The first place I ever ate gyoza was in Takamatsu, Japan, in 1983, as a wide-eyed 19-year-old Canadian prairie boy over there to play hockey for a year. Every day was filled with fascinating adventures and wild stuff. At first taste, I thought, “Man, those are the best perogies ever!” So I became a chef.
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Yield: Serves 16
Preparation Time: 45 minutes
Cooking Time: 10 minutes
Ingredients:
- 3/4 lb (340 g) ground Ontario pork
- 2 cups (500 mL) finely shredded
- green cabbage
- 2 Tbsp (30 mL) soy sauce
- 2 tsp (10 mL) finely grated fresh ginger
- 1 green onion, thinly sliced
- 1 pkg (100 pieces) small round
- wonton wrappers
Dipping Sauce:
- 2 Tbsp (30 mL) soy sauce
- 1 Tbsp (15 mL) rice wine vinegar
- 1 tsp (5 mL) sesame oil
- 1 tsp (5 mL) vegetable oil
Cooking Instructions:
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or plastic wrap, and set aside. Stir together the pork, cabbage, soy sauce, ginger and green onion until well-combined.
- Place 1 wonton wrapper in your hand and, using a small brush, moisten the edge of one side with a little water to help seal it. Place 1 tsp (5 mL) of the meat mixture in the center of the wrapper. Fold the wrapper over so the edges meet at one end and the filling sits flat in your hand. As you bring the edges together, fold 4 or 5 pleats into one side of the dough, then press to seal. Line up the prepared gyoza on the prepared baking sheet, pressing each gyoza down to create a flat bottom so the sealed edge is on top. Refrigerate, covered with plastic wrap, until ready to use, up to 24 hours. To freeze, place the gyoza (still on the baking sheet and covered with plastic wrap) in the freezer until solid, then transfer to a resealable plastic bag. You can then defrost only as many as you need.
- For the sauce, stir together the soy sauce, rice vinegar and sesame oil, and pour into little dishes for dipping.
- Heat an oven-safe nonstick skillet with a tight-fitting lid over high heat. Add the oil. Arrange as many dumplings in the skillet as you can fit, leaving a little space between them. Let the dumplings start to sizzle, about 1 minute, then add about 1 cup of water—enough to flood the bottom of the pan and come no more than partway up the gyoza but not submerging them—and cover immediately. The water in the pan will boil and steam the dumplings. Steam over high heat for 6 minutes, then remove the lid, allowing any extra water to evaporate, and the dumplings will start to sizzle again. Cook the gyoza until they can be easily loosened from the pan and have crispy, golden brown bottoms, about 1 minute.
- Serve the gyoza right away with the dipping sauce.
Excerpted from Living High Off the Hog: Over 100 Recipes and Techniques to Cook Pork Perfectly by Michael Olson. Copyright © 2019 Michael Olson. Photography by Janis Nicolay. Published by Appetite by Random House®, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited. Reproduced by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved.