Xiaolongbao

Add 270g warm water, use chopsticks to stir the flour into a dough.

Different brands of flour require different amounts of water. Here's a reference - when adding water, don't pour it all in at once, add it gradually.

Knead the dough together to form a large dough ball.

Then place it on a cutting board and knead until the dough is smooth.

When kneading, rotate the dough with your left hand while kneading with your right palm.

After the dough is kneaded, place it in a warm place, cover with a lid, and let it rest for two hours.

After two hours, the dough should have doubled in size with many small holes, indicating it has risen properly.

Knead the risen dough again to release the air inside.

You can hear many small bubbles popping during this kneading.

Divide the deflated dough into portions of about 25g each.

Flatten each small portion, then roll it into a round wrapper.

When rolling, rotate the wrapper with your left hand while rolling with a rolling pin in your right hand. Roll more around the edges and less in the center, so the final wrapper is thick in the middle and thin around the edges. This way the xiaolongbao won't easily break.

Prepare 300g pork belly, 150g scallion, and 5g ginger.

Put the pork belly, white part of scallion, and all prepared ginger slices into a food processor and grind into meat filling.

Don't grind the scallion leaves yet, keep them for later use. Don't grind the meat too fine, just slightly coarser than dumpling filling.

Put the ground meat filling in a bowl for later use.

Heat the wok, low heat, add oil, two spoons of dark soy sauce, one spoon of light soy sauce, one spoon of cooking wine, two spoons of sweet bean sauce, 2g five spice powder, and 5g white pepper powder to the wok.

After the seasonings in the wok boil, pour in half of the meat filling, turn to medium heat and stir-fry the meat until cooked.

Must pour in only half the meat filling! Never pour in all the meat filling.

Tip: Why only half the meat filling? If all the meat is stir-fried, the xiaolongbao filling will be loose after steaming. If no meat is stir-fried, the steamed xiaolongbao won't have that fragrance. So the compromise is to stir-fry half and keep half. This way the xiaolongbao filling can hold together and still have flavor.

After the meat filling is cooked, remove it and let it cool slightly.

Don't let it cool completely, just until it's not too hot to touch, warm is fine.

Add the stir-fried meat filling to the uncooked meat filling in three batches.

Stir well after each addition, then add another portion of meat filling, stir well again, then add the final portion.

The final meat filling should stick together but without excess moisture.

Chop the scallion leaves finely.

Mix the scallion leaves, appropriate amount of salt, and the prepared meat filling together just before wrapping.

This ensures the scallion stays fresh.

Stir well, this is the final prepared meat filling.

Place the wrapper in your left palm, use your right hand to scoop an appropriate amount of meat filling onto the wrapper.

Wrap into a xiaolongbao.

Add sufficient water to the steamer, place oil-proof paper on the steamer, put the wrapped xiaolongbao in the steamer, don't turn on the heat yet, cover the lid and let the xiaolongbao proof for fifteen minutes.

After the xiaolongbao has proofed, bring to a boil over high heat, steam over medium heat for 13 minutes, turn off the heat when time is up, cover the lid and wait three minutes before opening.