Pan-fried soup dumplings

Cover the pork skin with water in a big pot and bring to a boil to release the impurities, then wash it under running water.

Pinch off any attached hair, trim excess fat, and cut the skin into smaller pieces one layer at a time.

Put the skin in a clean pot with Chinese cooking wine, the knotted spring onion, ginger slices, garlic and six cups of water. Bring to a boil, drop to low and simmer two hours.

The skin should break easily with chopsticks and the broth should be milky, thick and velvety.

To test it, leave some broth on a spoon at room temperature five to eight minutes; it should start setting.

Pass the broth through a sieve; you should have about two cups. Add water if short, or reduce on the stove if there is too much.

Pour into a plastic-wrap-lined container and set in the fridge at least six hours.

Blend garlic, ginger, Sichuan peppercorn and water into aromatic water and strain out the solids.

Mix the aromatic water into the ground pork with soy sauce, salt, sugar, black pepper and sesame oil until all the liquid is gone.

Stir the meat in one direction for five to six minutes, or throw it back into the bowl from a height, to build texture.

Roughly cut then finely mince the set jelly, working fast so it does not melt, and combine it into the meat filling. Cover and refrigerate.

Season the shrimp with salt, black pepper, olive oil and baking soda, mix and refrigerate.

Stir the salt through the flour. Mix the dry yeast with the water and pour it into the flour in batches, stirring with chopsticks, then gather and knead into a dough.

Cover and rest 10 minutes, then knead smooth within about five minutes on a working surface until smooth, shiny and elastic.

Proof only 10 minutes; this skin needs a half-proofed dough and over-rising causes soup leaking. Refrigerate the dough to slow it if the room is hot.

Stretch and cut the dough into two long strips, dust with flour, roll even and divide into 24 pieces. Flatten each with your palm.

Mix the diced spring onion into the filling last, to maximise the fragrance.

Roll each piece with the right hand while the left turns it, to a round wrapper 10 to 11 cm across with a thin edge and thick middle.

Put filling in the middle, pack it tight so no air is trapped, top with a piece of shrimp, then lift and pinch pleats all the way around and twist to close.

Heat a heavy duty frying pan with enough oil to cover the bottom and place the buns in with space between them; the oil does not need to be hot first.

When the edges start sizzling, add about three to four tablespoons of water, cover, and cook eight minutes on medium heat until all the liquid is gone.

Uncover and sprinkle with spring onion and sesame seeds. Do not flip the buns or the soup will leak.

Serve in the pan, with a dipping sauce of one part soy sauce to two parts vinegar and some ginger strips.