Gyoza 2 ways..Jo Mama Style!

Gyoza or potstickers are one of the first "weird" things I loved to eat.  When I was in elementary school our babysitter was this little Japanese woman, Toshi.  We would go to her house before school if my mom had to go to work early and after school, for a long long time. She introduced us to the soy rice crackers, yakisoba which she called fried noodles and even seaweed.  I remember going to Yamato Ya's with her and eating these little fried dumplings, they were gyozas.  I ended up traveling to Japan with my Mom when I was in the 6th Grade for 2 weeks. That was a great trip, and little did I know then but I helped to broaden my culinary horizons. We traveled around on the Shinkasnsen train going to places like Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Kyushu Island, and Hamamatsu was our base.  Japan is so clean, one memory I have is going we were going to a restaurant or something and I literally ran right in to a glass window because it was so CLEAN!!   Japanese food and culture is something that since that trip and my babysitter I have just been attracted to.  Simple favors that just make your mouth want to do a back flip, like how do they do that? We ate at places that were traditional Japanese fare, like this Ryokan (Inn) in an Onsen (hot spring) in Beppu Kyushu.  I will never forget twelve year old me, first of all being horrified that I saw my fill of naked people, which wasn't itself creepy but me just starting puberty was a little much. Then we sit down to eat and there is a WHOLE fried carp-I hate fish and now there is one just staring at me then there was some little fried chicken wings, strawberries, some kind of custard that had fish in it and the topper of the whole thing, a little bowl with a lid on it...I opened the lid and there were these little teeny fish swimming around in broth and tiny yellow eggs.  OMGaga I was freaked, and the one spoon rule wasn't happening LOL.  Thankfully I was able to convince the adults to give me their chicken, but all in all I am so thankful for that experience.  I could go on and on about that trip and just talk about the food! I will probably be referencing this trip in future posts as well, I have a lot to say about it!  Gyoza was one of the first things I could "cook" with the frozen ones my mom would get at Sagayas.

The twelve year old me

This is a terrible picture of me, but you can see the infamous meal! 

This is Hemiji Castle, the largest and most visited castle in Japan.  Cool Stuff!

So I better get to the recipe for gyoza.  I chose to use turkey meat this time and though I loved the texture of it I think I would have probably doubled the seasoning I added to it. Turkey is bland, you REALLY have to season it well, this was hard because you can't really taste raw turkey so I just went with it.  That's the thing about cooking, well about anything really, try things and figure out how to make it better the next time! I also did a veggie gyoza on request, which I actually liked better than the turkey ones.  These are definitely time consuming for prep to wrapping so I would just make a huge batch and freeze them, I'm talking this from start to finish took just over 3 hours.

Gyoza 2 Ways Jo Mama Style

So this is what I grabbed out of the fridge, didn't use the olives or the lemon but I had planned to

So what you need (this is for both kinds):

1 lb ground turkey

1/2 cabbage thinly sliced

2 carrots finely chopped

1/2 onion finely chopped

1/2 bell pepper finely chopped

2 green onions thinly sliced

3 big handfuls spinach chopped

5 or 6 mushrooms finely chopped

1 egg

garlic

ginger

soy sauce

rice wine vinegar

sesame oil

sesame seeds

hot chili oil

Ponzu (I had some so I threw it in) not a biggie if you don't

1 package gyoza wraps (I should have got 2 because I had to freeze the extra filling)

Turkey Gyoza

1 lb. Turkey

1 egg

1/4 cup onions

1/4 cup bell pepper

1/4 cup carrots

1/2 -2/3 cup cabbage

1 tablespoon garlic

I used my hands, its just easier and made sure the egg was well incorporated.  The key to this is to have one dry hand for adding things too and you're messy hand, or just make sure you are washing your hands a lot.  You could use a spoon but I don't think you mix it as well. 

Then add the carrots, onion, garlic and bell pepper and mix with you hands again

The add your cabbage, if you want it finer than this you certainly could do that, I like the bigger pieces because it tends to stay a little crunchy and I love cabbage.

So for the liquid in this I added 1 tsp ginger

2 tablespoons soy

1/4 teaspoon sesame oil

1 tablespoon of the Ponzu

1/2 tablespoon rice wine vinegar

whisk together

Pour into turkey mixture and mix in well with your hands

For the Veggies:

Since this one was experimental I did a small batch

used the chopped spinach, remaining carrots, remaining onion, green onions, garlic, mushrooms, and ginger

I decided to saute the veg first then I added probably about 1/2 teaspoon ginger, tablespoon soy and 1/2 tablespoon rice wine vinegar then let the liquids reduce a little.

Wrapping the gyoza

This can be challenging, but once you get in the groove it proves to be easy!

What I do is put some of the wrappers on parchment paper

Then I added just a bit of the filling like enough to fit at your fingertips and  place on the gyoza wrapper

Next I am going to post a video of how to do the wrappers.  I did it in one take, no editing and Carty in the background with commentary, so its not the best but gets the point across :)

I will get better at that once I get going LOL!

Cooking the Gyoza

So there is 2 ways you can do this, steaming them in a bamboo steamer, then frying (or just steaming if you want to keep it healthier) or frying then steaming in the same pan.  I prefer to steam first because when you add the water it doesn't necessarily keep that nice crunch on the bottom.  I had issues with mine sticking to my bamboo steamer , tried lining with parchment paper but that didn't work too well either. But again, its all about trying things out and seeing what works best.

Here they are in the bamboo steamer, if you don't have one of these you should!  I let them steam about 15 minutes, to make sure the turkey was cooked almost through and finish in the pan of oil.

Transfer into a pan of hot oil,  cook until browned on the bottom ( I know they're done in this pan when they no longer stick to the bottom of the pan, patience comes in good here :))

Here is the other way to do it:

Place your gyoza in a pan of hot oil and fry until they are browned on the bottom

Like this

Then, add about 1/4 cup water and put a lid on your pan let cook until the water evaporates

Making the dipping sauce

Rice wine vinegar

Soy sauce

Hot chili oil

Red chili flakes

Sesame seeds

Thinly sliced green onion

This is another part where you can play around.  I tend to use a little more rice wine vinegar than soy sauce, and I love the heat from the hot chili oil. I mixed like 2 tablespoons RWV, 1 tablespoon soy, a 1/4 teaspoon hot chili oil, and a sprinkle of sesame seeds and hot chili pepper.

There you have it!  Serve on a bed of thinly sliced cabbage, which also helps to soak up the oil and just looks pretty as a garnish...and I have to admit I usually just pour the left over dipping sauce on the cabbage and enjoy that to :)

Hope this was helpful, and easy to read and follow!