Shiso Gyoza with lemon black pepper dipping sauce

 

 I make lots of gyoza on weekends and freeze some for a busy weekday dinner. Dumplings are great, because you can eat those everyday without getting tired, in different preperations: by pan-frying, steaming, stir-frying, deep-frying, or in a soup with vegetables.

Gyoza is Japanese dumpling made of ground pork and vegetables, usually pan-frying. It is served the browned bottom part up. Each region, restaurant, or mother has their own characteristics for their gyozas.

In my home city, Noda in Chiba prefecture, there is the famous gyoza called “White Gyoza”. Many people line up for this gyoza at the restaurant from early morning before opening. It is the soul food for my town. I like their juicy filling and thicker skin, so I want my gyoza like this.

To make juicy filling, I make “the meat juice jelly” with powdered gelatin and chicken stock, then add to the filling. That way, you can taste full of umami when you bite gyoza, chicken stock comes out in your mouth. all the seasonings.

Soak the powdered gelatin with water.

 

 

 

 

 

Heat the chicken stock with the seasonings. Melt the gelatin.

The chicken stock I use is the one make at home with chicken bones, green onion, and ginger.  You can use any store bought chicken stock, just adjust the amount of salt. The salt amount on the recipe is for my chicken stock which has no salt, so you can reduce salt and adjust seasonings if your chicken stock has salt in it.

 

Cool and set in a refrigerator.

 

 

 

 

 

Ingredients for gyoza is pretty simple: ground pork. onion, ginger, garlic, “meat juice jelly”, and shiso leaves. I like adding shiso whenever I can reach fresh shiso leaves at the farmers market. It adds refreshing taste to gyoza.

 

 

Knead all the filling ingredients until sticky. It makes the filling combined together. Chill the filling in a refrigerator for 20 minutes. Now we can make the groza skin.

 

 

 

In a bowl, mix flour and salt. Pour boiling water. Stir vigorously with chopsticks until the flour is combined with water and becomes pea size crumbles. with your hands, foam the dough into a large ball. Take out the dough in a work surface. Knead for 5 minutes. Dust flour if it sticks to the work surface. Wrap the dough and let it rest for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile you can make the lemon black pepper dipping sauce. This is recent my favorite, it is tangy, sweet, and peppery.

Now, it is fun part-wrapping gyoza. It doesn’t have to be precise, but make sure not to over load the filling, and seal the skin completely.

Divide the dough into four balls. Take a ball and wrap the other 3 balls in a plastic wrap to prevent drying out. Stretch a ball into a stick and cut in 8 pieces. Roll a piece of the dough into 4 inch circle. Scoop a spoonful of the filling in the middle of the skin. Fold  up and press the both sides of skin to seal the filling completely. Cook immediately. Refrigerating will make the skin moist and sticky, so freeze is better if you don’t eat immediately.

To cook gyoza, it is easier to use a non-stick pan. I usually cook 8-12 pieces of gyoza at a time. Heat the oil and place gyoza in a pan. Sear the bottom of gyoza until nicely brown. Pour water until its at one quarter the height of the gyoza. Cover the pan and steam for about 5 minutes over medium heat. Take the lid off the pan, turn it to high heat to boil off the water. Pour a little sesame oil over gyoza from the side of the pan to add the aroma of sesame oil.

Enjoy gyoza with the lemon black pepper dipping sauce.