Gyoza ( Chinese Dumplings)

Saw a cooking programme in NHK and I thought of trying out this dish. It required dumpling wrappers and since its not readily available here, I had to make them from scratch. The original recipe had minced pork but I used canned Macarel instead. I strongly recommend eating Gyoza with a soya sauce based sauce; I made my own twists. :D

Here's the recipe for the dumpling wrappers:

Makes about 30-35

2 cups of plain flour

2/3cups of hot water

1/4tsp salt

Method:

In a large bowl, add in the flour and salt. add hot water 1/2 cup and mix with a fork at the beginning and then knead by hand. Gradually add in remaining hot water and gather the flour to make a ball. Knead lightly. (Add a little more water if required as the water amount needed can be varied)The dough should be able to handle by hand and non sticky.

Cover the bowl with a wet cloth and keep aside for 1 hour. 

Knead the dough slightly and on a on a lightly floured surface roll the dough in to a roll shape with diameter of about 2 inches. 

Cut slices of the dough. Roll and flatten them with help of rolling pin in about 2mm-3mm thickness. (make sure to dust the work surface and rolling pin with flour to avoid sticking) 

 

Roll them in to 3'' or 3 and 3 1/2'' inch rounds or roll them in to a square like shape and cut rounds with a cookie cutter or with a rim of a glass.

Stack the wrappers made on top of each other and cover with cling film. Store in refrigerator, if wanted to be used later on.

Here's the recipe for the Gyoza:

Ingredients (Serves 4)

100g cabbage finely chopped
100g Chinese cabbage finely chopped

1 onion finely chopped

1/4 red pepper finely chopped

1 tbsp garlic minced

150g minced pork (I used flaked canned macarel fish)

1/2 tbsp minced ginger
1/2 tbsp Chinese soya sauce
1/2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp Chinese chille paste
sesame oil
salt

pepper

16dumpling wrappers (round type)
1/2 cup / 100ml water
1 tsp plain flour

sunflower oil

Sprinkle salt on the Chinese cabbage and cabbage in the bowl, mix them lightly, and let them stand for 5 to 10 minutes. Squeeze water out of the vegetables.
Put the sesame oil in a frying-pan, and fry the chopped garlic, ginger and onion lightly.
Put the flaked fish, Chinese cabbage, cabbage, garlic chives, and Japanese leek, ginger in the bowl, add Chinese soya sauce, Worcestershire sauce, 1 tsp Chinese chille paste mix them together. Add the salt, pepper, and the fried garlic, and mix them until they become paste like.
Scoop the mixture onto a pastry skin with a spoon. Put the mixture on each pastry skin and fold it over. 

Press the edged to stick together and seal. (run a fingertip damped with water around the inside of the wrapper to act as a glue and then pinch the edges together to stick and can even press by the back of a fork to seal)

Lay the prepared dumplings on a lightly floured tray.

Put the sunflower oil in the heated frying-pan, and put the dumplings in a circle. Pour the flour dissolved in water, (1tsp of lour dissolved in 1/2 cup of water)and place the lid on. Keep the flame low. When the water has almost evaporated, pour a little sunflower oil around the dumplings, place the lid on, and turn the heat high. Cook the gyoza until the bottom gets crisp and brown on one side. And turn over to a plate and brown the other side.

Serve hot with soya sauce based sauce.

Hint: mix Soya sauce with tomato ketchup and minced ginger and finely chopped green chili to your taste.