Gyoza (pronounced "gee-oh-za") are Japanese potstickers filled with ground pork and shredded cabbage and flavored with garlic, ginger and sesame oil. The combination is lethal; death by dumpling overload. Every time my husband and I go out for Japanese we order these puppies, only to be left wanting more and more. $5.95 for 6 dumplings split between two people doesn't cut it for me. I found dumpling wrappers at our Asian Supermarket and then I researched and experimented with filling recipes for the last six months so that I could make these at home. The results make my waistline want to scream because I could eat two dozen of these to myself.Gyoza are prepared by first pan frying to crisp up the bottom and then steamed to finish the cooking. You get both the pillowy softness from being steamed and a nice little crispy edge as well. If you enjoy these at restaurants, you will be surprised how simple they are to make at home. You can find most ingredients in your regular supermarket, but a few you may need to venture to an Asian market to get. Make sure the wrappers are marked specifically "gyoza wrappers" or "dumpling wrappers". It is definitely not the same to substitute these with spring roll, egg roll or won ton wrappers.
Get ready to gorge yourselves my friends.
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Makes 72 dumplings
1 lb ground pork
1 lb bag of coleslaw (or 1 lb cabbage finely shredded)
1 tbsp fresh ginger, grated or minced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp sugar
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 package of gyoza skins (also called Shanghai dumpling wrappers)
1/4 cup water
1 tsp cornstarch
Before you start making the gyoza, prepare your workspace. Get out a large baking sheet and moisten a clean kitchen towel or paper towel until just damp. In a small bowl mix together the water and cornstarch.
In a large mixing bowl mix together the pork, cabbage, ginger, garlic, sugar, soy sauce and sesame oil until well combined.
To begin filling your gyoza, hold a dumpling wrapper in one hand. Dip your finger in the cornstarch water and moisten all around the outside edge of the wrapper.
Place a heaped teaspoon of filling in the middle of the wrapper.
Fold the gyoza wrapper in half and pinch in the middle.
To make a pleat, you'll need to make a small fold to the left of the middle.
Pinch that together.
Make another fold to the left of the pleat you just made and pinch together.
It will look like this.
Make the same pleats pinching them together on the other side until the dumpling is completely sealed.
Your cute little pot sticker is now folded and ready to stand up....
In the palm of your hand or on a hard surface, stand the gyoza up and tap to make a flat bottom.
I've looked at pictures in dumpling cookbooks and they have many more pleats than I do but this works for me, takes less time and this is what ours look like at our local Japanese restaurant. You can get fancy and add more pleats if you like.
When you are all done folding and making the potstickers, you could at this point place your whole baking sheet in the freezer. The gyoza will freeze in about an hour or two and can then be placed in a ziplock bag. This prevents them from freezing into a big potsticker ball. When you are ready to use them, just pull them out of the freezer and add an extra minute or two for cooking time.
Whether cooking these fresh or frozen, get out a large non-stick skillet that has a tight fitting lid. Place a couple teaspoons of oil in the pan and turn the heat up to high. Get a 1/2 cup of water ready and place on the counter beside you. Place the gyoza in the pan on the flat side with their pleats sticking up. Depending on the size of your pan you should be able to fit about 12 or so into the pan (if I'm serving this as a meal for 4, I have two frying pans going at once). After about a minute or two the bottoms of the gyoza will be browned and crispy. Grab the lid to the frying pan in one hand and the 1/2 cup of water in the other. Quickly pour the water into the pan and put the lid on. Turn the heat down to low and set a timer for 10 minutes. The dumplings will finish cooking in the pan by steaming.
After 10 minutes remove the lid of the pan. If not all the water is gone let them sit another minute or two to let the water evaporate and let the bottoms of the gyoza get crispy again. Remove to a serving dish. In the Japanese restaurant, they serve them with crispy side up.
If you want to impress your company they look really pretty pleat side up. You choose.
Serve the gyoza with your choice of dipping sauce:
#1 Soy Sesame Dipping Sauce
2 tbsp rice vinegar
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
Mix ingredients together in small bowl and serve with gyoza.
#2 Tangy Chili Dipping Sauce
3 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tsp chili oil (Layu chili oil)
Dash of chili pepper (Ichimi togarashi)
Mix ingredients together in small bowl and serve with gyoza.
Sauce #1 is made with easily accessibly ingredients that most people already have in their pantry. Sauce #2 is the same as the one served in our Japanese restaurant and I found the chili oil and chili pepper at our little Asian market. Both are great dipping sauces. I serve both to give my guests choice. My personal favorite is the two sauces mixed together.
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THE RESULTS?
The recipe sounds long and complicated but I assure you it is not. Mayyyyyybe slightly time consuming, but it's the kind of thing that you can make on a Saturday afternoon, throw in the freezer and have a restaurant-worthy meal in 15 minutes on a weeknight. If I could inject this stuff into my veins I would. I can never seem to make a big enough batch. My husband and I inhale them.