Nudiustertian, when done with our responsibilities, Aaron and I went to see Disney’s Maleficent in theaters. Yesterday, in the late afternoon, one of my sisters came by the house and mentioned wanting to see it, so we offered to go back and watch it a second time. Later that night, she hung out for awhile, watching a Korean drama in the other room while we worked. Before she left, she mentioned that she’s been wanting to learn to cook. She wanted to know if we’d be interested in making a Japanese recipe with her.
[mainbodyad]That’s easy: Yes. I’m always up for trying something new and it seemed like fun, especially after we toured the Japanese garden last week at the Huntington in Pasadena.
She arrived at 5 p.m., Aaron turned on the Japanese music, and we set to work attempting to make Japanese Gyoza stuffed with pork, cabbage, and onion. It’s a popular dish originally adapted from China. It seemed like a good first recipe to have her try without being too technically difficult or out of the ordinary flavor profile. We got the recipe from a very helpful YouTube personality, ochikeron. Here’s her video:
We doubled the recipe so there would be leftovers (she’s a college student; leftovers are good) and made a bit of a modification on the long onion. Normally, I’d want a dish like this as an appetizer before a main course that included a green vegetable but since this is my sister’s first time in the kitchen, one dish is the limit. Though, imagine if we had made Korean, instead, and she tried to tackle all the banchan at once, haha! That would have been cruel. We’ll save that for later in the culinary journey.
The Japanese Gyoza wrappers were the first step. We began by putting 7 ounces of bread flour and 7 ounces of cake flour in a bowl, adding warm salt water, stirring, and mixing into dough.
The dough was kneaded for 8 minutes until it was smooth.
Next, we rolled it into small loaves and set each aside for 30 minutes while we worked on the rest of the Gyoza recipe.
We gathered the ingredients for the filling – napa cabbage, pork, long onion, garlic, sesame oil, and soy sauce.
We had to blanch the napa cabbage for 60 seconds, cool it under cold water, dry it by hand, then …
… cut it into small pieces.
With everything ready to go, the next step was to put it in a bowl, add freshly cracked black peppercorn, and then mix thoroughly by hand.
Next, we needed to return to our Gyoza wrappers. We cut them into small pieces then rolled them into small circles.
In a few minutes, we had transformed the Gyoza dough into nice circular exteriors that will hold the filling.
Time to stuff the Gyoza with the pork filling!
… That was harder than it looked. My fancy pie skills didn’t quite translate into making the odd shapes for the Gyoza. Some looked like poorly conceived modern art. This is one of those things that will require practice.
The next steps involved frying the bottom of the Gyoza until brown, adding 1/3rd their depth in water, covering, and letting steam cook for 10 minutes. We used the meat thermometer to make sure the correct temperature had been reached, removed the lid, let the water boil away, then continued cooking on a higher heat until they had a hint of crispiness. At some point, I also mixed the soy, vinegar, and spicy chili sauce to serve as the sauce. It had just enough of a burn it was delicious.
We had extra pork filling left over so we put a bit on each plate to mix it in with the rice. You can tell the folding technique of the Gyoza wrappers needs a lot of work but it didn’t hurt the flavor at all. There was way too much food (and I even skipped lunch so I could really enjoy it!) as the rice, onion, and cabbage provided a lot of bulk – lite fare this is not. The leftovers will last my sister for awhile, so none of it went to waste.
Add Gyoza to the list of dishes I like. We’ve given French and Italian a lot of focus. Maybe I should add Mexican and certain Asian countries to the list, next. I wouldn’t mind really mastering this school of cuisine and having it stored in memory, available on command. I feel like the sauces are important. This meal would have been completely different if we had something like 3-5 different sauces for people to experience. Maybe that will be one of my personal projects. I’m not sure I have time … I’ll add it to my “future research list”, which seems to always expand faster than I can tackle it. My curiosity exceeds the limitations of the hours I’ve been granted. Why do humans have to sleep? I could get so much more done if it weren’t necessary; so many more topics to study and master.
I’m going to try to finish some tasks on my agenda, Aaron is going to the gym (I’ll go later tonight), and my sister is starting Tales of Xilla in the living room, which I played last year. Hearing the music is making me nostalgic for the countless weeks spent on my journey with Jude, Milla, and the rest of the gang. It was such a good game. I can’t wait for the sequel to be released in 3 months! Seriously, August 19th needs to be here now because I’m clearing my schedule. Actually, I’m going to go pre-order my copy. Why wait? Hold on …. Okay. Done! Ahhh!!!! I’m so excited for it.
