Pan-Fried Beef and Cabbage Dumplings with Ginger Dipping Sauce

Make the hot-water dough. Put the flour in the large bowl and pour in the just-boiled water while stirring with chopsticks or a fork until shaggy. Once cool enough to handle, knead into a ball, adding cold water 1 tsp at a time only if dry flour remains, then knead for 5 min until smooth. Cover and rest for 30 min. Hot water partly cooks the starch, giving a soft, pliable dough that rolls thin and fries crisp.

Salt the cabbage. Toss the cabbage with the filling salt in the medium bowl and leave for 15 min. Tip it into the tea towel and squeeze out as much liquid as you can. Salt draws water from the cabbage, so it will not flood the filling and make the wrappers soggy.

Mix the filling. In the large bowl, combine the beef, squeezed cabbage, spring onions, ginger, garlic, 1 tbsp soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar and white pepper. Stir hard in one direction for 1-2 min until sticky; this binds the meat proteins so the filling stays juicy and holds together. Chill until needed, and wash your hands after handling raw meat.

Divide and roll. Roll the dough into a log and cut into 32 pieces of about 15 g, keeping them covered. Flatten one piece and roll into a thin 8-9 cm round, thinner at the edge than the centre, or roll the dough out 1.5 mm thick and cut rounds. A thicker centre supports the filling while thin edges pleat neatly.

Fill and pleat. Place a level tablespoon (about 18 g) of filling in the middle of a round, fold it in half and pleat one side into the other, pressing firmly to seal into a crescent with a flat base. Set on the floured tray, base down and not touching, so they do not stick together.

Stir the dipping sauce. Combine the 1.5 tbsp soy sauce, rice vinegar, water, ginger matchsticks and sesame oil. Making it ahead gives the ginger time to infuse the sauce.

Fry, steam, crisp. Working in 2 batches, heat 1 tbsp oil in the frying pan over medium-high heat, set in 16 dumplings flat side down in snug rows and fry for 2 min until the bases are golden. Pour in 120 ml water, standing back as it spits, cover at once, turn the heat to medium and steam for 7-8 min until the water has almost gone and the wrappers look translucent; if the pan runs dry before 7 min, add 2 tbsp more water and cover again. Uncover and cook for 1-3 min more until the water has evaporated and the bases are crisp and deep golden. Steam cooks the filling and tops, then the dry pan re-crisps the bases.

Check and serve. Probe one dumpling: the filling should read 71°C. Loosen with the spatula and turn out crisp side up, keeping warm while you wipe the pan and cook the second batch. Serve 8 per person, hot, with the dipping sauce.