Chinese Dumplings Recipe from Scratch

Mix the flour and salt in a large bowl.Using a wooden spoon, stir the flour in a clockwise motion as you gradually pour the water in, leaving behind about 1 Tbsp of it. Continue stirring until it all comes together.Add the rest of the water if you need it.

Using your hands bring the dough together, kneading it in the bowl for about 1 minute. At this stage, your dough will still have a fairly rough texture. Cover with a damp tea towel and leave it to rest for 10 minutes.This initial resting allows the gluten to relax to allow you to do the actual kneading.

Knead the dough once again for 3 minutes until it's all smooth. Now we're going to let the dough really rest for at least 30 minutes, or for however long it takes you to make the filling.

Grate or mince the ginger and finely chop the spring onions.Chop up the cabbage and the shiitake fairly finely too.

Place your chicken thighs into a food chopper and pulse to get a fine mince.If you're starting with minced chicken, move on to the next step.

Place the chicken and all the filling ingredients into a large bowl.

Mix everything together with your hand, a pair of chopsticks or wooden spoon, in one direction for 2 minutes.You could also massage the filling by squashing it with your fingers. This works too. Just like sausage making.We are creating that gel-like texture I talked about in the article above.

Divide the dough into 2. Place 1 half back in the bowl and cover.The traditional way is to create a doughnut shape with the dough, then lengthening it into a "rope". But I think a much easier way is to keep halving your dough until you have 14 roughly equal pieces.

Dust your work surface with a little flour. Press each piece into a flat disc. Then, using a rolling pin, roll it out into a thin disc, roughly about 7.5cm/3" wide. (7.5 - 10cm or 3 - 4 inches works well). I do this using the roll, turn, roll method. See attached video. This way, the middle of the dumpling wrapper remains a little thicker then the edges, how it should be. But you do what you're comfortable with.Place the wrapper to one side, cover with a tea towel and repeat with the rest of the dough, piling your wrappers on top of each other. Dust with flour to ensure they don't stick. The flour gets absorbed after a while, so you want to work fairly quickly, before the wrappers get too dry. Don't forget the other half of the dough that's in the bowl.

If you would rather, you could also roll out the dough thinly and cut out the wrappers using a cookie cutter or a glass.

Get a wrapper and lie it in the palm of your non dominant hand. Take a teaspoon of the filling and place it in the middle of the wrapper.If this is your first time, go easy on the amount of filling for the first 2-3 dumplings. When you're comfortable, use more filling, leaving about 1cm (just under ½") clear for you to seal.

Seal the dumplings. We're going to keep this easy, with 2 methods, see video.Method 1: Seal your dumpling by pinching the edges of the wrapper together, expelling air from the filling outwards, as you go.Once you've sealed your dumpling, you have 2 choices: leave it as it is, smooth on the edges, or push the sealed edges together, to create a fold pattern, as in the image here.Method 2: Seal the 2 edges of the wrapper in the middle. Then, push one end in to the middle, creating 2 sides. Seal these openings. Do the same on the other side. See video.Set aside, cover with a cloth and continue with the rest of the wrappers and filling.

Bring a large pot of water to boil on high heat. Reduce the heat to medium-high and slowly add the dumplings to the boiling water.You can either transfer a few at a time with a ladle, or glide them off a plate or chopping board, whatever you're comfortable with. If your saucepan is not big enough, do this is 2 batches.Stir the dumplings gently to ensure they don't get stuck to the bottom of the pan.

When the water is back to boiling, reduce the heat to medium and cook the dumplings for 2 minutes, at the end of which, they will be done.The traditional method of boiling dumplings and ensuring that they are cooked is called the diǎn shuǐ method. It basically means a little water.In the diǎn shuǐ method, when the water comes back to a boil, you add half a cup of water to the pan, cover and bring it back to a boil. Repeat this 2 more times, at the end of which the dumplings are done.It's up to you which method you want to use. They both work the same.

When the dumplings are done, fish them out using a slotted spoon, skimmer or whatever you have in your kitchen. Give them a quick rinse, shake off excess water and serve immediately.The rinse is to get rid of any starch that might be adhering to the dumplings. I find frozen dumplings definitely need the rinse.

Heat 2 Tbsp of vegetable oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Place the dumplings in the pan, flat side down, then swirl the pan to ensure that all the dumplings are touching the oil.You'll need to do this in 2 batches if making the whole recipe. Or 3, if your pan (skillet) is not very big.

Cook for about 2 minutes, until the bottom of the dumplings are golden brown. Then pour in 60ml (¼ cup) water, cover, and leave to steam for 2-3 minutes until the water has dried out. Cook for another 30-60 seconds to crisp up.Serve immediately. If doing in batches, transfer to a plate, keep warm, and finish cooking the rest.

Bring the water in your steamer to a full boil on high heat.Coat the base of your steamer basket with a little oil. Or you could place thinly sliced carrot rounds (or small pieces of lettuce) in the basket to place your dumplings on. This will stop them from sticking.You can do 2-3 tiers if you like, to steam them all together.Images soon

Place your dumplings in the steamer basket, cover and steam for 10 minutes on medium heat.Serve immediately, straight out of the steamer basket.

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl and set aside. Making it earlier allows the flavour to mature.