Gyoza The Best Food

JAPANESE GYOZA (DUMPLINGS)

Steps:

• Combine cabbage and 1/2 tsp salt in a small bowl, then set aside for 20 minutes to allow the cabbage to wilt slightly.
• Place remaining Filling ingredients (including remaining 1/2 tsp salt) in a large bowl. Squeeze out any excess water from the cabbage and add to the bowl.
• Use your hands to mix the Filling.
• Sprinkle a baking tray with 1 tsp of cornstarch / cornflour.
• Place 1 gyoza wrapper on your palm (left hand for right-handed people). Dip your finger in water and run it around the edge of half the gyoza wrapper (to seal).
• Place 1 slightly heaped tbsp of Filling on the wrapper. Fold wrapper over and use your right hand assisted by your left hand thumb to create 4 pleats. Press to seal and place on the tray. Repeat with remaining wrappers. (See video for demo)

GYOZA (JAPANESE DUMPLINGS)

Steps:

• Dice cabbage finely and sprinkle with 1 teaspoon salt. Give it a bit of a massage. Leave for 10-15 minutes and then squeeze with your hands to remove any moisture.
• With your hands thoroughly mix together cabbage, ground meat, chives, mushrooms, ginger, soy sauce, sesame oil and pinch of salt.
• Dry your hands completely (or wrappers will stick). Place a gyoza wrapper on one hand and put 1 teaspoon filling in centre of wrapper.
• Brush edge of half the wrapper with cold water. Make a semi-circle by folding the wrapper in half. Pinch open sides of wrapper together with your fingers and seal the top.
• Place a large frying pan over medium-high heat, add 2 teaspoons sesame oil and arrange 20-25 gyoza in pan. Add 200ml water to cover bottom of pan, cover with lid and cook on medium-high heat for 6-7 minutes or until translucent, cooked and no liquid is left in pan. Take off lid and cook for another 30-60 seconds for the bottoms to go crunchy. Cook remaining gyoza or freeze them.
• Mix together soy sauce, vinegar and chilli oil, if using. Serve gyoza hot with dipping sauce.

GYOZA

Steps:

• Heat sesame oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Mix in cabbage, onion, garlic and carrot. Cook and stir until cabbage is limp. Mix in ground pork and egg. Cook until pork is evenly brown and egg is no longer runny.
• Preheat vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium high heat.
• Place approximately 1 tablespoon of the cabbage and pork mixture in the center of each wrapper. Fold wrappers in half over filling, and seal edges with moistened fingers.
• In the preheated vegetable oil, cook gyoza approximately 1 minute per side, until lightly browned. Place water into skillet and reduce heat. Cover and allow gyoza to steam until the water is gone.
• In a small bowl, mix soy sauce and rice vinegar. Use the mixture as a dipping sauce for the finished wrappers.

VEGETABLE GYOZA

Steps:

• If you're making your own dough, tip the flour and 1 tsp salt into a bowl. Bring a kettle to the boil and measure 150ml boiling water. Slowly pour the water over the flour while mixing with a spoon to form a stiff dough. When the dough is cool enough to handle, tip onto a surface and knead for 10 mins until smooth. Wrap the dough and chill for at least 1 hr. Alternatively, you can use 25-30 shop-bought gyoza skins.
• Meanwhile, coarsely grate the cabbage, mushrooms, carrot and water chestnuts, if using, then tip into a bowl. Add the ginger, garlic and spring onions. Heat the oil in a wok, then tip in all the veg and stir-fry over a high heat for 3 mins until softened. Drizzle over the soy sauce and sake, and cook for 2-3 mins. Season to taste. Tip back into the bowl to cool completely.
• Divide the dough in two. Scatter a surface generously with cornflour and roll one ball of dough out until paper-thin. Use a 10cm cutter to cut out rounds of dough and pile them up (they won't stick because of the cornflour). Repeat with all the dough, re-rolling the trimmings until you have about 25 skins.
• To assemble, sprinkle cornflour on a tray and have a bowl of cold water ready. Hold a skin in the palm of one hand and put a teaspoon of the filling in the centre. Dip your finger in the water and wipe around the inside edge of the skin. Bring the edges of the skin together, pinching pleats along one side. Space them out on a baking tray and freeze, then tip into a bag and put back in the freezer. Will keep for three months. Can be cooked from frozen.
• Heat a drizzle of oil in a non-stick frying pan with a lid. Fry, flat-side down, for 2 mins until golden. Add 100ml water to the pan and cover. Cook over a medium heat for 3-5 mins until the water has evaporated and the gyoza is cooked through. Remove the lid and leave the gyoza to sizzle on the bottom for a minute. Mix the dipping sauce ingredients together, then serve with the gyoza.

GYOZA

Steps:

• Put the spring onions, cabbage, ginger and garlic in a food processor, and whizz to a fine mix (or finely chop by hand).
• Add the water chestnuts and pulse to chop, but not too finely - these will add a nice crunchy texture. Add the soy sauce, oyster sauce, sake, sesame oil and a pinch of salt, and whizz again.
• Tip the ingredients into a bowl and add the minced pork or chicken. Mix by hand until well combined. Chill until ready to use.
• Have a pot of water to hand. Sprinkle the cornflour onto a plate. To assemble the gyoza, hold the dumpling skin in the palm of one hand and put a heaped teaspoon of the filling onto the centre of the skin.
• Dip your finger in the water and wipe around the edge of the skin - this will moisten it and help the edges stick together.
• Bring the edges of the skin together. Pinch pleats along one side, then press each pleat against the opposite flat side of the skin. With each pinch make sure that you are sealing the parcel and keeping the filling in the centre. Put each gyoza onto the plate dusted with cornflour. Can be covered with cling film and chilled for up to 8 hrs.
• Cook the gyoza in batches. Heat a non-stick frying pan with 1 tbsp vegetable oil. Brush off any excess cornflour from the bases of the dumplings. Fry the gyoza on one side only - don't turn them over, you just want one crispy side. They should be golden brown after about 2 mins.
• Add a good splash of water to the pan and cover with a steaming lid or a large sheet of foil with a few holes poked in the top. Cook over a medium heat for 3-5 mins until the water has evaporated and the gyoza filling is cooked through. Set aside while you cook the rest.
• Mix all the dipping sauce ingredients and serve alongside the dumplings in dipping bowls. You can serve with both or just one dipping sauce.