SIMPLE DUMPLINGS RECIPES

Steps:

• Dice cabbage finely and sprinkle with 1 teaspoon salt. Give it a bit of a massage. Leave for 10–15 minutes and then squeeze with your hands to remove any moisture.
• With your hands thoroughly mix together cabbage, ground meat, chives, mushrooms, ginger, soy sauce, sesame oil and pinch of salt.
• Dry your hands completely (or wrappers will stick). Place a gyoza wrapper on one hand and put 1 teaspoon filling in centre of wrapper.
• Brush edge of half the wrapper with cold water. Make a semi-circle by folding the wrapper in half. Pinch open sides of wrapper together with your fingers and seal the top.
• Place a large frying pan over medium-high heat, add 2 teaspoons sesame oil and arrange 20–25 gyoza in pan. Add 200ml water to cover bottom of pan, cover with lid and cook on medium-high heat for 6–7 minutes or until translucent, cooked and no liquid is left in pan. Take off lid and cook for another 30–60 seconds for the bottoms to go crunchy. Cook remaining gyoza or freeze them.
• Mix together soy sauce, vinegar and chilli oil, if using. Serve gyoza hot with dipping sauce.

Steps:

• Season the flour with a good pinch of salt and pepper, then toss the beef in the seasoned flour to coat

  Cook the beef in batches in 1 tbsp of oil in a large frying pan over high heat, turning occasionally, for 5-10 minutes or until brown all over. Transfer to a slow cooker

  Cook the vegetables, garlic and mushrooms in the remaining oil in the pan over a medium heat for 5-10 minutes, until vegetables begin to brown. Stir in the herbs, tomato purée and chopped tomato and cook for a couple of minutes. Add to the beef in the slow cooker

  Pour in the stock and cook for 4 hours on high (or 6 hours on low), until the meat is very tender

  To make the dumplings, combine all the flour, suet and herbs in a bowl and add enough milk to just bring it together. Season with salt and pepper. Roll into 6-8 small balls

  Stir the stew, remove the bay leaves and season to taste

  Evenly top the surface of the stew with the dumplings. Cover and cook for an additional hour with the lid on

  Serve topped with the combined parsley and garlic if using.