- I have four piles of mushrooms right here,
so I'm gonna be here for a minute.
- (Producer) You can use the food processor.
- Wait, there's a food processor?
Yes! I would love to use the food processor, please.
(laughing)
(exciting music playing)
Hey, what's up?
My name is Tway and welcome to Making it Big,
the show where I turn your favorite food and make it giant.
I have a very special guest with me here today,
Mr. Ben Hundreds.
- Hi Tway.
- Hi, thank you so much for being here.
- Thank you for having me.
- I'm really nervous about this challenge
because I mean by the looks of the bamboo steamer,
I kind of know what you're gonna challenge me to.
But I don't know what kind.
So let's see.
- [Ben] Bánh.
- [Tway] Of course, it's a soup dumpling.
The hardest one to make.
- You really think so?
- Yes, absolutely.
Soup dumplings?
It's incredibly difficult to make, just this size.
- I really wanted to challenge you today.
- How big do you want me to make this?
- I want big.
- Like how big?
- Like I want to carry it, like this big.
- Oh, you wanna like hug it?
- Yeah.
- That's a really big challenge, dude.
You couldn't just like challenge me to make
like a gyoza or something?
- No, I could have, but I didn't want to.
- I accept your challenge.
I will make a giant soup dumpling.
Let's get started.
For soup dumplings, we need to make soup.
So, I'm gonna be using an Instant Pot for this.
This is my chicken stock that's gonna go in
Then adding some flavor to it.
So soy sauce, some ginger, garlic, green onions.
And this is a little cheat code.
This is ham.
It's going to add some nice flavor to the broth
without having to add some actual bones into it.
Give this a nice little stir.
This is probably the easiest part of the soup dumpling, so
The dumpling is shaped like a purse
which I think is really cute.
That's a cute purse.
Can you edit a purse, a dumpling purse for me?
And the more pleats that you have at the top
that means whoever's making your dumpling is very skilled.
So today I'm gonna try my best to make as many pleats
as possible.
Maybe like a hundred, maybe less.
We'll see, this looks like it's going to be done
so I'm gonna strain it and then add my gelatin.
This smells so good.
So, so good.
I think it's the ham
and the soy that is giving this really savory smell.
I wish I can drink this right now,
but I have to bloom my gelatin.
This is actually not the traditional way of making it.
I'm using gelatin because I'm making a big giant dumpling,
so I don't want to risk it not setting.
And I also can't just add this gelatin right
into the hot water.
I have to bloom it with cold water,
because hot water is going to kill the gelatin.
Meaning it's not gonna help it bloom.
Then I'm gonna strain it.
Look at that color.
You can tell just by looking
at it that it has so much flavor.
Pour this right into my sheet tray.
This is going to take four hours,
so in the meantime, I'm going to make my dough.
Usually dumpling dough is really easy to make.
I usually use all purpose flour,
but since this is a big giant dumpling,
I'm going to use bread flour and cake flour instead.
Bread flour has more gluten, so I feel
like it has more structure to hold the dumpling better.
Five and a half cups of bread flour
and then cake flour will keep it tender.
Little salt, give it all a whisk.
Then I have hot water.
So the bread flour I'm just kind of taking
an educated guess.
I'm not sure how this is going to turn out.
I hope that it will hold
up like I thought it would, but we'll see.
Okay,
time to get messy.
So my first time ever having soup dumplings
was here in America.
I don't think there's any soup dumplings in Vietnam.
Maybe now since it's so popular.
And the first time I had a soup dumpling,
I burned my mouth 'cause I just didn't know what to expect.
But the flavor, it was insane.
I've never had anything juicier, and I was hooked.
I'm gonna put it out on the table
and then knead it until it turns smooth.
So usually when I make dumplings,
the dough is probably half this size.
And it makes like 50 dumplings.
But this is the dough for one.
This is probably gonna take me a hot minute.
My arms are actually feeling really good, feeling strong.
If you hate the gym, get in the kitchen.
So in culinary school, making dough
we actually had to fight over the mixer.
There were only like four to a class,
so most of us had to do this by hand.
I'm getting flashbacks.
This dough feels pretty good.
All I need to do is check.
Yep, and it bounces back.
So it's ready.
My baby's gonna rest for 30 minutes.
This is
five pounds of pork.
That's a lot of meat for one dumpling.
So let's get to it.
I have some scallions here.
So for the scallions, I'm using
both the whites and the greens.
It both offers a really nice texture to the filling.
I love the smell of just raw green onions.
And this goes right into the pork.
Then I have some baby portobella's here
that I'm just going to mince up.
Oh, I'm just kidding.
Okay. This is a product of one mushroom.
I have four piles of mushrooms right here.
So, I'm gonna be here for a minute.
(peppy music)
(record skipping)
Wait, there's a food processor?
Yes. I would love to use the food processor, please.
(laughing)
Okay. Four pounds of minced baby portobella mushrooms,
courtesy of my bestie, the food processor later.
I'm gonna add it straight into the meat.
And I love mushrooms because it has a natural umami flavor
to it, and it has a meaty texture.
And then for my seasoning,
I'm going to add in soy sauce, shaoxing wine,
little bit of sesame oil, salt and white pepper.
About like a full bulb of garlic here,
that I'm just going to grate.
This is pretty much the amount of garlic I put
in my regular dumpling filling anyways, cause I love garlic.
Ben is a foodie,
so I really hope that he likes garlic.
But if he doesn't, then I guess I'll have
a really big dumpling to myself.
And then now I'm gonna grate some ginger.
It's great in dumplings, great in dumping sauce.
What is a dumpling without some ginger?
