My husband Ben loves Gyoza. I love them too, but he’s crazy about gyoza and all dumplings. He says that every major civilization has come up with some kind of dumpling and they are all delicious. One of his favorite things to do whenever we visit Japan is to line up at a gyoza restaurant (more like a hole-in-the-wall where they only serve gyoza, but they’re pretty much the most popular thing in town) for a late evening snack and just eat gyoza after gyoza. He was super excited to learn that we can make gyoza at home, too! They’re easy to make, and it can be a fun group activity to fill and form the dumplings together. We call it the Gyoza Party – we make some, cook some, make some more, eat some more, and finally freeze some to satisfy future cravings.

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Gyoza

Servings 80 gyoza dumplings

Ingredients

• 2 cups very finely chopped green cabbage
• 1/2 teaspoon salt for the cabbage
• 2 pounds ground pork
• 1 cup very finely chopped scallions
• 1 cup very finely chopped shiitake mushrooms
• 3 tablespoons minced garlic
• 2 teaspoons grated ginger
• 80 gyoza wrappers
• vegetable oil for pan-frying (1 tablespoon per 12 dumplings)

For the Seasoning

• 1 1/2 tablespoons sake
• 1 1/2 tablespoons sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

For the Dipping Sauce

• 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon La-yu Japanese chili oil (optional)

Instructions

Prepare the filling

• Combine the chopped cabbage and salt in a medium bowl and mix. Let it sit for 20 minutes. This is to extract excess water from the cabbage.
• Meanwhile, place the ground pork in a large bowl. Whisk together the ingredients for the Seasoning in a small bowl, and pour it over the ground pork. Mix well by hand until the texture becomes sticky.
• Add the scallions, shiitake, garlic and ginger to the meat mixture.
  
• Squeeze excess water out of the cabbage and add to the meat mixture. Mix everything well by hand.

Form the Gyozas

• Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
• Prepare a small bowl of water to dip your finger.
• Ensure your hands are dry, and place a gyoza wrapper flat in one hand. With the other hand, scoop a heaping tablespoon of filling and place in the middle of the wrapper. Gently fold the wrapper in half, dip a finger in the water and wet the edge of the wrapper. Pinch closed the middle edge of the dumpling, then fold four pleats to seal the dumpling. Place them on the prepared baking sheets.
  
• Repeat for all 80 gyozas or until you run out of filling.
• At this point you can cook the gyozas or freeze them for future use. Storing uncooked gyoza in the refrigerator makes the wrappers soggy and sticky which prevents them from crisping when pan-frying, so it is best to freeze any gyoza that you are not cooking at that time.

Prepare the dipping sauce

• Mix all of the dipping sauce ingredients in a small bowl. Set aside.

Cook the Gyozas

• If you are cooking frozen gyoza, do not defrost them. Cook them frozen following the same method below as you would cook fresh gyoza.
• Heat a large frying pan with a lid (keep its lid off at this stage but within reach) with medium-high flame. Place 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil in the hot pan.
• When the oil is hot, place the gyoza in the pan, flat side down, in two rows of six pieces, slightly overlapping each other. Fry until the side touching the pan turns light golden brown, then add 1/8 cup of water to the pan and quickly cover with a lid. Leave the dumplings to steam for 2 minutes or until most of the liquid has evaporated.
• Take the lid off and grill for another 30 seconds to crisp. Make sure they don’t burn.
• Serve on a plate, crispy brown side up. Serve with the dipping sauce on the side.