Chinese Meat Pie (Xian Bing)

• 200 g fatty beef mince 

The Marinade

• ½ thumb sized piece ginger
• 2 spring onions
• ½ small onion, finely chopped
• pinch white pepper
• pinch of Sichuan peppercorns
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 tbsp water
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tbsp Shaoxing rice wine
• ½ tbsp oyster sauce
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• ¼ tsp salt

The Dough

• 150g plain flour / dumpling flour
• 70 - 90 ml hot water 
• 1 tsp vegetable oil
• ¼ tsp salt

Beef filling

Dry fry the Sichuan peppercorns to toast them, grind them in a pestle and mortar, and add a pinch of salt. Finely chop the onion, spring onions, ginger and garlic and mix with the sichuan pepper. Heat oil up in a pan and pour over the mix. Then add to a bowl with the mince. Add the rest of the marinade ingredients, minus the egg yolk, and mix. Next add two spoons of water and then tenderise the meat mix by picking it up in your hand and dropping back into the bowl several times. Finally add one egg yolk and mix.

Dough

Add salt to the all purpose flour and add the oil to the hot water. Then gently stir the hot water into the flour. Roughly knead to form a dough, around 3 - 4 minutes. Cover with a little oil, place in a bowl with a wet cloth over it, and set aside for 30 minutes.

Roll the dough out into an even cylinder, chop into equal sized portions. Press the rounds down on a floured surface and roll into flat circles.  Place one in the palm of your hand, add a tablespoon of the meat mixture into the centre and seal it completely by gathering up the sides and pressing together. Then turn them upside down and shape into round balls.

Frying

Cover the base of a pan with oil, and place the pancakes in. Slightly press the centre of the pancakes to flatten them out. Heat until golden brown, then turn over and fry the other side. Once the two sides have been nicely browned, turn down the heat and cover with a lid. Heat through for another 3-5 minutes. Then remove the lid and heat both sides for another 30 seconds to crisp up again.  Enjoy!