This week I decided to make a large enough batch of Gyozas! Bite sized dumplings, these gyozas were made with minced chicken, vegetable, seasonings and sake. A great appetiser to serve at dinner parties – it’s best to make a big batch and freeze them and serve them during big gatherings as appetisers. Lets learn more about these gyozas below:
What are Gyozas?
A kind of dumplings, gyozas form in between Tibetan momos and Chinese dim sums. In between how? The dough used to make gyozas is used to form sheets which are slightly thicker than the crystal dumpling sheets and thinner to the sheets used to make Tibetan momos.
These gyozas like other dumplings can be made with fillings of any choice – from vegetables and meat to seafood. You can make them using minced chicken like I have done or you can substitute the produce for minced pork as well with the same quantity.
To Steam or to Pan Fry?
Just like Momos, these Gyozas can be made in multiple ways as well. You can steam them or you can fry them on the pan to get the bold brownish hue at its base.
If you decide to steam:
Simply place your gyozas on your steamer with marginal amount of hot water. The steaming process takes longer than the frying process as they are done slowly. It would take around 15 minutes to steam these dumplings until they’re cooked.
If you decide to pan fry:
You can’t just get away with pan frying alone – cause in that cause only the base would cook more. It is important to use a pan for which you have a lid. After a minute of these gyozas in cooking, you would need to add enough hot water in the pan until it reaches a 1/4 inch and then quickly cover it again. The oil in the bottom and the steam coming in from the hot water will allow gyozas to cook holistically. This method is way faster as you don’t have to wait for the water to come to a boil and the gyozas cook faster as well. It should not take you more than 5-7 minutes to cook gyozas by pan frying them.
Pleating your Gyozas
Now you can simply close your gyozas in the shape I have made it in without pleating ofcourse, but its important to seal tightly.
There are different ways to pleat your gyozas, or dumplings – ranging from triangle to what I have done above. While I couldn’t make a video to show on how to pleat gyozas, you can take inspiration from this YouTube video and learn how to pleat gyozas like I have or even better than me. It requires a bit of patience in the beginning but once you get your hands on it – it just starts to roll quickly.
Substitutes, if any.
Although the recipe uses commonly found ingredients, there are some which may not be available at your house or near you. So let’s take a quick look at them.
1. Minced Chicken – you can use any minced meat you have for this recipe. You can also use shrimps by chopping them roughly as they would make for a fantastic filling as well. If you’re vegetarian, you can use tofu or mushroom as your main fillings as well. If you have nothing – you can double up on veggies and use that as filling as well.
2. Cabbage – the only good substitute for this pok chow. However , if none are available its best to just omit it but be sure to replace the quantity with some added quantity of meat though.
3. Sake – the most uncommon ingredient in the list below is this one. If you have sake – good, go for it! But if you don’t have you can substitute its quantities with rice wine vinegar. This would act as a preservative as well which would your gyozas store better.
4. Red Dried Chilli – If you don’t have dried chilies at home, you can use birds eye chilli as well. If you don’t have a palate for spicy food – you can omit the quantity altogether. You can also substitute this ingredient by using some kind of chilli paste or chilli oil as well.
Storing and Freezing Gyozas
As you know, mostly I refrain from storing and freezing dishes as I like to cook them freshly enough but it’s always not possible. You won’t like to make these gyozas so frequently as it takes a good amount of time and efforts which is why the recipe has been together in such way that it can help you make a large batch and freeze them.
To freeze them, put uncooked gyozas in multiples of 10 (you can put as to how much you think would need them together also). Make sure the gyozas are dusted with cornflour for them to not to stick to each other.
Put these ziplock bags in the freezer. Every time you want use them – take them out at least 30 minutes prior to cooking them so it comes to room temperature slowly. And after that, you would just need to cook it using either of the ways mentioned above by either steaming them on pan frying them.
Your gyozas will stay good in the freezer for 6 months until you put them in so don’t be afraid to make a bigger batch if you have a free day coming up and if you’re looking for a fun yet fruitful activity take up with your friends and family!
Equipment
- Cookie Cutter (8 cm)
- Weighing Scale
- Cup Measurers and Spoon
- Cling Wrap
- Skillet
Ingredients
For Wrappers
- 3 cups All Purpose Flour
- 3 tsp Sea Salt
- 1 cup Water
- Cornstarch to dust
For FIlling
- 450 g Minced Ground Chicken washed
- 100 g Cabbage finely chopped
- 1 Small Ginger (10g) chopped
- 6 cloves of Garlic chopped
- 4 tbsp Soy Sauce
- 1 tbsp White Pepper
- 1 tsp Sesame Oil
- 2 tbsp Scallion white part
- 2 tsp Salt
- 1 Red Dried Chilli roasted and chopped
- 1 tbsp Sake
Instructions
For Wrappers
- Begin by boiling water into a sauce pan. Once boiling add in the salt and mix till dissolved.
- Make a well between all purpose flour, and slowly add water in the well in 3 go's, mixing and kneading after each addition.
- Knead the dough for good 10 minutes until it comes together to make a smooth ball and until all water is used up. Knead well at this point.
- Divide the dough into 3 parts. Make sure each part is tight like a round ball and cling wrap it and leave it out for 30 minutes. You can get started with the filling at this point.
- After 30 minutes take one of the doughs on a lightly (corn)floured surface. Sprinkle some corn flour on top of the dough as well, like how you would do for any bread. Flatten the dough using a rolling pin till its very thin (¼ to ½ inch). It should not be tearing.
- Make cutouts using a cookie cookie cutter and start collecting them. Use the leftover dough around the cut parts, by repeating the process again. Repeat it for all 3 of your doughs. You should be left with 60 to 70 such wrappers.
- Take a wrapper facing up on your palm, brush warm water along with the edges of the entire wrapper. Converge your palm to make space for a tsp. worth of filling.
- Take bottom edge towards the top. To do it easily just tightly join both the edges. For pleating, slowly keep pulling the bottom edge towards the other side to form pleats as explained above (with a link to a YouTube video).
- Repeat for all gyozas. To cook a gyoza, keep a pan over medium and add bit of both Canola oil and Sesame Oil. Add the gyozas to the heated oil and cover with a lid.
- After one minute, add in 3 tbsp worth of hot water and cover immediately for it to steam. You may add another tablespoon if you feel it requires more cooking. Gyozas would take up to 5 to 10 minutes during steaming and panfrying.
- Serve hot and fresh with sides of both soya sauce, and chilli oil.
For the Filling
- In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients well. Make sure the cabbage is properly chopped as well and there should not be any large chunks of it. Ingredients can be mixed in any sequence, it won't have any affect on the recipe or the flavours .
Someone once rightly said “a recipe has no soul, you must bring soul to the recipe”, so here I am, trying to bring my passion for food into easy to make recipes from around the world.
My name is Sohail Nath and I welcome you to my happy place, @boy.eatsworld.
This blog, my creativity’s nest covers travel inspirations, authentic yet homemade recipe and food blogs.