Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Yakigyoza - Japanese Pan Fried Dumplings

If you like Dim Sums, definitely you like gyoza dumplings. Regardless how you called it and from which country, there bound to be similarity! As for me, I don't bother which country created this delicious morsels first. It existed and I'm going to learn how to make it and eat all I could ☺. Seems that any Oriental household, the females in the family had been taught somehow at least one type of such dumplings be it Xiao Long Bao, Sui Gow, Siu Mai or Har Gow. Most of these dumplings are meat based like pork or beef but also seafood based like fish, prawns and vegetables.


I normally stashed some wrappers like Spring Rolls wrappers, Wonton or Gyoza wrappers in several shapes and sizes. It's a saviour for quick meal because you can make in advance dozens or hundreds of this dumplings with these wrappers and freeze them in portions for later use. One of my mom's friends taught us to dry left over Wonton wrappers and use it as broad, flat, squarish noodles in soups or stir-fries, like pasta. She always gave us bunches of it because she's a Wonton Noodle Seller ☺.
Yakigyoza - Pan Fried Dumplings

1 Packet Gyoza/ Sui Gow/ Pot Stickers Wrappers
(White opaque round pastries made from eggs and wheat)

2 tsp Sesame Oil
Some vegetable oil for cooking

For Fillings (Mix all into smooth paste):
100 g Chinese Cabbage - hard stems removed & finely chopped
150 g Minced Pork
100 g Chinese Flower Chives - hard stems remove and cut about 3" in length OR 2 stalks Spring Onions - finely chopped
1 tsp Finely Grated young/fresh Ginger
2 cloves Garlic - grated
1 tbl Thin Soya Sauce - Japanese brand like Kikkoman
3 tsp Sake
2 tsp Mirin
Generous Pinch White Pepper

Dipping Sauce:
80 ml Japanese Rice Vinegar (you can use Chinese Rice/Glutinous Rice vinegar)
8o ml Thin Soya Sauce
2 tsp Sesame Oil or Chilli Oil (S&B Chilli Oil/La Yu Oil)
Young Ginger - julienne thinly (optional-I like to add it into the soy sauce mix)


Method:
1. To make Dipping Sauce; put all ingredients in a small bowl and stir to combine. Divide among smaller sauce dishes.
2. Wrapping - Lay a wrapper in your palm and put about 2 - 3 tsps of filling in the middle. Lightly dampen the edge of wrapper with water, then fold the edges together to form semicirlcle. Press firmly to enclose the fillings. Lightly dampen the curved edge of wrappers again, then overlap the edge to form pleats (you can watch a video here.) Put dumplings on a lined tray with Cling Wrap. Repeat the whole procedures again until finished. Refrigerator dumplings until ready to cook.

Note: For this recipe I skipped the pleating method for this time :-D I folded the wrapper into halves with the fillings in the middle as you can see in the picts. I learnt it from Harumi Kurihara's book - Harumi's Japanese Cooking. You can also add chopped fresh prawns into the filling which would made it tastes sweet and succulent. Sometimes I added in finely chopped Jicama or water chestnuts for extra crunch!

3. In a large non-stick frying pan over medium-heat. Put the dumplings in the pan in the pot, flat-side down, in single layer.
Cooked for 2 minutes or until bottom is crisp and golden. Combine 1/2 cup of boiling water (125 ml) with 2 teaspoon of vegetable oil and the sesame oil) then add to the pan. Cover, reduced heat to low and cook for about 10 minutes. Remove lid/pan cover, increased the heat to high and cook for about 10 minutes until the liquid has evaporated. Remove fried dumplings from the pan and drain on paper towel. Serve with the dipping sauce.


Enjoy!

13 comments:

  1. You put so much effort into making these...it shouldn't be called Japanese dumplings anymore...it should be Pixie Dumplings now:D

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  2. Wow, I am drooling. They sound so good.

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  3. Tim sum is my all-time favourite. I just know that there are other cooking method for the wantan skins. Still have some left in my fridge. Tks for sharing such a great tips! Your food is beautifully captured!

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  4. Hi Christy... haaa... then I have to reduce the dumplings into pixie-size..:-D

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  5. Hi Ivy, please the recipe, i was surprised at the taste as well. Also, i used the left over meat mixture as steamed meat with eggs. My family loves it.

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  6. Hi Food4tots... thanks and I hope we can come out with what-to-do with left over wanton wrappers..if not it's a waste yes?

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  7. What a delicious recipe! I do have a question, the pork, is it cooked, or raw? I don't want to mess these up.
    Thanks!

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  8. Hi Jason,

    The dumplings have to be cook including the meat filling inside. In Japanese cuisine, it's only seafood (sushi & sashimi) and vegetables (in Salad) are eaten raw. Certain Seafood or meat mostly seared like Tuna Tataki or Kobe Beef for example.

    Since, it's a small size dumplings, whether it is fully wrapped up like normal gyoza or gaozi and half-folded over like I did, the fillings are easily cooked. In fried gyoza or dumplings, the 2x cooked method (1st shallow fried and 2nd time with water/stock) ensured that the filings are cooked with crispy wrapper.

    If you have question contact me anytime. Let me know how's the recipe outcome ok? Itadikimasu!

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  9. My daughter loves pan fried dumplings--I'll see if I can get her to try the recipe with me.

    Is soya sauce the same as our soy sauce?

    And are you saying that the pork must be cooked before putting it into the wrapper?

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  10. Hello Linda, thank you for visiting my blog!

    Firstly, the pork mixture you put in the wrapper is raw (uncooked).

    The process of cooking will be done when you fried the wrapped dumplings. When I referred to one of my answer about the 2x cooked dumplings were the process to achieve the crispiness on the outer layer of the wrapper... that is 1st~to cook the filling and wrapper and 2nd~ to get the 'burnt' look on the outer layer of the dumplings.

    Soya Sauce~ you can use your daily soy sauce if you don't have the Japanese soy sauce (shoyu.) You can even use Tamari (wheat-free soy sauce) or less salt soy sauce.

    To get this dumplings well cook is to use teflon-coated pan with cover or non-stick pan :-) Firstly, you use less oil to fry and less work to wash! :-D

    If you need more info, just email me and I hope your family will like this recipe.

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  11. MMM these look beautiful and delicious. Dumplings are a labor of love and totally worth it. I'm going to try them w/ your no-crimp method. Here was my first (yummy) attempt at steamed and fried pork dumplings : http://lifechef.blogspot.com/2008/04/pork-potstickers-steamed-dumplings.html

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  12. Yum, these look really great!

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  13. I love Dim Sum! Especially potstickers... and har gao, and shao mai, and char siu bau, and those sticky rice things wrapped in green leaves (lo mei gai?), and wow am I getting hungry. 8)

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