Recently I made an attempt at making the Japanese dumplings called Gyoza. I have to admit I did not have all the appropriate ingredients for the dish to make it fully Japanese, but they turned out delicious nonetheless.
Before you consider getting started, you need to find and buy gyoza wrappers. I found these in the freezer section in an Asian grocery store. The wrappers are extremely thin, but fairly easy to work with.
Recipe:
For the filling, I used
Mince meat, preferably pork, chicken or beef with a bit of fat in it.
Cabbage
Onion
Carrots
Zucchini
Egg
Clean and cut the vegetables into very thin sticks.
Cook the mince in a little bit of oil. Once it is fairly golden, add the onion and carrots and cook for a few minutes. Then add the egg and the cabbage and cook until it starts to wilt a bit and the egg is mixed through.
Pull off the heat and start filling the gyoza wrappers with maximum 1 tablespoon of filling per wrapper. Have a glass of cold, clean water available.
Put the wrapper in your palm and put the filling in the middle. Dip a finger in the water and run your finger along the outer edge of the wrapper to get a thin, wet strip along the entire rim of the wrapper. Fold the wrapper together and join the edges by pinching with your fingertips. Make little folds along the seam of the gyoza. They should be sealed to avoid the filling leaking out during the cooking. Repeat the process until you have made the amount of gyozas you want or until you have used all the filling.
To cook, heat a little bit of neutral oil, i.e. sunflower oil, in a large pan and cook the gyozas on medium to high heat on both sides for 1-2 minutes until golden and crispy. Once they are all cooked, turn down the heat on the pan and add 100 ml of water. Cover the pan with a lid and let the gyozas steam for a few minutes until the water has evaporated. Be very careful when doing this. If you have a lot of oil in the pan or too high temperature, the oil could ignite, so don’t add a huge amount of oil during the cook. 1 tbsp should be plenty.
Tip:
If you have leftover mince mix, you can use if for a simple dinner the following day. It makes a good base for a pasta sauce as well. Just add canned tomatoes and some seasoning.
Dipping sauces:
Sweet chili sauce
Soy sauce with sesame seeds
Other sauces that may fit are oyster sauce, hoi sin sauce and similar. Creamy sauces will not fit this dish.
