For The Love of Gyoza

Try serving a full plate of moist- neat pleated-oily-good smell of gyoza in front of us. Believe me, for less than 10 minutes you’ll find clean plate without any favor to wash. In Chinese dishes, we recognize similar dishes called Guo Tie, another long time favourites. My friend told me once, the difference between gyoza and guo tie was the filling. If guo tie consists more meat, then gyoza should reserved more vegetables. You can find another guo tie recipes from here.

I still remember my gyoza served with jigoku ramen at Ramen 38, a specialty ramen restaurant in Jakarta. Dipped in vinegar, ginger, and soy sauce, the smell and taste successfully hit me off . Later on, another free flyer gyoza recipes hanging on supermarket rack. I was mumbling to myself, why not? Fortunately when browsing through my finger food book, the recipes was also there so I tried to compare both and practice the combination. Here they are :

Prep Time : 30 min
Cooking Time : 15 min
Makes 35 - 45

250 gr pork mince
250 gr finely shredded and lightly blanched Chinese cabbage with the excess water squeeze out
60 gr fresh leek (or japanese chives: daun bawang wakegi)
1 tbsp finely chopped fresh ginger
¼ cup (60 ml) soy sauce (i used konbu-tsuyu --> see next pic)
1 tbsp rice wine
1 tsp sugar
35 – 45 gow gee wrappers (here you can find the gyoza wrappers in large hypermarket or japanese supermarket)
2 tsp ra-yu (japanese chilli & sesame oil)

Dipping Sauce
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp black chinese vinegar
1 tsp ra-yu

1. Place the pork mince, chinese cabbage, leek/chives, and ginger in larger bowl and mix together. Add the soy sauce, rice wine, sugar, ra-yu, and salt (if necessary-remember: soy sauce is salty enough) to the mixture and mix together very well.
2. Place a gow gee wrapper flat in the palm of your hand, then using your other hand place 2 tsp of the filling mixture into the centre of the wrapper. With wet fingers, bring the sides together to form a half moon shape and pinch the seam firmly to seal it in a pleat. Press one side of the dumplings onto a flat surface to create a flat bottom. This will make the dumplings easier to pan-fry.
3. Heat the oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the gyoza to the pan in batches and cook for 1-2 minutes on the flat side without moving, so that the gyoza become brown and crisp on that side. Gradually add 100 ml water to the pan and put the lid on. Steam for 3-5 minutes. Empty the pan and wipe it dry between batches.
4. To make the dipping sauce, combine all the ingredients in a small bowl. Serve with gyoza.

Our Tips :

1. Meat vs vegetables at least 1 : 1. You may add more vegetables if you wish (1 : 1,5)
2. You can make the filling a day before assembling the dumplings. Keep it on the freezer and it will lasts up to 3 months.
3. Blanching the cabbage also make it very watery. My mom suggest to chopped without blanch to minimize the excess water.
4. Be careful on timing to avoid overcook wrappers.

Good luck and have a nice practice!