Steamed Purple Glutinous Rice Pork Dumplings

One winter, my chefs and I braved the freezing weather to explore Hongqiao market, a cavernously large dried food market in Beijing, hoping to get inspiration for new dishes. We came across purple rice flour, better known as black glutinous rice flour in Southeast Asia. The nature of the flour makes it perfect for making an elastic dumpling skin with a chewy texture. After several rounds of experiments, we came up with these deep purple dumplings that looked like tiny aubergines, stuffed wi