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.

Rava Dosa

''I wanted to try out a quick dosa and found this easy to make healthy dosa made with semolina. Since I don't have a griddle or tawa, I made these small sized dosas on a non stick pan.''

Ingredients:

Semolina 1 cup

Rice flour 1 cup

Plain Flour 1/4 cup

2 green chillies cut finely

1/4 tsp cumin seeds

1/8tsp pepper

1/4tsp chopped ginger

salt to taste

water to  make a thin watery batter

1 onion chopped.

melted butter or ghee

Method:

Mix all ingredients above except butter/ghee in to a thin batter. Keep for 10 minutes.

Heat hot griddle/ tawa or non stick pan. If using a non stick pan. grease the pan lightly with oil and wipe with a piece of cloth or tissue.

When its heated well sprinkle some onion pieces on to the pan and then sprinkle the thin batter with the help of hand on to the pan, in a way that it makes net like dosa. Allow to cook till its golden underneath and crisp. Drizzle little ghee on top.

It will take a minute or two to be golden and be careful while checking underneath as it will tend to break on the early stages of cooking.

Fold the dosa in half and take off heat.

Repeat process till the batter runs out.

Serve dosa with chutney or Curry.

Carrot and Cheese Sticks

''This is an easy to make snack. Make them and keep them in an air tight container if you like something to munch on in your free times''

Ingredients:

1 carrot 

100g flour

1/4tsp baking powder

1 tbsp grated cheese

1 1/2 to 2 tbsp of olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Mix all the ingredients above in a bowl with the hand. Knead the dough till the mixture comes together. Add little more oil if needed. Form the mixture in to a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and keep at room temperature for 15 minutes. 

Roll the dough (I rolled them between 2 lunch sheets/ plastic wrap) 2mm thick on a flat board. Cut 10cm long and 3mm wide strips out of the dough. 

Pre- heat the oven to 200C. Bake the sticks for 15-20minutes until golden and crisp. Allow to cool completely and store in an air tight container. Enjoy!!!

Chicken Herb Roll

This recipe is from the Sri Lankan Cookery Programme Rasa Saraniya. They were good but I found the roll to be bit hard, the reason i think being I reduced the risen time after putting the filling inside. So I recommend, to follow the recipe exact and see. The rolls has a very mild taste..so next time I will be making them bit more spicy so sure.

Ingredients: Make 12

For Dough:

Plain flour 500g

Instant dry yeast 10g

Sugar 10g

Salt 1 1/2 tsp

Pepper 1/2 tsp

Parsley chopped 2 tbsp

Herbs 1/2 tsp

Chopped garlic 1/2 tsp

Olive oil 3 tbsp

Water 375ml - 400ml

Cheese 50g

Method:

Put flour in a large bowl, add yeast, sugar and mix wit a wooden spoon.

Add water little by little and mix. Add till about 400ml of water.

Add 3tbsp oil and keep mixing. Add salt, chop parsley, pepper, herbs and knead the dough by hand.

Put little flour on the worktop/ board and transfer dough on to it and knead well for 6-7 minutes. This is improve its elasticity. The dough will become non sticky by the end of this stage. 

Grease the hands lightly and make the dough in to ball shape and place back in the bowl to allow to double in size. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and keep in a warm place for 25 minutes.

At this stage make the chicken filling. The recipe is shown below.

When the dough has doubled in size, grease hands lightly and make 12 balls out of the dough. Shape each ball by rolling them tightly on top of the worktop/ board until smooth shaped small balls formed. Keep them in a lightly greased baking tray. Caver with plastic wrap and allow 10 minutes to rise again. 

Now with help of lightly greased knife make 'cross' shaped slit on top of each bun. Open the slit with the help of greased fingers to make an opening and a space for the chicken filling to be placed in.

Fill each bun with the chicken filling. Top the filling with grated cheese, bit of pepper and herbs. I topped mine with some chopped capsicum as well.

Now allow 20 minutes to rest again. (I allowed only 10 minutes or so and the rolls came out bit hard)

Now bake on a preheated oven of 210C for 15-20 minutes.

(pre heat the oven to 220C then once the rolls are placed in for baking, reduce the heat to 210C)

Serve with Ketchup. Enjoy!!!

Chicken Filling

Ingredients:

minced chicken 250g

finely chopped onions 1tbsp

finely chopped garlic 1tsp

Oil 3 tbsp

Plain flour 2tbsp

Milk 3tbsp

Grated cheese 2tbsp

little herbs, pepper and salt to taste

Method:

Heat oil in a non stick pan, add in the garlic and onion and stir for a minute. Add in the minced chicken and stir fry. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Cook till the chicken is done. 

Add plain flour and cook for 2 minutes till the flour is cooked. Add in milk and cheese. Cook till the mixture is dry/ all the moisture is evaporated. 

Remove from heat and allow to cool completely before filling in the buns. (keep in the fridge to cool in a hurry)