Let’s start by toasting some spices. You will need 5 pieces of hot dried chilies. It is optional if you don’t eat spicy food. 1 small piece of cinnamon, 1 piece of bay leaves, 1 piece of star anise, 1/2 of a black cardamon, 4 pieces of clove, 1/4 tsp of white pepper, 1.5 tsp of Sichuan peppercorn.
Toast them on low heat until they release the aroma. Keep an eye on the Sichuan peppercorn because it is easier to get burned. You don’t want it to turn black or else it brings a bitter flavor. The chilies might have few spots that are black. It’s normal, don’t worry. Once there are nice and fragrant, put them in a blender. Grind it into a fine powder. Set that aside
Combine the filling: 500 grams of ground beef. 2 tsp of grated garlic, 1 tsp of grated ginger, 1.5 tbsp of soy sauce, 1 tsp of salt, The spice mix we just made. Crack in 1 egg and add 1/3 cups of beef stock or water. I like to add pretty much a lot of liquid to the beef filling so the dumplings will come out juicy. The beef stock I used is unsalted. If you use salted broth, you will need to adjust the saltiness in this recipe.
Mix the ingredients until the meat absorbs the liquid. Then stir it within one direction to develop the texture. Bring the filling to a high position and throw it back into the bowl. Do this for a few minutes. The meat part is done.
Next, we are going to add the aromatics: 1/2 cup of diced onion, 1/3 cup of scallion, 1/3 cup of diced cilantro. Some hot oil to active the aroma. Also, The fat ratio of this ground beef is pretty low, adding oil can make up the shortness. Mix them well and your filling is done.
For this filling, I like to use a bigger and thicker wrapper so I can wrap as more fillings. Who doesn’t like that? Put a lot of filling in the middle of the wrapper. Use both of your thumb and forefingers to stretch the wrapper then fold that in half. Pinch the edge together and squeeze the dumpling with the hollow of your palm. In this way, you create a fat dumpling with a fat stomach. This recipe is enough to make about 40-45 big dumplings.
I boiled them. This is called Shui jiao [水饺] in Chinese, which means water boiled dumplings. It has a soft but still firm skin. The texture is totally different than pan-fried dumpling skin but still amazingly delicious. If you cut one open, the juice will run all over the plate. I served it with a spicy soy dipping sauce. It was incredible. If you love beef dumplings, you must give this a try.
