Gyoza

My family and I are obsessed with my mother’s gyoza. For some reason, any other place we eat gyoza out at just doesn’t compare to the homemade ones I grew up eating. I wonder if it’s just due to tasting familiar? Or are they really that spectacular? Well, I’ve fed a lot of my friends her gyoza as well and they all agree that it is BOMB. So I think she’s got something special going with her recipe.

I really get peeved when I eat gyoza at Japanese restaurants and they serve me what OBVIOUSLY are those ajinomoto frozen ones that they’ve just pan fried. Like C’mon man!! I get that making gyoza from scratch is a labor of love, but if you’re going to offer it on your menu, please just make it. The frozen stuff is never on the same level as the legit homemade ones. I also prefer Japanese style gyoza over Chinese ones since I like the THINNEST gyoza skin possible.

This recipe isn’t that difficult as long as you have a food processor. Cutting up all the cabbage by hand will take FOREVER. I mean, it is doable of course, but get yourself a food processor if you don’t have one. You can get one on Amazon for a decent price and it’ll save you soooo much time. I’ve also included a video on how to fold the gyoza so hope that helps!

 

The nira should be chopped to about this size:

Once your mise en place are ready (all your chopping, grating, juicing is done), add your ground pork in a large bowl. Add the garlic, ginger juice, miso, egg and waipa to your pork.

Mix well by hand

Once mixed, add the chopped cabbage and nira and mix well by hand again

Once all your filling is mixed, set up your “folding station” with your gyoza wrappers, spoons, filling, a bowl of water, and a cookie sheet dusted with potato or corn starch.

Take about a 1/2 tablespoon of filling and add to the center of the wrapper. Dip your finger into the bowl and moisten the edges of the gyoza wrapper. Fold using method below:

Once all your gyozas are folded and neatly aligned, you can choose to freeze them or cook them immediately.

If cooking, heat a medium sized nonstick pan with 1 Tbsp of vegetable oil. Add the gyoza in a single layer to fill the pan. Sear until lightly browned on the bottom, add 1/4 cup boiling water and cover with a lid for 6-7 min. Once water is evaporated, take lid off and cook until browned and crispy. Optionally, you can add sesame oil at this point if you’d like to make it a little more crispier and add sesame flavor. Serve with your choice of sauce mix.

These taste best fresh out of the pan so I suggest freezing whatever you don’t eat so. Just a warning, if you decide to pack these up for lunch, once cooked and kept overnight, these gyozas emanate a VERY pungent smell due to the nira. Just a word of caution!

Ingredients

• 1.5 – 1.85 lb. lean ground pork
• 1 egg
• 3 cloves of garlic grated
• 1 Medium sized cabbage finely chopped in food processor*
• 1 bunch of Nira (Chinese Leek) finely chopped by hand*
• 1.5″ chunk of fresh ginger grated and juiced
• 2 Tbsp. miso paste
• 1 Tbsp. Waipa (Chinese Chicken Stock Paste, can substitute chicken stock cube)
• About 100 gyoza wrappers (Can be purchased at any Asian grocery store)

*Please make sure to wash all vegetables before using. The cabbage can be added to a salad spinner after chopping and spun to release excess moisture. The nira should be washed prior to chopping and dried using paper towels.

Recipe

Mix ground pork and egg, garlic, ginger, miso paste and waipa in a bowl by hand. Add finely chopped cabbage and chopped nira and mix well by hand. 

Set up dumpling folding station with your gyoza wrappers, filling, a bowl of water, and a baking sheet dusted with potato starch or corn starch powder.

Add about 0.5 Tbsp of mix into each wrapper, dip your finger in the water and lightly moisten the edges of the wrapper. Fold using method shown in video. Once all wrappers are filled, you can either freeze them at this point or cook immediately.

To freeze: Put the lined up gyoza on the baking sheet directly into the freezer and let freeze for about 30 minutes to an hour until semi solid. Once it is solid enough, take them out of the freezer and wrap about 10 gyozas (or however many you’d like per serving) in saran wrap (make sure not to stack any of them, they should all be in one layer) and then wrap again tightly in foil. Place them in freezer safe ziploc bags and freeze up to 2 months. The frozen gyozas can be cooked the same way as below.

To cook: Sear dumplings in a medium hot nonstick pan coated with oil. Add 1/4 cup boiling water and cover for 6-7 min. Once water is evaporated, take lid off and cook until browned and crispy. Optionally, you can add sesame oil at this point if you’d like to make it a little more crispier and add sesame flavor. Serve with your choice of sauce mix.*

Sauce mix options: Many people enjoy their gyoza with a mix of soy sauce, rice wine vinegar and rayu or chili oil. I like mine with just rice wine vinegar and black pepper. You can also add yuzu kosho or toubanjan (fermented chili bean paste). Be creative! I think the gyoza goes really well with more sour, pungent sauces but to each their own 🙂