Making potstickers can be laborious, but 2 things can turn dread into good times:
1) use store-bought wonton wraps instead of making your own skins
2) have friends over to help; or make with someone you love for some quality time
Here’s a simple recipe that we use to make Japanese-style potstickers – aka, Gyoza. Although we usually do a pork filling or a seafood filling, you can sub in chicken for the pork, if you’re a scaredy cat.
Acquire the following for the Gyoza
- wonton skins (see if you can find the thicker ones)
- minced or gorund pork (or chicken or uncooked shrimp), about 1 pound to make more than enough for 2 people, more as needed
- green onion, fine chop
- leeks, fine chop
- napa or savoy cabbage, fine shred
- garlic, minced
- firm tofu (this is a little trick to keep the filling moist)
- sesame oil
- soy sauce
- black pepper
For the dipping sauce
- buy a Japanese-branded Gzyoza sauce, or
- blend together soy sauce, rice wine vinegar and a touch of sesame oil and mirin – sprinkle in green onion and minced garlic
Execute the following
- Blend together all the Gyoza filling ingredients (not the skins, dumass) in a bowl. There are no precise amounts, but you want about equal volume of meat and cabbage, a little less tofu than the meat. Then throw in enough leaks and green onion for color (see pics below). Add a few dashes of other stuff to flavor. You’ll know when it looks and smells right. Just remember that you’ve got dipping sauce too, so you don’t need to go nuts on the salt/soy and oil. Set aside in fridge if you’re not ready to make the potstickers right away.
- Here’s where your slave labor comes into play… dust a sheet pan lightly with flour, then lay out some skins (they are square, rotate them 45-degrees to a diamond). Using a small spoon, dollop a small amount of the filling into the lower half of the diamond. Dip a finger into a small bowl of warm water and run it around the edge of the wrap. Then fold the wrap shut on itself, pinching around the edge to completely contain the filling. Set aside and keep moving. Have races. Chastise slow people.
- Once they are all built, set aside and turn to the pan. Put a small amount of a mix of canola (80%) and sesame oil (20%) in a large sauté pan, just enough to cover the bottom of the pan. Have a glass of fresh water and a lid ready for later. Heat the oil until shimmering. Throw a small piece of wonton wrap into the oil; it should start to fry immediately.
- Layer in Gyoza, no crowding. Brown them to taste/crispiness on the first side. Then flip, add a splash of water and immediately cover. This will steam the dumplings through. Steam should be leaking out from the lid so the water can escape. Once the water is cooked out, move the pan off the heat and move the Gyoza onto a non-stick surface or sheet pan, and keep warm. Resist draining onto paper towels as the skins will stick to the paper towels.
Serve over short-grain rice, sprinkled with green onion and Shichimi. Dip in sauce and drain onto the rice before eating. The rice left at the end will be heavily flavored by the drippings. Enjoy!
How things should look at each stage:
