Chinese New Year is one of the few occasions where families truly gather in China. Many young Chinese often live in the eastern parts of China because of work or education. They only return to their hometowns for holidays such as Chinese New Year.

In northern China, families traditionally gather after dinner to make dumplings together. This a long process that requires a lot of work with the hands so that's why everybody helps along. Then, by midnight, everybody enjoys these delicious treats together for good fortune. Some families might even hide a coin in one of the dumplings and the lucky one who finds it will have particular wealth in the year to come.

Now, dumpling is used to refer all kinds of filled dough packets that are made all over the world. So both the southern Chinese won ton and the northern jiaozi are dumplings. These are the two most common dumplings in China and they are quite different. Where the southern won ton has a thinner skin and is usually served in a soup, its northern cousin, the jiaozi is in a more distinct dough and is eaten either boiled, steamed or fried and with a dipping sauce. Both variant can have a number of different fillings.

But let's get cooking! If you missed out on dumplings for the Chinese New Year, here's your chance to gather your friends and family for some bonding over jiaozi.

Jiaozi

Ingredients:

for the dough:

600 g all purpose flour
4 dl cold water

for the filling:

25 grams dried shrimps
2 tablespoons Shaoxing rice wine, or dry sherry
900 gram Chinese cabbage, finely chopped
2 teaspoons salt
400 gram minced pork
12 stalks spring onions, finely chopped
3 tablespoons peanut oil
3 tablespoons sesame oil
Salt and pepper

Method:

Making dumplings is a good way to bond with family and friends. (Image: Radio86)1. Make the dough by mixing the flour and water. Knead well and leave to rest while you make the filling.

2. Soak the dried shrimps in warm water.

3. Add two teaspoons of salt to the cabbage. This will help get some of the fluids out of it.

4. Add the spring onions and the two different types of oil to the minced pork.

5. Drain the shrimp and add the soaking liquid to the stuffing.

6. Finely chop the shrimp and soak them in the rice wine. Add to stuffing.

7. Squeeze as much water out of the cabbage and add to the stuffing.

8. Mix the ingredients for the stuffing and season well with salt and pepper. Set aside.

9. From the dough, make little balls about 2-3 centimeters in diameter. Flatten them until they make little pancakes that are a bit more than a millimeter thick and 10 cm in diameter.

10. Scoop some filling into the disc of dough. Don't overfill it. Also, if you keep your hands clean and dry during the whole process, it will make folding easier.

11. Fold the disc of dough over, making sure that the stuffing does not touch the edges of the dough.

12. Seal the folded pancake by squeezing it all the way around with your fingers.

13. Each jiaozi should now look like a half moon. Once you've made one, put it on a baking paper lightly sprinkled with flour. Keep them separate to prevent the jiaozi from sticking to one another.

14. Bring some water to the boil and cook the jiaozi a few pieces at a time. The meat stuffing needs to be cooked but the dough should still be firm. Try boiling for eight to ten minutes and check if it's ready.

Serve your jiaozi warm with a dipping sauce. This can be a mixture of chili sauce, black bean sauce, dark rice vinegar, soy sauce and some chopped fresh garlic. Or how about trying some vinegar-marinated garlic cloves? These are the La Ba garlic that are traditionally made 20 days before Chinese New Year and eaten along with those delicious dumplings.

Should you, against all expectations, happen to make too many, dumplings can be frozen. Just make sure to freeze them while they're not touching each other (on a plate or a tray). Once they're frozen you can throw them in a bag to enjoy no matter the time of year.