Dumplings for a rainy day

To me, one of the most fascinating things about cooking is different cuisines require different skillsets. It's near impossible to say which is the easiest or the most difficult. I often think Italian food is the least technically demanding, mainly because Italian food is generally rustic and homey. That being said, it's not easy making pasta, getting all the perfect little shapes, hundreds at a time. In terms of pure technique, I believe Chinese and Japanese chefs are in front (but not by much). Whether it be fine slicing with the giant meat cleaver, making onigiri and sushi in a blink of an eye or the intricate carvings of vegetables as decorations, I am constantly amazed by what these chefs can do.

Which brings me to today's dish, dumplings! I think I can wrap a decent gyoza. I learnt it about a year ago and for about a month my mum just kept on getting me to wrap them, either because she liked how they looked or she recognised this could be an important skill and wanted me to perfect it ASAP. Either way, I can churn out about 30 an hour, which isn't lightning fast but it's more than good enough for me.

Today's filling is a simple pork. Into 500g of pork mince went a couple teaspoons each of minced ginger and garlic (channel your inner Chinese chef and chop it as finely as is humanly possible, and then run the knife through it a few hundred times), and two or three tablespoons of finely chopped cabbage.

 

 In went a pinch of couple tablespoons of light soy sauce, pinch of salt, good whack of freshly ground white pepper, and enough water to loosen the mixture so it's not too stodgy of a mess. Once again, channel the Chinese man inside of you and mix through with a pair of chopsticks. I'm not sure if this is important but I was always taught to mix meats like this in one direction only, so either clockwise or counter-clockwise. I'm sure it has something to do with how the proteins form but I don't know what effect it has on the end product. Once it's mixed through and the meat is starting to get a bit sticky (protein activation!), add about a teaspoon of sesame oil (the fragrant stuff), and a couple teaspoons of corn flour and mix through again.

 

Time to wrap! How can I explain how to wrap them? Youtube it yourself. The key is your only plait one side which creates the crescent shape. For the amount of mixture I made, you could easily wrap 60, 4-5cm long gyoza (I only stopped at 30ish because this whole thing was an exercise in using left over wrappers from my mum). They come in packs of 50 here so it works out really well.

 

If you're cooking them right away, what I like to do is get a cold pan and spray a bit of oil on it. Arrange them all nicely and then put it on a low heat and just leave it for about five minutes. Once they are a light golden on the bottom, pour in enough water just so the pan is covered, chuck a lid on and let it steam through. Once all the water is boiled away, let it go till the bottoms regain a bit of a crunch. Check the tops of the wrappers, where the folds are, are cooked (the texture should be something edible, use your common sense). If they are, flip the whole pan onto a plate, like a tart tartin, so the deep golden bottoms are on top.

However mine were not for eating right away, instead I chose to freeze them. Because I'm not sure how well they react to frying straight out of the freezer, I just steam them for 7-9 minutes over a very rapid boil and they should be good to go, minus the crisp bottom.

So are they dumplings or gyoza? Doesn't matter. Fun to make and good to eat.