Prep: 45

Cook: 20

Resting 10

Total: 1 15

Servings: 36 dumplings

Course: Appetizer, Side Dish, Snack

Cuisine: Japanese

Label: Dumplings

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Connie’s notes

The dough for the wrapper can be made from scratch or store-bought. My daughter, Alex, our resident gyoza maker, likes control over the thickness and chewiness of the wrapper so she makes it from scratch. The ingredients are just flour, water and salt, and starch for dusting.

If you’re up to the challenge of making the gyoza wrappers, the details are all in the recipe. As an introductory note, however, know that once mixed, the dough needs to rest to allow gluten to form. That’s what makes the dough pliable and elastic, and what gives the wrapper a wonderful chewiness.

Ingredients

Gyoza filling

300 grams ground pork (10 oz)
2 tablespoons finely sliced scallions
2 tablespoons finely sliced chives
¼ teaspoon minced garlic
½ teaspoon grated ginger
1 ¼ teaspoon sake
1 ¼ teaspoon sesame seed oil
1 ¼ teaspoon soy sauce

Gyoza wrapper

2 cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
⅔ cup water
potato starch for dusting

To pan-fry the gyoza

2 tablespoons sesame seed oil

Instructions

Mix the gyoza filling

In a bowl, mix together all the ingredients for the gyoza filling.
Cover the bowl and chill in the fridge while you make the wrappers.

Make the gyoza wrapper

In a bowl, mix together all the ingredients for the wrapper until it forms a ball.
Cover the bowl with a damp kitchen towel and leave to rest for ten minutes.
Dump the rested gyoza wrapper dough on a lightly floured work surface and knead until smooth, about 15 to 25 minutes depending on the level of humidity in your kitchen.
Divide the dough into two equal portions.
Roll each portion into a thin log.
Cut each log into 18 pieces so you have 36 pieces of dough altogether.

Roll the gyoza wrappers

Take a piece of dough and flatten with your hands.
Lightly coat both sides of the flattened dough with starch.
With a rolling pin, flatten the dough to form a three-inch disc about two millimeters in thickness.
Repeat with the rest of the gyoza wrapper dough.

Assemble the gyoza

Take the filling out of the fridge.
Take a wrapper and place a teaspoonful of filling at the center.
Fold the dough and lightly pinch the center of the edges. DO NOT seal the edges at this point.
With one hand holding the dumpling, use the index and forefingers of your other hand to fold a pleat near the center. The direction of the pleat is towards the center. Make two more pleats keeping the pleats about a quarter inch apart.
Fold three pleats on the other side of the dumpling.
Repeat until all the wrappers have been filled.

Pan fry the gyoza

Spread a tablespoon of sesame seed oil on the bottom of a frying pan and heat.
Arrange half of the dumplings in the pan so that they do not touch one another.
Cook the dumplings in the hot oil until the bottoms are browned and crusty.
Pour in a quarter cup of water around the edges of the pan (be careful not to pour water directly on the dumplings).
Cover the pan, set the heat to medium and allow the gyoza to cook in the steam for about eight minutes.
Uncover the pan and continue cooking the dumplings until all the water has evaporated and the oil is sizzling.
Repeat the process for the remaining half of the gyoza.

Serve the gyoza

Arrange the cooked gyoza on a plate.
Serve the gyoza with soy sauce and chili oil sauce, or your preferred dipping sauce.

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Gyoza with wings

First, you have to make the dumplings following the instructions above. When the dumplings have been formed, the process of cooking them into gyoza with wings is pretty much the same as pan frying gyoza except for the addition of starch dissolved in water to make a light crust at the bottom.

Set a non-stick pan on the stove over medium heat then pour two tablespoons sesame seed oil into the pan. Swirl the pan to allow the oil to coat the bottom evenly.

Arrange the gyoza in the pan so that they are about half an inch from each other. How many pieces of gyoza? That depends on the size of your frying pan. So long as there is a half-inch distance between the dumplings when they are arranged in the pan, “wings” will form correctly.

Cover the pan and cook the gyoza until the bottoms are lightly browned and firm.

Pour a quarter cup of water around the dumplings. Be careful not to pour water directly on them.

Cover the pan and allow the gyoza to fully cook in the steam. The dumplings are done with the water has evaporated and you can hear the oil start to sizzle.

Pouring starch solution into pan with gyoza

Stir a tablespoon of potato starch into half a cup of water and pour the mixture and pour around the edge of the pan.

Cover the pan once more and cook the gyoza until the water-starch solution has solidified and “wings” have formed between the dumplings.

Drizzle the remaining tablespoon of sesame seed oil along the outer edges of the “wings” for extra crisp. If you can manage to partially lift the gyoza to allow the oil to get to spread underneath, so much the better. When the oil sizzles, the gyoza with wings are done.