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Reader Comments (11)
Comments are presented chronologically, with replies indented beneath the comments to which they respond.
Engineer7006
June 6, 2014
Joshua,
I used to eat a ton of gyoza on the street when I lived in Japan. The chinese variations are just as good and generally of a wider variety. Lamb and carrot is a great combination!
Do you like ramen? I'm a huge fan though it is notoriously expensive on the east coast. So what is a frugal person to do who doesn't want to spend $13-18 bucks? Why make your own!
This website had a pretty good overview of the broth making process, and shows different outcomes from cook times, washing etc. It's the most comprehensive article on the subject that I've seen. I think much of the info contained there could be applied to any stock making process.
http://www.seriouseats.com/2012/02/how-to-make-tonkotsu-ramen-broth-at-home-recipe.html
It is relatively cheap to make (even better if you can make fresh noodles), and while the broth takes a lot of time to make, the preparation time is minimal. You are just waiting hours for the broth to form and condense, much like you would any other stock. Also, if you want to make fresh noodles and have access to a Kitchen Aid Mixer stand, you can buy the noodle maker attachment cheaper at Williams Sonoma than online if you can utilize the Military discount (Get your brother to buy it for you!). While pricier than a hand operated one, its a lot faster and it doesn't walk all over the place. Its worth it if you eat fresh noodles like I do twice a week.
Joshua Kennon
June 9, 2014
Replying to Engineer7006
Oh, lamb and carrot sounds delicious ... I appreciate that suggestion. On the KitchenAid, I have the pasta attachments, which I used for this post, but not the noodle ones (macaroni, etc.). I need to get it. If it's as easy as the plain pasta one, I'll love it. That thing saves so much time it's crazy.
Thanks for the link! This looks like a great resource, I'll add it to my reading list!
I've never made homemade Ramen but I've wanted to after seeing so many people eat it. This is officially on my "to do" list. Do you have any favorite variations or suggestions? A particular recipe that you use?
Exquisite Decay
June 6, 2014
I too used to eat a lot of gyoza when I lived in Japan. There were restaurants there that specialized in gyoza with all types of fillings. Joshua, I am impressed that you made the wrappers. Usually I buy the pre-made wrappers at the local Korean market near me in Sacramento, CA. As you also like Korean food, you should make kimchee filled gyoza.
Joshua Kennon
June 9, 2014
Replying to Exquisite Decay
I really need to find a good Korean grocery store around here because I've been wanting to try something called glass noodles made from a sweet potato starch.
Some of my family recently decided to start coming over and watching Korean dramas with us (tonight, when I'm writing this, was the first night, actually; we started Rooftop Prince, which I've already seen but I'll rewatch because I loved it), so maybe I'll use that as an excuse to go scout one out this week. We're going to try a new Korean dish during every get together.
Do you have any favorite Japanese dishes you'd recommend? Anything you miss from your days over there?
Kevin
June 9, 2014
Replying to Joshua Kennon
If you're going to use the noodles to make japchae, expect deliciousness! There's a recipe here, which I haven't tried, but all her other recipes that I have tried are great: http://www.maangchi.com/recipe/japchae
As for Japanese food, okonomiyaki (a savoury pancake with pretty much whatever you want thrown in it) and takoyaki (octopus balls) are two of my favourites.
Back in the world of dumplings, gyoza are great but what I really love are baozi (steamed buns). I could eat xiaolongbao all day. And I could try to eat Korean wangmandu (literally king dumpling) all day, but would very soon be too full... they really do live up to their name!
DividendGrowth
June 9, 2014
Replying to Joshua Kennon
There is an Asian Grocery store in OP, called 888 International Market. I think it is more Chinese however, I think you live in the Missouri side of KC, so it might be a 20 - 30 minute drive for you.
Joshua Kennon
June 10, 2014
Replying to DividendGrowth
I'll try and stop in there sometime this week; thanks for the tip =)
Gilvus
June 11, 2014
Replying to DividendGrowth
I knew it was Chinese as soon as I saw the three 8's. Chinese people are so predictable with their numbers obsession...
Joshua Kennon
June 9, 2014
Jackpot! Thank you so much for this! It gives me a great place to start.
TheSplash
June 13, 2014
Thank you for my word of the day (Nudiustertian)! I hadn't seen that one before.
Gilvus
June 23, 2014
Oh crud, in retrospect that sounds really racist. Because this is going on the public record, I should probably note that I grew up in a Chinese-American family and I'm referencing the high value placed on numbers in Chinese culture and the irrational fear of the number 4 in several parts of Asia. Wasn't meant to be disparaging.