restaurants and served directly in bamboo steamers. For such dumplings, they offer a dipping sauce based on black rice vinegar, preferably Zhenjiang. Xiao Long (Chinese 小笼, pinyin Xiao Long) literally translates to "small steamer basket". And "Bao" is short for "Baozi".
Wrappers for Xiao Long Bao are made from yeast or unleavened choux pastry. The main part of the filling is minced pork, to which, depending on the season, other ingredients are added - young bamboo shoots in spring, shrimp in summer, and crab meat in autumn. In these dumplings, the weight of the filling is twice the weight of the dough wrapper.
appearance chinese dumpling recipe Xiao Long Bao National Chinese cuisine owes the pastry chef Huang Ming Xian (Chinese 黄明贤, pinyin Huang Ming Xian), who lived in the town of Nanxiang (Chinese 南翔, pinyin Nanxiang), which has now become part of the Jiading district (Chinese 嘉定区, pinyin Jiading Qu) - a suburb located on northwest of Shanghai. Mr. Huang Ming Xian, after numerous experiments with dough and meat fillings, offered to his customers in 1871 unusual pies steamed. Their peculiarity was that inside the hot pie, or rather, dumplings, in addition to the filling, there was also broth! These tasty, juicy thin-skinned dumplings quickly fell in love with visitors. Later, the son of a pastry chef opened his own restaurant in the Yuyuan Park District (Chinese 豫园, pinyin Yuyuan), located in Huangpu District (Chinese: 黄浦区, pinyin Huangpu Qu) in downtown Shanghai. Of course, the talented confectioner had followers besides his son, who glorified dumplings from Nanxiang, making them one of the culinary symbols of Shanghai.
At present, several old restaurants specializing in Xiao Long Bao have survived in Shanghai, such as the Nanxiang Bun Shop or Nanxiang Mantou Dian (Chinese: 南翔馒头店, pinyin Nanxiang Mantou Dian), founded in 1900. This traditional Shanghai restaurant is located near Chenghuangmiao Temple, located in the "City of the Temple of God" (Taoist temple in Shanghai), which in modern China includes not only a temple complex, but also a shopping area located around the temple. In 1949, the restaurant was nationalized by the Chinese government and is owned by the state to this day. The restaurant is famous for its Xiao Long Bao s crab filling. Three more old restaurants, still located in Nanxiang next to Yuyuan Park, are Gulong Restaurant or Gulong Fanzhuang (Chinese 古龙饭庄, pinyin Gulong Fanzhuang), Guyi Garden Restaurant or Gui Yuan Canting (Chinese. 古猗园餐厅, pinyin Guyi Yuan Canting), and "Guyi Garden" or "Guy Yuan" (Chinese 古漪园, pinyin Guyi Yuan) - compete with each other in the skill of making the famous dumplings. There are no fewer people who want to taste them.
Recipe " Shanghai steamed dumplings Xiao Long Bao can be classified as complex without exaggeration. The preparation of such dumplings is quite laborious - you need to prepare some of the ingredients in advance, and modeling dumplings, which include jelly, also complicates the process, but, nevertheless, the work is worth it. Your diligence will be rewarded delicious dumplings.
Xiao Long Bao- one of the three most famous types of Chinese dumplings, along withfried goti dumplings and Cantonese steam"crystal" shrimp dumplings Shuijing Xiajiao .

INGREDIENTS for stuffing dumplings:
minced pork - 500 g,
shrimp - 125 g,
green onions - 3 arrows,
white sugar - 2 tsp,
salt -1 tsp,
White or black) ground pepper- ¼ tsp,
ginger - a piece the size of Walnut,
Shaoxing wine - 1 tsp
light soy sauce - 2 tablespoons
Sesame oil - ½ tsp

Dough INGREDIENTS (for about 40 dumplings): wheat flour - 400 g,
boiling water - 150 ml,
cold water - 50 ml,
vegetable oil - 1 tbsp.

INGREDIENTS for dip sauce:
black rice vinegar - 100 ml,
garlic sauce with chili chili garlic - 2 tablespoons,
light soy sauce - 100 ml,
Sesame oil- 1 tsp,
ginger - 2 cups,
red chili pepper - 1 pc. (optional).

