Pork Soup Dumplings

I had been meaning to make pork dumplings with hairy bittercress for a while and called my mom to ask what she usually adds to hers, but in talking to her, she said if I have any leftover gelatin based broth, I can add it to make the dumpling juicier. I often have the gelatin broth base in the freezer since I make ramen with it, and I realized it was perfect for making soup dumplings! I normally like the crab and pork ones but I don’t have any on hand–however, as the summer passes, we’ll be crabbing so be on the lookout for the crab and pork recipe update! I used onion chives from my garden instead of scallions, so double the amount of onion chives since it’s not as strong.

The gelatin broth is really just pork trotters and chicken feet run through the pressure cooker with enough water to cover them for a few hours. This creates juicy soup dumplings.

Both my daughter and my husband are fiends for soup dumplings so this will be perfect for dinner!

I was told by a friend (IG @madlyzhang) to add some ground pork skin to the filling to make the broth juicy and sticky! I would probably ground 1/4 pound of pork belly (skin on) to replace 1/4 of the ground pork next time to try. If you do before I give an update, let me know how it goes!

Ingredients for Soup Dumpling

• 1lb ground pork (60% – 80% lean)
• 1/4lb shrimp, raw, peeled, and deveined
• 1 inch segment of ginger, peeled
• 4 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 3 tablespoons rice wine
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 sprig spring onion/scallion (or 2 sprigs onion chives)
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon msg (optional)
• 2 cups pork/chicken gelatin broth, chilled and solidified (recipe below) Adjust for as much or as little soup you’d like in the dumplings
• 1 package dumpling wrappers (or 2 cups flour plus 1 cup boiling water, flattened and cut out into thin circular discs)
• Water, to close the wrapper
• Napa cabbage leaves (or wet paper towels.)
• Chingkiang Black Vinegar with julienne ginger
• Blue crab tomalley, roe, and meat mixture (steamed blue claws, everything reserved and mixed together.)

1. Either make or defrost your wrappers ahead of time.
2. In a food processor, chop shrimp, spring onion, and ginger and combine until mostly smooth.
3. Combine shrimp paste with ground pork, soy sauce, rice wine, sugar, salt, msg, sesame oil, and pork/chicken broth gelatin. Alternatively, you can cut the chicken/pork broth gelatin into cubes and add it separately when closing the wrapper.
4. Using a spoon, scoop the mixture into the center of a wrapper. Moisten your finger with some water and run it along the outer edge of the wrapper. Choose one point on the edge and begin pleating around in one direction until closed. Place in the steamer basket on cabbage leaves or moistened paper towels (prevents sticking.)
5. If you are using crab, steam the crabs first and mix the innards and roe with the crabmeat, and place a small amount of it on top of the pork mixture before closing the wrapper.
6. Prepare a steamer and once the water is boiling, steam the dumplings until interior is done, for 5 – 6 minutes.

Ingredients for the Pork and Chicken Gelatin Broth

• 1lb pork trotters
• 1lb chicken feet
• 1 onion
• 2 inch thick daikon radish disk
• 2 cloves garlic
• Enough water for the first boil and then to cover everything (but at least 3 cups)

1. On the stove, boil pork trotters and chicken feet once until mostly cooked. Discard water and wash them.
2. In a pressure cooker, combine pork trotters, chicken feet, onion, radish, garlic, and water. Cook for 1 hour. Strain broth and chill in the fridge until solidified. You can use this as a base for ramen as well. You can run it through a few more times if you want it thicker.
3. If using stove top method, boil for at least 2 hours on medium heat.