The weekend snacks: Gyoza

I've been having this hankering for some sort of dumpling (wantons, sui gows or gyozas) for quite a while now. So today while I was out grocery shopping, I picked up some items for making some gyoza!

Thing is, I've never made these before so I was a bit nervous about how they would turn out.

Anyways, here's the ingredient list....

• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp corn flour
• 1 tbsp ginger, grated
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 cup cabbage, finely shredded
• 350g minced pork

The main marinade ingredients - soy sauce, sesame oil, corn flour, garlic and ginger.

Mix them all up. You'll get a weird looking but wonderful smelling mixture!

Add in 1 cup of shredded cabbage. This helps give the gyoza a bit of a crunch and makes it less meaty. In some other variations, a little bit of chives are added in. Or for the Chinese version, chopped water chestnuts are added.

Add the minced pork in and mix well. You can try using other types of mince but pork really works the best.

The recipe didn't call to let it sit and marinade, but I decided, 10 mins in the fridge can probably help the mixture really soak everything up. I'm a strong believer in marinading :)

I couldn't find any gyoza skins so I bought wanton skins instead. They're kind of similar but these are a little thicker, and they're square instead...

Tip!

If you like, you could get a cookie cutter or a bowl, place it over the wanton skin and cut off a nice circle to make it look more gyoza-y. I was just too lazy :P

Lay them out on a flat and dry surface. The skins are already dusted in flour so you don't have to dust the surface.

Place about a teaspoonful of the filling mixture onto the skin. Try to place it as much to the middle as you can.

This is the part where you need to be practical :) something I've learnt from personal experience. Don't put too much filling in because it will be hard to pleat the sides and trust me, an overfilled gyoza does not taste good!

Use a brush (or your fingers) to brush a little bit of water towards the top and half of either side of the skin. Don't put too much water because it softens the skin almost immediately and makes it really hard to handle.

Fold it upwards and fold some pleats to hold the filling in. Now this is the tricky part. It really does take some time and practice to get this done nicely and neatly.

If you've made a whole bunch, lay them flat and pop 'em into the fridge to freeze. Once they're fully frozen, you can put them in zip lock bag. Cook them the same way you'd do with fresh ones, they don't really need to be thawed out!

Heat up the pan with a little oil on medium.

Give it about a minute or two, then place the gyozas on them. Don't flip them over. You only want one side to have that nice brown crispy skin.

Pick on up to see the underside. If it's nice and brown, that means its ready for steaming!

Pour in about 1/3" of water into the pan. I used hot water here so that it wouldn't take them too long. Make sure you don't pour too much water though... because the gyoza will become soggy.

Note

Remember it's a hot pan with fried gyozas on it, so when you pour water in, there'll be this huge billow of steam. So watch out when you do this.

Cover the pan so that the water gets a chance to boil properly. This is so that the gyozas get to steam properly and absorb the water. Check after a minute to see if the water's all soaked up. If they are, gently remove them from the pan.

Plate up and serve! You can eat them as they are, or get some dip (vinegar, soy, ginger slices, chilli oil) to go with it.

Lemon and parsley lamb chops

If there's one thing that the pup and I can't get enough of... it's lamb! Well... actually that comes in a very close tie with bacon...

Anyways, instead of the usual grilled lamb chops with mint sauce, we tried something new.

I forgot to take pictures of the ingredients :P so here's the list

For the marinade

• 2 tsps finely grated lemon rind
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 2 tbsps chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves
• 2 tbsps olive oil
• 4 (200g) forequarter lamb chops

For the potatoes

• 600g nadine potatoes
• 30g butter
• 2 green onions (also known as scallions or spring onions in this part of the world)

I find using zip lock bags amazingly convenient and simple. For these, I'll just get the house brand ones because they're so much cheaper, and I only use them once!

Anyways, chop the flat leaf parsley and put it in the bag.

Tip!

I've tried this with Chinese parsley because I couldn't find Italian flat leaf parsley at the supermarket. Got a slightly different flavor but still rocked the marinade!

Grate the lemon and put that in as well...

Squeeze 2 tbsps lemon juice in and add 2 tbsps olive oil as well. Mix it well before putting the meat in.

Add the meat in and rub the marinade around it. The recipe calls for four pieces of meat but I'm only using two for this serving.

Put it in the fridge and let it marinade. Recipe calls for two hours.

Tip!

If you can, try to flip the pieces of meat around after an hour to get an even marinade!

After two hours, heat up some olive oil in a pan. Keep it on medium-high heat.

Tip!

Try not to use a griddle pan for this. Although it gives the meat nice char marks while grilling but it also dries it up faster. A frying pan helps to cook it with the oil and its juices.

Remember to remove most of the solids from the marinade because the extra leaves and grated lemon rind will burn a lot faster than the meat. You can leave a bit on while grilling.

Grill each side for about four mins or so. But please go with your instincts as well. If you feel that it's got enough time on the grill then just flip it :)

When both sides are grilled, remove from pan and work on the other piece.

Peel and cut the potatoes in to little chunks. Heat up a pot of water with a bit of salt and put them when the water starts to boil. You'll know when the potatoes are done if you can poke a fork through easily.

While waiting for the potatoes to be ready, chop up some green onions into teeny pieces. You can use less if you're not a big fan of them.

When the potatoes are done, drain properly. Then add in the butter and green onions.

Add a dash of ground pepper too. It really helps to bring the flavor in! Then simply stir it up gently. Don't be too rough or vigorous because then you'll make the potatoes in to mash.

Don't worry, you WILL end up mashing a teensy bit of it. WHen it's done, take a quick taste. Add salt or more pepper if needed.

When all of that is done, you're ready to plate up! Place the lamb on a bed of potatoes and voila.... dinner is served.

Let me know if you do try this... I'd love to hear your comments.

Happy cooking!

xxx

Bunny