This holiday season my son’s girl friend taught us how to make gyoza. They were easily the best gyoza I’ve ever had. While the wrapping does take time, the recipe makes loads that you can freeze for those nights you want a quick dinner (you pan fry them straight from frozen).

Pork Gyoza Filling

• 1 1/2 cup napa cabbage, finely chopped (is best but if you only have regular old green cabbage use that – don’t try lettuce)
• 1 lb ground pork
• 1 handful of chopped garlic chives (nira)
• Once round the bowl with soy sauce (approx 1 Tbsp)
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1-2 tsp of oyster sauce
• 1/4 tsp white pepper
• 2 cloves finely grated fresh garlic
• 1/2 tsp grated fresh ginger root
• Dumpling wrappers – 100  (they usually come in packets of 50 sold together)

Method

1. First up, salt the cabbage liberally and let sit 10 minutes to draw out the water. Squeeze as much water out of the cabbage as you can.
2. Mix all ingredients until well combined.
3. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and sprinkle lightly tapioca or potato starch.
4. Get yourself a bowl of cold water and a friend – you don’t want to do this alone, it will take you forever. Put on a good podcast and to wrapping
5. Place a scant Tbsp of filling on the gyoza wrapper. There are many ways to wrap gyoza so find method you like.
6. In this video from Epicurious, Chef  Yuji Haraguchi shows three different ways to wrap gyoza: https://youtu.be/E3x-dSHAJO4?feature=shared Allyson also recommends pincing around the outside edges of the wrapper so you get a thinner edge.
7. Once you finish wrapping a gyoza plunk it on the tray and rub into the startch lightly so it won’t stick, adjust the shape of your gyoza if need be.

You can either 1) cook immediately, directions follow, or 2) freeze them in a single layer on the baking sheet and once frozen bag and keep in the freezer. They will be fine for a couple months and you cook  them from frozen following the same method below.

Pan Fried Gyoza

1. You will need a 10-inch nonstick pan with a lid (preferably a glass lid so you can see what’s going on in the pan. Or use stainless steel pan but make sure you’ve heated in on medium-high for at least 2 minutes before you start. Water should dance across the pan in little balls.
2. Heat 1 tablespoon neutral oil with a high smoke point (vegetable or canola or oil will do) in the pan over medium heat.
3. Once the oil starts to shimmer, add 10 to 15 gyoza, flat-side down, and cook the bottoms are nicely browned, 2 – 3 minutes.
4. Next, add approx 1/2 cup water (you want it to come about quarter of the way up the gyoza).
5. Cover, and let the water cook away until the pan is dry and the gyoza wrappers have softened completely, 3 – 4 minutes. If you are cooking from frozen add a second 1/2 cup of water and let that cook away as well.
6. Remove the lid, increase the heat to medium-high, and let the gyoza  bottoms crisp up for another minute.
7. Turn the heat off and finish with a drizzle a bit of high quality sesame oil.
8. Serve immediately with the dipping sauce.

Dipping Sauce

Make a mxture of 2:1 rice wine vinegar: soy sauce. Feel to free add a bit of chili garlic crunch or chili oil if you like a little spice.

We also did an alternative shrimp filling. Both were really good.

Shrimp Gyoza Filling

• 1 ½ cups finely chopped napa cabbage
• 1 ½ lbs peeled and cleaned shrimp
• Garlic chives 3 bunches (approx ⅓-½ cup)
• 2-3 large garlic cloves, grated
• 1” ginger grated
• 3 green onions finely sliced
• Soy sauce (one pour around the bowl)
• Sesame oil (drizzle)
• ¼ tsp white pepper
• 1 double pack of gyoza (dumpling) wrappers