Gyoza: before and after
Week 13’s ‘meat for the week’ is a little obvious: gyoza. The most common combination involves pork and prawns, but as it is more of a challenge to get raw seafood in my village I’ve had to make do with things at hand closer to home. Beef is easier to get from our local butcher and tends to be less sensitive than pork mince, and the local farm shop still has an abundance of spring green cabbage.
The results are not as succulent due to having less fat and lacking the juicy prawns but the flavours are more meaty and withstands against stronger flavours. Sriracha with extra garlic is an obvious choice, whereas the normal fair tends to be overwhelmed unless taken in smaller quantity.
When adding more interest to precooked gyoza I made them have ‘sesame feet’ – adding untoasted sesame seed to the moist flat part of the dumpling and carefully frying in a seasoned fry pan until the bottoms are browned.
Ingredients
- Beef mince, 400g
- Spring cabbage, about 3-4 leaves
- 1 medium brown onion
- Ginger, to taste
- Garlic, to taste
- 1 pack of gyoza wrappers
- 2 tablespoons of sesame seed oil
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Defrost your wrappers in the fridge
- Wash and dry the cabbage leaves, then shred into fine threads about 1 inch in length. Fine dice the onion and grate the desired amounts of ginger and garlic
- In a lightly oiled and medium-hot fry pan, cook the onion until translucent and add the cabbage until the cabbage is slightly wilted (about 2 mins)
- Cool the cabbage and onion and add the ginger, garlic and mince. Season and mix well with your hands. To adjust the seasonings, fry up a small pattie and sample
- Use an eating teaspoon to control the amounts of filling per wrapper - filling and crimping the entire pack. I used only a dab of water along the edge for sealing the dumplings. Any left-over mince can be made into burger patties
- In a baking paper-lined steamer, cook a batch (the dumplings arranged so they do not touch) of gyoza at a time for about 10-15 minutes each atop a saucepan of boiling water
- I stored my gyoza packed close together with baking paper strips in between to ensure they remain separate. Either raw or steamed gyoza can be frozen, just as long as they are first frozen on trays where they don't touch - then they can be transferred into freezer bags
