Adventurous cooking (for me)

I had intended to make something to mark the Chinese New Year, I really did. Especially as Chinese food is so good. And so easy to make. And I never do. So after seeing a really interesting post about Xiao Long Bao (which I'd never heard of or tried and haven't a clue as to how to pronounce) over on Not Quite Nigella's blog I thought that would be a neat thing to try. Then she came back a few days later going step by step through the recipe I'd picked out to try myself! Talk about convenience!

If you don't know, Xiao Long Bao is a steamed soup dumpling. The recipe I followed used both pork and shrimp along with ginger, salt, sugar, sesame oil, soy sauce, rice wine, pepper and I threw in some diced water chestnuts for some crunch. Even if you don't go to the trouble of making these delicious little bundles, that would be a fantastic marinade for pork.

You can find the recipe over at Steamy Kitchen and between there and NQN it is definitely do-able. The dipping sauce is the glowing star though. A wanted to have it on ice cream!

Seriously tho, these were completely delicious. I sat back in awe unable to believe I made them. They take a bit of work and I'm sure I did them wrong (very little soup, which sounds like the characteristic mark of these dumplings) but they still tasted amazing. I'll definitely attempt these again.

Did you celebrate the Year of the Rabbit? If yes, how?


Peace,

Jenn x