INGREDIENTS for the broth:
water - 2 liters,
pork shank - 1 pc.,
chicken bones (wings / tails / necks) - 1 kg,
smoked brisket - 60 g (optional),
ginger - a piece about 3 cm long,
green onions - 2 arrows,
garlic - 2 large cloves,
Shaoxing wine- 1 tbsp

Jelly Ingredients:
broth - 1 liter,
powdered agar-agar (or unflavoured gelatin) - 1 tbsp.

This type of dumplings can be safely classified as complex recipes. The very process of preparing such dumplings is very labor-intensive and will require sufficient skill from the cook. You need to prepare for the preparation of dumplings in advance, at least a day in advance. This is necessary so that by the time you start cooking dumplings, you already have frozen jelly ready, which plays an important role in this recipe.

The process of making Xiao Long Bao dumplings can be divided into 5-6 stages:
- preparation of broth for jelly;
- preparation of jelly from the broth;
- preparation of dough for wrappers;
- preparation of stuffing for dumplings;
- molding (forming) dumplings;
- cooking for a couple of dumplings.

As mentioned earlier, you need to start by preparing the broth for the future jelly. We need for this some kind of pork trimmings (ears, bones, drumsticks), which can be a source of gelling substances (best of all, these are drumsticks), as well as chicken "carcasses" (or wings, necks, tails). With chicken "frames" everything is simple - rinse and set aside for now. Rinse the pork shank or ears, scrape the skin to clean the surface of the skin, and rinse again.
Cut the ginger into slices (you can not peel it), tie the onion arrows in a knot, peel the garlic.
Pour 2 liters of water into a container of suitable volume, put pork shanks (or whatever you have), chicken "carcasses", ginger, garlic, green onions into it and add Shaoxing wine. It would be nice to add a small piece of smoked pork belly- the aroma of the finished broth will be better, respectively, and the jelly will turn out more fragrant. Bring the broth to a boil, make a small fire and cook the broth for 2 hours at a slow boil, removing scale from the surface of the broth.

Strain the finished broth, let cool at room temperature and put in the refrigerator. The next day, take out the broth, remove the film of fat that has formed, heat the broth, separate 1 liter (enough for jelly), the rest can be used at your discretion, in the end, the remaining broth can be cooled to room temperature, poured into a container and frozen.
Place 1 liter of broth back into the pot, turn on the fire. When the broth is almost boiling, add agar agar or gelatin (1 tbsp powdered agar agar or 1 tbsp unflavored gelatin). Stir for 2 minutes until all powder is dissolved. Pour the broth into molds (size does not matter). Allow to cool to room temperature, then refrigerate until set, about 3-4 hours (or overnight).

Before cooking dumplings, you need to take care of the sauce for dipping dumplings. Rinse the red chili pod, peel a couple of slices of ginger from the skin. Cut the chili into thin rings, chop the ginger into strips. Fold the ginger straw into a container of a suitable volume, add chili rings (the amount is optional, those who do not accept spicy may not add it at all), garlic Sause with chili garlic, black rice vinegar, light soy sauce and sesame oil. Mix and put in the refrigerator to infuse.

The next step is to prepare the filling. Defrost the shrimp, peel them from the shell, including the tail, remove the dorsal and ventral veins and finely chop the shrimp.
Rinse green onions, peel a piece of ginger. Cut the green onion into rings, and grate the ginger on a fine grater.

Place minced meat and shrimp, chopped green onions, ginger puree, white sugar, light soy sauce, salt, white (or black) ground pepper, Shaoxing wine and sesame oil in a suitable gastronomy container. Stir the contents of the container until homogeneous mass, cover with cling film and refrigerate.

Prepare dough for wrappers. The dough for these dumplings needs custard, we have already toldhow to do it. Sift first wheat flour. Then, place 90% of the sifted flour into a suitable gastronomy container and pour about a third of hot water into it. Mix vigorously with chopsticks or a spatula (but not with your hands!). Add another third of hot water and mix again. Add the rest of the water and mix again. Let cool, just a few minutes, so that you can work with the dough with your hands.

