Chinese beef dumplings

1. To make the dough, add water into the flour gradually while stirring it and then knead it into a soft dough, cover with damp cloth. Let stand for at least 10 minutes.

2. To make the filling, add the chopped onion, salt, oyster sauce, soya sauce, oil, five spice powder, chopped ginger, and sugar into the minced beef, mix it for two minutes to combine well.

3. To make the dumplings, place the dough on a board or flat surface and, using your hand, roll it into a cylindrical shape of 1.5cm diameter.

4. Cut the dough into 1cm-wide round pieces. Then individually flatten the dough into 3cm diameter dumpling skin using a rolling pin.

5. Fill the flattened dough skin with one teaspoon filling, fold over and seal it by pinching the edges.

6. Boil about 10 cups of water in a deep pan, after the water starts boiling, drop the dumplings one by one into boiling water (no more than 20 dumplings at a time).

7. Stir carefully with large spoon to prevent sticking to the bottom of pan. Cook for another 3 mins when the water boils up or till all the dumplings are floating.

Remove the dumplings with a large slotter spoon to plate. Serve hot.

Xiaolan Shen is a Dubai-based Chinese expatriate from the Shandong province in nothern China.