Anglo-Chinese pheasant dumplings
© Tamin Jones

On Chinese New Twelvemonth's Eve, which falls this year on February 7, families across northern China will set up i of their essential festive foods, the jiaozi or crescent dumpling. Grandparents, parents and grandchildren will all fleck in, rolling pieces of wheaten dough into circles, and so pinching these neatly around a stuffing. Typically, jiaozi are filled with minced pork, with just the right amount of fatty, and fine-chopped Chinese cabbage, garlic chives or some other vegetable; the improve-off may stir in some shrimps or even sea cucumber.

The jiaozi, made in China for more than 1,200 years, is a culinary concept of space possibility. You lot might make them as tiny every bit the thumbnail-sized jiaozi with which chefs tried to delight the Dowager Empress Cixi when she fled after the Boxer Rebellion to Xi'an, or as big as the oversized New Year's jiaozi eaten in some parts of Gansu province. If obviously white dough doesn't grab you, you can just colour it with the juice of spinach or carrot.

E'er since I spent Christmas as a student in Chengdu I have made my mince pies like jiaozi, pinching circles of rich shortcrust pastry effectually the mincemeat. Recently, I've gone in the other direction, making jiaozi with non-Chinese fillings, as here. Think of these equally a kind of love-in between jiaozi, English game pie and Italian ravioli.

© Tamin Jones

Like many steamed Chinese dumplings, these utilize a "scalded dough" (tang mian) made by adding wheat flour to boiling water. The boiling water tames the elasticity of the flour'due south gluten, giving the dumplings a delightfully huggy texture. The dough is easy to roll and wrap, and doesn't stick to an oiled steamer. Borrowing from English language cookery, I've cut some pork belly into the pheasant filling to brand it rich and unctuous (the pork pare, removed before serving, gives it a gentle prepare, which is essential). Veering back in a Chinese direction, I recommend serving the jiaozi with brown rice vinegar, although you can use chilli sauce if you adopt.

In some places, Chinese people hide a coin in the stuffing, which is supposed to bring skillful luck. Should anyone stumble across a stray piece of shot, you could pretend it means the same matter.

Fuchsia Dunlop'southward most recent book is 'Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Dwelling house Cooking'

Anglo-Chinese pheasant dumplings

Makes about thirty dumplings.

Make the stuffing

  1. Joint the pheasant (ask your butcher or watch a video online if you lot're not certain how). Slice the skin from the belly pork and reserve. Lay the pork on a board and cut across the layers of flesh and fatty into 1cm slices, and then into 1cm strips.
  2. Fine-chop the onion and leek and cut the carrot into very small dice. Bring a kettleful of water to the eddy. Heat 2 tbs oil in a frying pan. Add together the chopped vegetables and fry over a medium heat until commencement to colour, stirring occasionally. Transfer into a bucket large plenty to contain all the ingredients.
  3. Wipe the frying pan. Return information technology to a loftier heat with another 1 tbs oil and fry the belly pork until tinged with aureate. Transfer the pork to the saucepan, leaving as much oil equally possible backside. Dark-brown the pheasant in the frying pan, adding 1 tbs oil if y'all need information technology, and and then transfer to the saucepan. Deglaze the frying pan with the vino and pour the juices into the bucket.
  4. Add the bay leaves and plenty hot water to cover the ingredients (virtually 700ml). Bring to the boil and season. Then one-half cover, plow the heat down depression and simmer for ane½-2 hours, until the birds are tender. Sense of taste once again for common salt (begetting in mind that the wrappers are unsalted).
  5. Remove and discard the bay leaves and pork skin. Strain the liquid into some other container and skim off as much oil equally possible. Remove the pheasant pieces from the pan. When absurd plenty to handle, excerpt and discard bones and cartilage, along with any shot. Cut the meat into 1cm die. Return to the pot, forth with the skimmed liquid. Mix well. Go out to cool and then chill overnight to set.

Make the wrappers

  1. Mix the flours in a basin. Bring 350ml water to the eddy in a deep bucket. Plow off the heat, tip in almost four-fifths of the flours and stir briskly with a wooden spoon until the mixture forms soft clumps. When cool plenty to handle, dust a work surface with some of the extra flour, shape the clumps into a ball of dough and knead until smoothen, adding more extra flour if necessary — you want a soft dough that does non stick to your hands. Encompass with a wet tea towel if non using immediately.
  2. Accept a fist-sized piece of dough and roll into a sausage ii.5cm thick. Cut or break off walnut-sized pieces (near 20g). Dust lightly with flour, then stand each piece, cut-sized up, on the surface and flatten to a disc with the palm of your mitt. Echo with the residual of the dough.

Assemble the dumplings

  1. Curl each disc into a circle well-nigh 9cm in diameter. The Chinese fashion is to use a narrow rolling pin and rotate the disc equally you roll inwards from its edge, taking care non to roll over the centre of the disc.
  2. Identify about 1 tbs (20g) stuffing in the heart of a disc and pinch the edges together to form a dumpling. Repeat. Lightly oil a steamer handbasket and lay the dumplings in well-spaced rows. Embrace and steam over loftier heat for virtually 10 minutes. Serve immediately with Chinkiang vinegar or chilli sauce for dipping. The uncooked dumplings can likewise be frozen and steamed directly from the freezer (cooking fourth dimension near 12 minutes).

Photographs: Tamin Jones

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