Xiaolongbao

Method

1. 1 Simmer pork trotters with ginger for 2 hours, then strain the liquid and refrigerate for 4 hours until it forms a jelly-like mass — this jelly is the source of the soup inside the dumpling.
2. 2 Sauté the crab roe with ginger and Shaoxing wine for 4 minutes until fragrant and moist.
3. 3 Mix the minced meat with diced agar-agar, crab paste, soy sauce, and sesame oil, then refrigerate until the filling is firm.
4. 4 Roll out the dough to be thicker in the middle and thinner at the edges, then fold it 18 times in a spiral around the top of the pastry.
5. 5 Steam over high heat for exactly 7 minutes; steaming for too long will cause the jelly to evaporate and the cake to lose its soup.

With an appliance

• Pressure cooker 1 hr 54 min

  Replace step 5: steam the xiaolongbao at low pressure for 4 minutes, then quickly release the pressure to prevent the wrapper from bursting and the crab roe soup from evaporating; steps 1–4 remain unchanged.