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Cooking with Remington: Western-Style Gyoza

Started by Remington, November 16, 2013, 11:43:00 PM

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Remington

On today's episode of Cooking with Remington, I continue the proud North American tradition of stealing other cultures' food and making it unnecessarily delicious unhealthy. Our next victim is Chinese/Japanese dumplings (gyoza), which are usually filled with cabbage or egg and steamed or boiled lightly. Our modifications turn it into a easily freezable, ultimate snack food that goes REALLY well with beer or most other kinds of alcohol.

Recipe is based on this article, albeit modified slightly. It's recommended to make these in large batches (x2 the recipe or more) as they're inefficient to make in small batches (you'll see).





Ingredients

Filling
1 - 2 Tbsp Sesame oil
2 Cups Green Cabbage
1/4 Cup Yellow Onion
1 Tbsp Fresh Garlic
1/4 Cup Carrot
1/2 Pound Ground Pork

Dipping Sauce
3 Tbsp Soy Sauce
2 Tbsp White Vinegar
1/4 tsp Sesame oil

1 Package Wonton wrappers (30 or so should do it)

A spouse/sibling/friend/underling to help wrap the dumplings (goes faster with 2 people)



Preparation

From start to finish preparation takes 2-3 hours, so make sure you have enough time to see it through. Making more gyoza doesn't increase the preparation time by too much, so it's advisable to double or triple the recipe if you can (especially considering the end products are frozen before final cooking).




Making the Filling

1. Begin by cooking the ground pork in a LARGE/deep frying pan or pot (like this) with sesame oil on medium heat. It's advisable to keep an overhead/microwave fan on throughout making the filling, as doing this with sesame oil creates a very strong (but good!) smell.




2. While the pork is cooking, mince up the cabbage, onion, garlic, and carrot. Try for relatively small pieces, as large chunks will make filling individual dumplings awkward.




3. Once pork is cooked sufficiently, break it up into small pieces with a spatula and add in the other minced ingredients as well as the remainder of the sesame oil. Mix everything up and cook for the mixture on medium heat for about 5-10 minutes, allowing the carrots, onion, and cabbage to soften.

4. Add water to the pan (exact amount depends on your size of pan) enough to almost submerge the mixture. Increase heat to medium/high and start boiling the mixture slowly. This will soften/tenderize the carrot and cabbage mixture completely and let the garlic and sesame oil permeate everything. It will also noticeably decrease the volume of the mixture as the cabbage shrinks.




During this process you may want to add more sesame oil to increase the strength of the mixture's flavour. I'd recommend going with only the stated 1 - 2 Tbsp first off, but on later run-throughs you can add more if desired.

5. After the water has all boiled off, taste-test the filling with a small spoon. If there is anything still crunchy/firm in the mixture (carrot or cabbage) add more water and boil it off again. If not, empty the filling into a large boil and prepare for the next step.











Wrapping the Dumplings

For this you will need a friend, wonton wrappers, baking trays, and some time.








The idea is to pile small amounts of filling on top of each wrapper, then fold the opposite sides of the dumpling up and crimp them closed at the top. It helps if your fingers are wet while doing this (wet wonton wrappers stick together much easier), so having a small bowl of water nearby is useful.









Once each dumpling is done, line them up on the sheet with about 1/2 an inch between each one.








Once a sheet is full, place them in the freezer for 2-3 hours until they are all frozen solid. Remove each dumpling from the sheet with a small twisting motion (they are usually frozen onto the sheet due to residual water, so don't try to pull them directly off!). Bag them in freezer bags with 30-40 per bag for later use.







Actually Cooking Them (Finally!)

Now comes the easy part. Whenever you feel like a delicious snack, grab 8-10 of the dumplings and fry them in a small amount of olive oil on low/medium heat until they are golden brown on each side. Don't thaw them first: going from the freezer directly to the pan helps prevent them from falling apart.

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the finished product, but they should look like this:




The dipping sauce is really easy to make and adds a lot to the flavour. Simply combine 3 Tbsp soy sauce, 2 Tbsp white vinegar, and a very small amount of sesame oil (1/4 tsp) in a bowl and you're done.

Is it plugged in?

Q. G. Pennyworth


3n1g

Never home made Gyoza but have produced untold numbers of won-tons and I have a tip re: them sticking. When making wontons there is an egg based (might just be egg yolk and water) you use to seal them together (i.e. where you suggest sealing with water you would use this liquid) which works really well. I'll see if I can hunt down the exact recipe but its worth experimenting with.

Cain

How vital is the presence of Morgan Freeman to this recipe?  I can only get Denzel Washington at short notice...

Wisa1

too lazy to follow your link but what's the "unhealthy" modification? As far as I can tell this a pretty standar gyoza recipe.
Also FYI Gyoza are only found in Japan the Chinese name for this dish is Jiaozi  饺子
"As I treks through the cesspit I sharps up my wit"
"We dont wanna be, we just be"
-Roots Manuva