Knead the dough until a homogeneous mass is formed. Add cold water and vegetable oil. Mix vigorously again. Sprinkle the table with flour. Place the dough on a floured surface and use your hands to knead the dough for 8-10 minutes until it is soft. The dough should come out smooth and, if you poke it with your finger, it should slowly recover its shape. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and leave for 30 minutes.

At ready dumplings Xiao Long Bao has one curious feature, in general, it was she who made them so popular - the presence of broth inside the dumplings. Steamed dumplings have a "bad" tendency to stick to the bottom of the steamer during their cooking. In China, to prevent this, lay a clean cloth, lettuce leaves or carrot circles on the bottom of the double boiler. Here's a little trick. The walls of these dumplings are thin, and if the dumpling sticks to the bottom of the double boiler, then when you try to peel it off the bottom, the dough shell will most likely tear, and all the broth will flow out. But this cannot be allowed. Need to prepare right amount carrot circles, peeling the carrot and thinly slicing it into circles. At the same time, cut into cubes of jelly.

The most time-consuming process is the preparation of wrappers for Xiao Long Bao and the formation of dumplings.
Divide the dough into 4 equal parts. Take one part (cover the remaining 3 parts with plastic wrap) and roll into a roll, about 3-4 cm in diameter. Cut the roll with a knife so that you get pieces the size of a table tennis ball (about 4 cm). Roll out a piece of dough into a ball between your palms to get a nice, round, smooth ball.
Flatten the ball of dough with the palm of your hand on the table, and then roll out the resulting cake with a rolling pin into a round pancake (1-2 mm thick and somewhere around 9 cm in diameter). The Chinese even have special short bamboo rolling pins for this, literally 8 cm long and 2.5-3 cm in diameter. In addition, the shaft of such a rolling pin is not of the same diameter along the entire length, like ours, but from the middle to the edges, their diameter decreases. This feature allows you to make different thicknesses for one wrapper. Such a rolling pin is very convenient to work with. Ideally, a dumpling wrapper should be thicker in the middle and thinner towards the edges. But this is already SKILL! And years of practice. It does not affect the taste in any way, so our wrapper is of the same thickness. Then you can begin to form dumplings (if you cook them alone, and if with an assistant, then one makes wrappers, and the assistant fills them with stuffing). You need to do it quickly, since Xiao Long Bao, in addition to the filling, also includes a piece of bouillon jelly, which melts quickly.

Well, the most crucial moment is laying the filling on the wrapper and forming Xiao Long Bao. Take a carrot circle, put a dough wrapper on it, put 1 tbsp in the middle of the wrapper. fillings.

over meat filling put a piece of jelly and pinch the edges of the wrapper, forming a bag of dough, on top of which you get a tail. Ideally, a bag of dough should have at least 14 folds (this does not affect the taste, but shows the skill of the cook). Filling dumplings with stuffing and pinching them, as already mentioned, is better with helpers, so that the process of forming dumplings goes faster and to prevent the jelly from melting and the dough from drying out.

Well, the final stage is steamed dumplings.
As we said above, to prevent dumplings from sticking to the bottom of the steamer, you can use a clean cloth, lettuce or Chinese cabbage, or carrot circles. We have already talked about carrots above, but we will describe how to use lettuce leaves here. Put one layer of lettuce leaves (or Beijing cabbage) in a double boiler. Pour the required amount of water into the wok, put the wok on the fire and let the water boil. Put a bamboo steamer in the wok and hold it over the steam for 2 minutes to soften the lettuce (or Chinese cabbage). Place dumplings on cabbage leaves at a distance of 4-5 cm from each other. Cover the steamer with a lid and steam them for 12 minutes.
Xiao Long Bao should be served hot, right in the bamboo steamer. Eat them dipping in dip sauce. You need to eat carefully, inside the hot broth, which can at least get dirty if it splashes, or even get burned. The Chinese themselves, when eating such dumplings, use chopsticks, a spoon and a small plate or saucer, which they put on the table in front of them. They grab the dumpling by the tail with chopsticks and put it in a spoon, which they bring to their lips, so that at that moment the spoon is above the plate, then they bite the dumpling and drink the broth from it, and then again lower the dumpling into the dip sauce with chopsticks. If the broth spills, then into the bowl. And after that they eat the dumpling itself.