This is my favorite part.
Time to mix it all together.
All of this is filling for just one dumpling.
Like this is actually kind of insane,
and I'm kind of concerned
if it's actually gonna cook all the way through.
But hey,
(meat mushing)
that's what good pork dumpling fillings sounds like.
Okay, I'm kind of avoiding this
because this is the moment of truth.
It's assembly time, meaning I have to roll the dough out,
put this bad boy in the dough, and then try to pleat.
(fast instrumental music)
Now I have all of my components and I'm ready to assemble.
I actually had to take this part out.
This right here, the bottom of this one out.
This is too shallow for the big dumpling to sit in.
So this gives it a nice deep wall,
so it can hold up the big dumpling.
I'm going to line this first.
I have napa cabbage here.
I'm going to just line the bottom
and the sides so the dumping doesn't stick.
I'm just kind of working with hopes and dreams over here.
Okay, I'm gonna dust my surface so my dough doesn't stick.
Roll out my dough.
I'm gonna roll this out into a nice, thin circle.
I thought this dough was going to be harder to roll out,
but it's actually not because it's
very stretchy, very hydrated.
Now I'm gonna measure this, 18 inches in diameter.
Time to transfer this dough into my basket.
(suspenseful instrumental music)
Okay so far,
so good.
Now, I'm gonna add this filling.
Man, this smells so good.
This is just an insane amount of filling for one dumpling.
I really, really hope that all
of this pork gets cooked.
And I hope that my dough doesn't fall
apart on me, some way somehow.
This is a tricky one.
Okay, all my meat is in.
So I'm making a little well in my meat mixture
so I can put the soup into the soup dumpling.
This is gelatin soup and this is actually how
they put the soup into the soup dumpling.
Look at that!
Well, I love it.
Brushing some water onto my dumpling wrapper so
when I start to pleat it, it can stick together.
I'm gonna start right here because it kind of looks
like a little pleat right here already.
So I'm just gonna grab.
So the more pleats, means the more skilled.
Let's see if I can get a hundred. (record skipping)
I'm on my fifth pleat.
Just trying to be as gentle as possible.
The small pleats aren't really working out for me,
so I think I might just, I gotta just do the bigger pleats.
I didn't get a 100 pleats.
I got about like 14.
Not skilled, but not
as bad as I thought it would be.
There's a little bit of extra dough here.
I'm just gonna snip it off.
See, aesthetic.
Okay, this looks good.
Hold this back.
I really, really hope this works.
No going back now.
(grunting) Oh man.
I'm gonna put the basket in this.
I have boiling water ready for me.
Get this bad boy up here.
And I'm gonna let this steam for two hours.
(fast instrumental music)
So while my dumpling is steaming away,
I'm going to start on my sauce.
I have some ginger right here
that I'm just gonna cut into thin slices.
Perfect. The ginger really gives the sauce a nice aroma
and just flavor.
Now I have black vinegar and soy sauce here.
I like to add a little bit more black vinegar
than soy sauce.
Usually people like to do equal parts,
but I love my sauce to be (mouth clicking)
very acidic.
And I'm just gonna measure it with my heart.
This reminds me of, and two shots of vodka.
(mouth bubbling)
And then I have a little bit of chili flakes here.
This is not just some regular old chili flakes.
This is thai chili, chili flakes.
I'm gonna let this sit so the flavors can start to develop
and marry with each other.
That's it.
Two hours later.
Dude, Ben is gonna freak out.
This looks really good.
Let's plate this and get it ready for Ben.
(intense music)
Okay. My heart is actually racing
because I cannot wait to show Ben this.
Ben! I have something for you.
Welcome back.
- Wow.
- Are you ready?
- I don't know if I am.
(intense music)
- [Ben] Oh my God.
You really made a giant soup, oh my god.
- [Tway] Compared to..
- [Ben] Wow. How did you do this?
It's so good.
- [Tway] So much trial and error.
I think this has to be the most challenging challenge yet.
So this is a total of five pounds of meat.
- [Ben] Okay.
- [Tway] Four pounds of mushrooms in the filling.
- [Ben] Wow.
- [Tway] And the dough by itself is three pounds.
I got us some boba straws.
I thought it would be fun for us to kind of
just drink the soup.
- Sure.
- Let's do it.
(mouth sipping)
Thoughts?
- I love it.
- Okay. Should we dig into this?
- Yes. Yes, we should.
- [Tway] The only way to go about this
is to cut it like a cake.
- Sure.
- [Tway] Would this be considered like a meat pie now?
- [Ben] Yeah. (laughing)
- Insane.
Okay. I low-key was worried
that it might not be cooked through, but we're good.
It's cooked through.
- It's perfect.
- Yes. So this is just a regular dumping sauce
soy sauce, black vinegar, ginger
and then we have some chili over there.
- Great.
- Wow.
- [Ben] It tastes like a soup dumpling.
- [Tway] Perfect.
- It checks out almost all the boxes.
The biggest difference between this
and a small one is, when you bite into a small one
it explodes in your mouth.
- Right.
- And like half the time
you might even burn your mouth
when you eat a soup dumpling right?
- [Tway] Exactly.
- [Ben] So besides that, it's pretty spot on.
- That's because you just don't got a big enough mouth.
- Yeah. Maybe.
Can you imagine if I would've picked it and
(Tway laughing)
- [Tway] I think I checked off all of all the boxes,
to be honest.
- Okay. I'll give it to you.
- Thank you, thank you.
Well this has been really fun.
Thank you so much for challenging me.
I can officially say that I made a big
soup dumpling. In the comments down below,
let me know what I should make big next.
(happy music)