Gyoza - Japanese Dumplings

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Gyoza – Japanese Dumplings

Where better than to have your first Gyoza than in a Japanese ski resort. Myself and Paul had to travel to Japan to visit one of our key suppliers for my other job, aeronatical engineering. We squeezed in 4 days in the mountains, 2 with our supplier, who is quite a character.

On our first night and before we’d met our hosts, Paul and I went to an amazing restaurant famed for their Gyoza and we weren’t disappointed. They were epic.

Japan

Cooking surfaces

Cast Iron Grid

BBQ Temperature

200°C

Ingredients

To cook

  • 52 gyoza wrappers (1 pack) – you should be able to get these from an Asian supermarket. If you can’t get them you can use Chinese Dumpling Wrappers, they’re just slightly thicker.
  • 3tbsp groundnut oil
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 1 tsp sesame oil

Filling

  • 340g pork mince, I like 20% fat as it will have flavour
  • 140g of hispi or sweetheart cabbage, chopped finely
  • 2 spring onions, chopped finely
  • 2 shiitake mushrooms, I rehydrate the dried ones
  • 1 clove garlic, crushed
  • 1 inch ginger, finely chopped
  • 1tsp sake
  • 1 tsp sesame oil
  • 1 tsp sweet soy sauce (we like the sweet stuff)
  • 1/4 tsp Maldon Salt
  • 1/4 tsp crushed black pepper

Dipping Sauce – per person

Equipment

Method

  1. In a bowl, mix all of the filling ingredients.
  2. Using your hands, mix it all together thoroughly. It should pull together like sausagemeat.
  3. Open your wrappers.
  4. Using a teaspoon spoon a portion into the centre of one of the wrappers.
  5. Using your other hand, dab water around the outside of the wrapper.
  6. Now fold the wrapper in half around the filling and pinch together in the middle.
  7. Now crimp one side of the wrapper three times on each side of the centre – six in total. This will cause it to form a cresent shape.
  8. Now repeat this for each of the gyoza.

Cooking the Gyoza

  1. Preheat your Egg to 200°C with just the stainless steel grid for a direct cook.
  2. Using a frying pan or the Big Green Egg cast iron skillet, put the groundnut oil into the bottom of the pan.
  3. Arrange the gyoza into the pan, leaving a small amount of spare space, they will expand a little when you cook them.
  4. Place the pan onto the Egg and cook for about 5 or 6 minutes until the bottoms of the Gyoza start to brown.
  5. Now add the water and put a lid onto the pan, I use the dual cast iron plancha griddle from Big Green Egg.
  6. Cook for about 3 or 4 minutes to steam the dumplings.
  7. Take the lid off the pan and drizzle 1 tsp of sesame oil over the gyoza and cook for a further 5 minutes to crisp the bottoms.
  8. Once cooked you can loosen them in the pan and then turn them out onto a plate.
  9. Mix the three dipping sauce ingredients together for each person in a small dipping bowl.
  10. Dive in.
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