Nanxiang Xiaolongbao

Ingredients

• 250g pork skin, cut into 2cm strips
• 450g meaty pork neck bones
• 1 litre cold water
• 4 slices ginger, for the stock
• 2 spring onions, halved, for the stock
• 1 tbsp Shaoxing wine, for the stock
• 250g plain flour
• 130ml warm water
• 450g minced pork, roughly 70 per cent lean to 30 per cent fat
• 2 tbsp Shaoxing wine
• 3 tsp light soy sauce
• 1 tsp caster sugar
• 3/4 tsp fine salt
• 1/4 tsp ground white pepper
• 1/2 tsp toasted sesame oil
• 1 tbsp finely grated ginger
• 3 tbsp cold water
• 60g young ginger, cut into fine threads, to serve
• 6 tbsp Chinkiang black vinegar, to serve

Before you cook

• Scrape the underside of the pork skin clean of any soft fat and cut it into 2cm strips.
• Cut four slices of ginger and halve two spring onions for the stock.
• Grate a tablespoon of ginger for the filling and measure out the seasonings.
• Cut the young ginger into hair-fine threads and steep them in the black vinegar in a small dish.

Steps

1. Put the pork skin and pork bones into a large pan, cover them with cold water and bring to a rolling boil.
2. Boil hard for two minutes, then drain everything into a colander.
3. Rinse the skin and bones under cold running water until no grey scum is left clinging to them.
4. Return the clean skin and bones to the pan with one litre of fresh cold water, the ginger slices, spring onions and a tablespoon of Shaoxing wine.
5. Bring the pan to the boil, then lower the heat until the surface barely trembles and cook uncovered for two hours.
6. Strain the liquid through a fine sieve into a shallow container and discard the solids.
7. Leave the stock on the worktop for thirty minutes to lose its heat.
8. Cover the container and refrigerate it overnight, until the stock has set to a firm jelly you can slice.
9. Tip the flour into a bowl, pour in the warm water in a steady stream and stir with chopsticks until the mixture looks shaggy.
10. Knead the dough on an unfloured worktop for fifteen minutes, until it is smooth, tight and no longer sticky.
11. Wrap the dough and leave it to rest at room temperature for thirty minutes.
12. Put the minced pork in a bowl with the Shaoxing wine, soy sauce, sugar, salt, white pepper, sesame oil and grated ginger.
13. Stir the pork hard in one direction only, adding the cold water a tablespoon at a time, until the mixture turns sticky and paste-like.
14. Cut 250g of the set jelly into 5mm dice and fold it through the pork with a light hand, keeping the cubes intact.
15. Chill the filling for twenty minutes so the jelly stays firm while you roll.
16. Roll the rested dough into a long rope and cut it into 24 equal pieces of about 15g each.
17. Roll each piece into a round about 8cm across, working the edge thinner than the centre so the base can carry the soup.
18. Set a heaped tablespoon of filling in the middle of a wrapper and pleat the edge round in small folds, pinching each new fold against the last, until the top closes in a tight spiral.
19. Sit the dumplings on squares of baking paper in a bamboo steamer, leaving 4cm between them.
20. Bring a wok of water to a hard boil, set the steamer over it and cover.
21. Steam for eight minutes over high heat.
22. Lift the lid away from you and serve the dumplings at once, with the ginger and vinegar alongside.