Spring Blossom & Gyoza
Spring blossoms
After all of the gyoza from the fridge was used up for lunch and evening snacks I felt a little sad to note their absence – they were a rather good batch. So it didn’t take much effort to replenish the pantry with ingredients for gyoza once more, minus the wrappers (they aren’t found around my part of the woods as far as I know) and the prawns (I forgot.) With pork mince on special, I already ear-marked some to go to a batch of lumpia (spring roll wrappers on the other hand can be found in my closest off-license) it was clear that if I were to make gyoza I would need to make my own wrappers if I was to construct them sooner.
Using La Fuji Mama’s recipe I did just that, but I had to use a 50-50 mix of plain and buckwheat flour due to an unexpected flour shortage. The results weren’t as light, in both colour and texture – though if anything one of the major faults was due to my inadequate rolling. In addition to the wrapping change, the other notable difference was the filling cabbage was sweet-heart cabbage (over the standard Chinese variety.) Perhaps I didn’t add enough cabbage or the variety did not retain water; or just the fact I skipped the prawns this time: they weren’t as moist as the last batch. The gyoza ended up more filling, rather than light moreish morsels – which would be ideal if you don’t plan to eat too many!
Top tier
Top tier: ‘dry’ coleslaw topped with gyoza (made with home-made wrappers)
Bottom tier
Bottom tier: Rice with carrot ‘blossoms’ (carrot, celery leaves, sriracha, black sesame, white sesame), lettuce baran (separators), tamagoyaki, cherry tomato, home-made onion relish.
Not pictured: mayonnaise and capers (for coleslaw), sriracha (for gyoza).
As for the flowers: various flowering trees are in full force along with some of the bulbs we planted late last year. With the following weeks in our schedules anticipated to be gruelling and unpleasant, I feel uplifted a little with some blossom about.
Spring Blossom & Gyoza
