Japanese cooking: Gyoza (Pot sticker)
When we eat out, one of our staple dish on our table is Gyoza (It is Chinese dish called Jiaozi originally, and Japanese call it Gyoza. People here in US recognize it with name of pot stickers or chinese dumplings). You ay think that making the Gyoza is difficult but,it is not so. It just that a little time consuming to make it and, when we go to Asian store, sometimes I buy frozen bag of Gyoza. However, oh boy, oh boy, it is expensive.. I maybe paid about $8 or so per bag. With that $8 budget, you can make a lot more Gyoza than you get in a bag. I think that getting Gyoza at restaurant also lot more expensive than you would spend on ingredients to make it. So, in this entry, I thought I would introduce how to make Gyoza AND, how to cook Gyoza perfectly on skillet; crunchy outside, juicy inside.
Here is how you make Gyoza.
**( I know wrapper can be made just warm water and flour, but I have not tried making it on my own, and I would update wrapper recipe if I could make wrapper nicely myself here)
1. Take about 6 leaves of Nappa cabbage (hakusai in Japanese), boil it in water, cool it down a while, chop it fine, squeeze out excess water from Nappa cabbage
2. To 1 pound of ground pork (or any other ground meat of your choice), add 2tsp sake, 1tsp sugar, 1 tsp table salt,2tbs soy sauce, 1/4tsp ground pepper,one clove of grated garlic, a little bit of grated ginger, drizzle of sesame oil,and add 50ml of water little by little and mix well
3. Add chopped Nappa cabbage to #2 and mix until it gets a little sticky texture
4. Place one Gyoza wrapper (usually round,white wrapper. But in a pinch you will be able to use wantan wrapper) on your hand, place small amount of the filling #3 in the center thin oval shape, then, wet the wrapper edge on your side
5. Hold the wrapper with filling with your left hand (make your left hand like letter shape "U" with your 2nd finger and your left hand thumb)
6. Close the edge pinching the wrapper edge as if making plaits
*make sure you do not put any air in the Gyoza pocket. Air in the Gyoza can expand and can make hole when cooking.
At this point,if you made lot more than you need, then roll it around on flour or corn starch and shake off any excess and freeze them
7. Place non stick skillet on stove with high heat, make it screaming hot. Add oil , put Gyoza and occasionally,shake the skillet to move the Gyoza around.
8. When you see outside gets crisp, add water to skillet to the half depth of Gyoza
*Watch out for spattering when you put water
9. Put lid on and steam. Keep the lid on until all water evaporated.At finish point, add a drizzle of sesame oil and cook 1 minutes or so more. A little bit of sesame oil to cook with make this Gyoza extra yummy.
When you serve, put the crisp side on top, and serve with vinegar dipping sauce or bottled Gyoza dipping sauce (you can find at Asian store)
<Gyoza dipping sauce>
Mix 2tbs soy sauce, 3 tbs rice vinegar, 1 tsp table sugar, drizzle of sesame oil, add freshly ground toasted sesame
If you had too much Gyoza made, make gyoza soup.
Here is how you make gyoza soup.
Just warm up the chicken broth, add cooked gyoza or frozen gyoza (if you like to make with uncooked Gyoza), and heat/cook through
Add chopped green onion. Voilà, you just made Gyoza soup!
Enjoy!
Here is how you make Gyoza.
**( I know wrapper can be made just warm water and flour, but I have not tried making it on my own, and I would update wrapper recipe if I could make wrapper nicely myself here)
1. Take about 6 leaves of Nappa cabbage (hakusai in Japanese), boil it in water, cool it down a while, chop it fine, squeeze out excess water from Nappa cabbage
2. To 1 pound of ground pork (or any other ground meat of your choice), add 2tsp sake, 1tsp sugar, 1 tsp table salt,2tbs soy sauce, 1/4tsp ground pepper,one clove of grated garlic, a little bit of grated ginger, drizzle of sesame oil,and add 50ml of water little by little and mix well
3. Add chopped Nappa cabbage to #2 and mix until it gets a little sticky texture
4. Place one Gyoza wrapper (usually round,white wrapper. But in a pinch you will be able to use wantan wrapper) on your hand, place small amount of the filling #3 in the center thin oval shape, then, wet the wrapper edge on your side
5. Hold the wrapper with filling with your left hand (make your left hand like letter shape "U" with your 2nd finger and your left hand thumb)
6. Close the edge pinching the wrapper edge as if making plaits
*make sure you do not put any air in the Gyoza pocket. Air in the Gyoza can expand and can make hole when cooking.
