Gyoza

Japanese fried dumplings, gyoza, are made from thinly rolled dough with a filling of minced meat, young cabbage, fresh herbs, soy sauce, and other aromatic spices. Another distinguishing feature of gyoza is their shape and cooking method – dumplings are first fried until crispy on one side and then steamed with a small amount of water until cooked through.

Yield: 64 pieces of Japanese dumplings.

Cooking time: 90 minutes.

Caloric content: 196 kcal per 100 grams of the dish.

Cuisine: Japanese.

Ingredients

For the dough:

• all-purpose flour – 300 g,
• hot water – 170 ml,
• salt – 1/2 tsp,
• refined vegetable oil – 15 ml.

For the filling:

• pork meat – 300 g,
• young cabbage – 200 g,
• garlic – 3-4 cloves,
• starch – 1 tsp,
• white sugar – 1 tsp,
• soy sauce – 15 g,
• refined vegetable oil – 15 g,
• purified water – 30 ml,
• fresh herbs – a bunch,
• salt – to taste.

Preparation

1. Prepare the ingredients for the dough. Very hot water is used for kneading – this makes it pliable, elastic, and prevents tearing during cooking.

2. Gather the ingredients for the filling. The pork can be replaced with any meat. Both young white cabbage and napa cabbage are suitable for gyoza. If possible, it is better to use sesame oil.

3. For the dough, sift the flour into a large bowl, make a well in the center, and fill it with the specified ingredients.

4. First, stir everything with a spoon, as the water is hot.

5. As it cools down, switch to kneading by hand. The dough is warm, pliable, and easy to work with. Gather the dough into a ball, place it in a bag, and put it in the refrigerator for the time needed to prepare the filling.

6. Cut off the core and the tough outer leaves from the cabbage. It needs to be finely chopped (the cabbage pieces should not be noticeable in the filling). This can be done with a knife, but it is more convenient to use a food processor with sharp blades.

7. Grind the meat.

8. Combine minced meat, chopped cabbage, finely chopped herbs, and crushed garlic in one bowl.

9. Add soy sauce to this mixture.

10. Mix everything thoroughly, adding the remaining ingredients.

11. Take the dough out of the refrigerator. Dust the table with flour and roll out a thin layer about 2 millimeters thick.

12. Use a special cutter with a diameter of 7.5 centimeters to cut out circles. Gather the scraps together and roll them out again for new dumplings.

13. To shape the gyoza, place a tablespoon of filling in the center of the dough circle.

14. Pinch the center of the dumpling together with one pinch.

15. Then, fold the right side from the center, making pleats only on the front side of the dumpling, while leaving the back side flat.

16. Continue pinching the dumpling from the left side of the center, again folding the pleats only on the front side. Once finished, go over the pinches once more.

17. Place the prepared dumplings with some distance between them on a floured board.

18. Japanese dumplings, like regular ones, can be prepared in advance. For this, they need to be frozen directly on the board, and once frozen, they can safely be in contact with each other.

19. Transfer the frozen dumplings to a container with a lid or a bag. They can be stored in the freezer for up to two months, and there is no need to thaw before cooking.

20. To cook gyoza, lay them in a skillet with heated oil. Fry only the bottoms until the desired level of crispness is achieved.

21. When the bottoms are well browned, lower the heat and add hot water to cover about 1/3 of the dumpling.

22. Immediately cover the skillet with a lid and simmer the dumplings over low heat for 7 minutes.

23. Then remove the lid and let the skillet cook over heat until all moisture evaporates. After that, the dumplings will be fully cooked.

They serve hot gyoza with some kind of Japanese sauce. The contrast of the delicate top made of thin dough, the crispy browned bottom, and the juicy aromatic filling leaves no one indifferent. Try it, enjoy your meal!