January 19, 2009
I made gyoza tonight. It's our family recipe and I've made it countless times. Making gyoza is so easy and it's almost impossible to fail it. I never measure anything, because my hands just do the job without thinking. So the below ingredients amounts are just approximate.
Ingredients
1/2 lb ground pork (if the meat is too lean, add a little amount of lard)
1/2 lb cabbage, boiled for 2-3 minutes, pressed (to drain water) and minced
1/2 cup onion, minced
1 clove garlic, grated
1 piece (about 1-inch length) ginger, grated
1 tablespoon potato starch
2 tablespoons Chinese rice wine
1/2 tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 tablespoon sesame oil
pinch of salt
1/4 teaspoon of each black pepper and Szechuan pepper, grated
1 package gyoza wrapper
sesame oil
water
(Dipping Sauce)
Soy sauce
Rice vinegar
La-yu (sesame chili oil)
Procedure
To make the filling, mix the first 11 ingredients (pork to pepper) in a large bowl. Knead well until the ingredients are well-incorporated and sticky. Cover with the plastic wrap and let it rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Take the filling mixture out of the fridge, and wrap about 1 tablespoon of the filling in each gyoza wrapper. Rub the water around the edge to seal.
To cook, heat the sesame oil in a pan at a medium heat. Place the gyoza pieces and pour 1/4-1/3 cup of water over the pan. Cover and cook for 3-4 minutes or until all the water is gone and the bottm of the gyoza is nicely browned.
To make the dipping sauce, blend about the same amount of each soy sauce and rice wine vinegar. Drizzle a little amount of la-yu into the mixture.
Serve the gyoza while hot with the dipping sauce.
