Gyoza

Dumplings fried, steamed and fried again in one pan, with a lacy skirt made from a flour slurry.

Pork. Not vegetarian — contains pork.

Ingredients

filling

• 400 g minced pork
• 300 g white cabbage, very finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon salt, for the cabbage
• 60 g garlic chives, finely chopped
• 20 g ginger, grated
• 3 garlic cloves, grated
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon sugar

to cook

• 40 gyoza wrappers
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 150 ml water
• 1 teaspoon plain flour

Method

1. FRY, STEAM, FRY -- three stages in one pan without lifting the dumplings. Oil and a flat base first, then water and a lid to cook the filling and the pleats, then the lid off until every drop has gone and the base crisps again. Miss the third stage and the bases go soft in the steam you just made.
2. SALT AND SQUEEZE THE CABBAGE. A teaspoon over the chopped cabbage, 15 minutes, then wrung hard in a cloth. You should get several tablespoons of water out. Left in, it steams the filling loose and splits the wrappers.
3. Beat the filling against the bowl for 2 minutes until it is tacky and holds together. Underworked, it crumbles out when you bite one.
4. A teaspoon of filling per wrapper -- less than feels right. Overfilled gyoza cannot be pleated and burst in the pan.
5. Wet one half of the rim only. Fold over and make five or six pleats on the NEAR side alone, pressing each onto the flat far side. Pleating both sides gives a parcel that will not sit flat.
6. Press the base down on the board so each one stands.
7. Oil in a cold pan, gyoza arranged flat-side down, THEN the heat on. 3 minutes until the bases are gold.
8. THE SKIRT: whisk the teaspoon of flour into the water and pour it in. Lid on at once. That flour is what sets into a lacy sheet joining them.
9. 6 to 7 minutes covered, until the water has nearly gone and the wrappers are translucent.
10. Lid off, 2 to 3 minutes, until the pan is completely dry and the skirt is crisp. Slide out upside down onto a plate.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Japan · All recipes