Homemade Gyoza!

I guess you can take the exchange student out of Japan, but you cant take Japan out of the exchange student!

I have been having massive gyoza cravings all of a sudden. So I made about 40 of them. I also picked up some soy sauce, rice vinegar, and chili oil for dipping sauce!


We devoured them. 40 was not enough.


I made all the wrappers by hand. If you have the time, and don't feel like buying them from the store, they're actually way more delicious this way.

I love gyoza!

Can you share the recipe please?

Here's the recipe that I used, minus the red pepper and the miso paste. For my goyza, I also mixed the pork with some ground beef (50-50), because that's how I learned how to do it while I was still living abroad. Quite delicious.
http://steamykitchen.com/5874-gyoza-recipe-japanese-pan-fried-dumplings.html

And this is what I used to make the wrappers:
http://www.lafujimama.com/2009/08/time-to-wrap-things-up-homemade-gyoza/

The bowl of cold water is super important to folding the gyoza wrappers, pleating them, and making them stick to themselves. Having used both the store bought wrappers, and the homemade kind.... The homemade kind stick to themselves pretty well (I may have used too much water.) but use a lot of flour on them if you want to store them in the fridge. The ones at the bottom will become one giant gyoza wrapper otherwise, and that's just icky. The store bought keep better in the fridge, but can be harder to pleat. And don't get too discouraged by the pleating, because it takes practice. Byt the time you finish your first batch, you'll be a pro!

When rolling them out, the thinner you can get them, the better they taste. When you fry/steam them if they're too thick, they get soggy.

For my dipping sauce, instead of mixing it the way she says, I just bring the bottles of vinegar, soy sauce and chili oil to the table and mix them up based on how spicy I'm feeling. I usually just start with a big dollop of soy, add a little vinegar (1/3-1/2, and keep in mind, this is like making a tiny puddle on a plate, not filling a small bowl. Then I take the chili oil and shake out as many drops as I feel like (2-3 for a mild zing, 8+ for SUPER DRAGON ROAR!). That is also TOTALLY how we did it in Sukagawa. More authentic, really.

Oh, the toasted sesame oil. If you use it to start frying your dumplings, it WILL smell like it's burning. It's not, and that's a normal smell, but it can be annoying, as it lingers. DO NOT USE OLIVE OIL. Totally wrong flavor for gyoza, too heavy, and it will taste nasty. Neutral oil (grapeseed, sunflower, canola, etc.) work much better for Asian-based anything.

Wow. I've never eaten anything like this in my life, but they look fantastic. I wish I could taste some of yours, because if I made any chances are they would be completely wrong...

Honestly, I haven't made these in like.. 3 years? The recipe is really easy to follow, too. And, you get to throw a giant ball of meat and cabbage into a bowl! What could be more fun? This is the first time I've made them since I've come home from Japan, and the first time EVER making the shells from scratch.

Like everything else on this form, be bold, daring! Don't be afraid of screwing up. Because, seriously...

The second batch of gyoza I made? Well, I made all 40 at the same time, but I wrapped up 20 and stuck them in the fridge...Where my mother promptly put AN ENTIRE WATERMELON on top of them without even looking. Needless to say, they were SKOOSHED. The shells were all stuck together and the meat was oozing out. I cried. (All the hard work! My poor, poor, delicious babies!)

But, I made them anyway. And, yeah, most of them fell apart in the pan, and the shells stuck a bit, but they pretty much tasted the same as they would have not skooshed. I mean, either way, you're going to end up with something that will in all likelyhood make your kitchen smell like heaven, no matter how it looks.

Now, if you want to have a baseline to test the taste on (and, keep in mind, everyone does theirs a little differently. Everywhere I went in Japan, they had their own secret recipe for the dang things.), go to a Japanese restaurant. Most of them, if they aren't strictly sushi bars, will probably sell gyoza. And they'll probably be awesome ( I have yet to meet a gyoza I didn't like.)

The biggest thing you have to do is make sure they're cook all the way through, because you are mostly working with pork, here. Short of slicing one open and checking, (and with this recipe, even fully cooked is still a little pink.) the best way is to pan fry them until the bottoms are brown (like an overcooked marshmallow), and then add a cup and a half of water and steam them the rest of the way. Let the water boil around them for 2-5 minutes, until the shells look like translucent paper.

Okkay, so I was mentioning this post to my mom and told her about your recipe and she was all, "Oh! You mean potstickers!" And I had an oh duh moment. I've never had potstickers either, but I have at least heard of them. Here in rural Iowa (meaning you-will-have-a-hard-time-finding-a-grocery-store-near-you rural Iowa) I didn't think I'd ever find a place that served gyoza. I may have better luck asking for potstickers lol

So how does the sauce taste without any chili oil? I'm the only one in my family who doesn't like heat, even though I can deal with a little, and I really like the concept of mixing it yourself on your own plate. And you say you took out the miso paste altogether? Or did you replace it with something?

Well, it tastes like soy sauce and rice vinegar. But, the chili oil doesn't really add huge amounts of heat, unless you really dump it in. A couple drops kind of makes the whole thing taste awesome with no burn.