Dumpling dough

1. Add salt and oil to the warm water. Stir till the salt has dissolved completely.
2. In a big deep bowl, pour in plain flour. Add the warm water mixture slowly and stir with a fork. Add a little water each time so that you can judge how wet or dry the dough is. Stop when it looks slightly sticky. Just continue stirring (or using your hands when it gets too sticky) till the dough comes together in a large, clumpy ball. As long as most of the dough clumps together, it's time to stop. Don't worry that it looks lumpy and dry.
3. Seal the bowl with cling wrap and allow to relax for about 10 - 15mins.
4. Now, start kneading. You will notice that the dough no longer looks as lumpy and dry. As you knead, it will become elastic and shiny. Throw the dough onto your work surface in between kneads to improve the structure.
5. The dough is ready to be rolled into wrappers as soon as it is smooth and pliable.
6. You can pinch off little balls of dough, one at a time, and rolled them into circular wrappers. Or, you can opt to roll the dough into a thin, flat sheet and use a cutter to cut out circular wrappers. (* wrappers should ideally be thicker in the centre and thinner at the edges (so that the pleats will not be too thick).

now you can start wrapping the dumplings. One way is to pleat the edges (to get that gorgeous crescent effect), another is to press the edges firmly with your fingers (and get a simple semi-circle). The wonderful thing about wrapping with homemade, fresh dough is that there is no need to wet the edges with water. The wrappers are naturally adhesive.

These dumplings freeze beautifully. Simply place them neatly on a tray (sprinkled with flour) in the freezer for 10mins. When they have hardened into individual hard blocks, seal them in bags or containers, in quantities of your choice. I usually pack 10 in a bag, enough for 1 serving. When cooking these frozen dumplings, DO NOT thaw. Go straight from freezer to pan/pot.