Gyoza
These Japanese pork dumplings are a fun favourite! Little fried wrappers are filled with pork and vegetables. They’re great hot or cold, and may be eaten plain or with some dipping sauce. Yes, Gyoza originates in Chinese cuisine, but Japanese are good at evolving good things into their own!
Ingredients (makes 60 gyoza):
400g pork mince
400g cabbage leaves
1 spring onion, chopped
2cm cubed size fresh ginger, grated
1 packet Gyoza pastry (they come in 60 sheets)
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon sesame oil
Cooking oil
Soy sauce, vinegar, chilli oil to serve
How to make gyoza:
Chop cabbage and place in a colander lined with a clean tea towel or a cheese cloth. Sprinkle salt and toss well. Leave for 15 minutes. Then squeeze out as much water as possible in the cloth.
In a mixing bowl, place pork mince, cabbage, grated ginger and chopped spring onion. Add soy sauce and sesame oil. Mix thoroughly.
Put one sheet of gyoza pastry on your palm. Place a teaspoonful of pork mixture in the middle of the circle. With a finger of your other hand damp edge of the pastry with water.
Fold the pastry in half and seal the middle part of it leaving both ends unsealed. Push one end of the unsealed pastry bit towards meat mixture and seal the front part. Make a couple of plaits with the remaining unsealed back part of pastry. Repeat the other side to complete the crescent gyoza shape. Repeat until either pastry or mixture run out (from experience I know this amount makes more or less 60) Ask the kids to help you. They love this.
Heat 2 tablespoons of cooking oil in a frying pan over high heat. Place gyoza neatly in the pan. Leave them to cook for 2-3 minutes until the bottom of gyoza turn brown.
Add 1/2 cup of water in the frying pan and put the lid on. Lower heat to medium and let it steam for 8-10 minutes until most of the water evaporates and the pastry become a little transparent. Take the lid off and let all the water boil away.
Place on a serving plate upside down. Serve with soy sauce, vinegar and chilli oil.
Gyoza tips:
You can freeze uncooked gyoza. Place gyoza separately on a metal tray and put in the freezer for 30 minutes – 1 hour. Once semi-frozen put them together in zip lock bags for future use (use within 2-3 months). Cook them from frozen as above.
When I make a batch I usually cook 24 on the day (serve 4), and make 3 x 12 gyoza packs for the freezer. 12 gyoza fits in a re-sealable sandwich bag perfectly.