At this point,if you made lot more than you need, then roll it around on flour or corn starch and shake off any excess and freeze them
7. Place non stick skillet on stove with high heat, make it screaming hot. Add oil , put Gyoza and occasionally,shake the skillet to move the Gyoza around.
8. When you see outside gets crisp, add water to skillet to the half depth of Gyoza
*Watch out for spattering when you put water
9. Put lid on and steam. Keep the lid on until all water evaporated.At finish point, add a drizzle of sesame oil and cook 1 minutes or so more. A little bit of sesame oil to cook with make this Gyoza extra yummy.
When you serve, put the crisp side on top, and serve with vinegar dipping sauce or bottled Gyoza dipping sauce (you can find at Asian store)
<Gyoza dipping sauce>
Mix 2tbs soy sauce, 3 tbs rice vinegar, 1 tsp table sugar, drizzle of sesame oil, add freshly ground toasted sesame
If you had too much Gyoza made, make gyoza soup.
Here is how you make gyoza soup.
Just warm up the chicken broth, add cooked gyoza or frozen gyoza (if you like to make with uncooked Gyoza), and heat/cook through
Add chopped green onion. Voilà, you just made Gyoza soup!
Enjoy!
Posted by yassy at 12/13/2009 8:00 AM 
Categories: Asian cooking 911
Tags: food pot stickers Japanese cooking gyoza dumpling
Categories: Asian cooking 911
Tags: food pot stickers Japanese cooking gyoza dumpling
Yuummm! I love dumpling soup. Unfortunately you can't even make the dumplings ahead because when you freeze the wrappers, they go a little soggy, and the cabbage and any other vegetables you added tend to form ice crystals, and then become soggy also. It ends up more like cabbage soup
Reply to this
Thank you for your comment. When I make too many of Gyoza at one time, I tend to freeze them for later use. If you go to Asian store, it is pricey but you can get a bag of frozen Gyoza. When you freeze your homemade Gyoza, you would like to make sure you will dust the Gyoza in corn starch or flour so that it would not stick together when frozen.
Also,when you cook Gyoza, make skillet gets very high temperature with oil before adding Gyoza to skillet. Gyoza gets soggy when cooking temperature of the skillet is low. Or, if you add too much water when finishing up to steam Gyoza a little at the end, it gets soggy too. Also,if you froze Gyoza or got a bag of Frozen Gyoza to use, use the frozen Gyoza as is, not thawing in fridge. When I use frozen Gyoza, I add frozen Gyoza to skillet when skillet gets very very hot.
Also, when you order steamed Gyoza at restaurant, outside of the Gyoza skin would not be crispy.It is soft as well.
With Gyoza soup, it is like meat filled Ravioli in the soup if you will and, Gyoza in the soup should be soft.
Reply to this
Thanks for this recipe. I didn't realize that pot stickers were Chinese AND Japanese. I only had my first ones maybe five years ago, and wasn't real impressed, since they were sort of doughy on the outside - I see by your info that they should be crunchy on the outside? That I would like to try!
Reply to this
Gyoza or Jiaozi or Pot stickers is Chinese dish spread to other area of Asian countries including Japan. Japan has its version of Gyoza or Jiaozi, and there is also Nepali version. Sometimes, people mistake Chinese dumpling (Dim Sum)or Shumai as we Japanese call it with Jiaozi. It is total different dish though. Chinese dumpling or Dim Sum or Shumai is also Chinese dish but spread to other area of Asia as well.You can find Chinese version, Thai version, Japanese version,Indonesian version, Philipine version.
You will most likely have doughy outside Gyoza at restaurant if you order Gyoza or Pot stickers steamed. My mother used to deep fry Gyoza now and then. It definitely comes out very crunchy and I liked it a lot. If you do deep fry them, when oil comes to high enough temperature, gently drop the frozen Gyoza or Pot stickers without thawing. If you deep fry the freshly made Gyoza, you can gently drop them into the oil until crisp.
Soft outside or crunchy outside for Gyoza or Jiaozi or Pot stickers is preference. It comes out differently depending on how you cook them.
Reply to this
Yummy! Another recipe... and for something I really love already (at least the frozen kind) but can't usually afford! Thanks so much for sharing this with us.
Reply to this