Travel was a massive part of my career in fashion design and I was very lucky to visit a lot of amazing countries and taste foods from all over the world. I was however, never keen on the Chinese style dumplings or ‘dim sum’, the jelly like outer case didn’t seem good to me, I wanted to love them as they looked so tasty, everyone around me munched them up and enjoyed them and the aroma of the fillings really did smell good… but I couldn’t get over the texture. When I first tried a Gyoza; which is slightly fried so it has a crisp and soft texture, I was hooked.

These Japanese dumplings are now one of my favourite things to eat, I can literally eat a plate of these in one sitting. The flavour is very clean with a dipping sauce of soy, sesame oil and rice vinegar, giving a very distinct and unusual taste.

They are part fried, part steamed so the bottom is crisp and brown and the sides soft and almost silky. You can fill with anything, pork, chicken, prawns, veggies and just use the same marinade ingredients. They are literally the best and a total crowd pleaser!

Ingredients

Wraps:

2 cups plain flour

½ tsp salt

1 cup boiled water

Filling:

400g pork mince

1 Tbsp. sesame oil

100g cabbage (savoy if available); shredded

40g spring onions chopped

2 cloves of garlic; crushed

2” chunk of ginger; chopped

¼ cup light soy sauce

Dipping sauce:

70g light soy sauce

50g rice vinegar

1 Tbsp. sesame oil

1 clove garlic; crushed

1” chunk ginger; chopped

A handful of chopped spring onion; green part only

1 chilli sliced

Sesame oil and water for frying

Method

Wraps: sieve the flour and salt then add the water little by little until a dough forms. Need on a clean & floured surface for 10 minutes until you have a smooth dough. Cut into 2 and roll into 2 long logs around 1 ½ inches in diameter. Wrap in cling film and leave to rest for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile take the mince and mash up a little more with a potato masher. Add the rest of the filling ingredients and mix well with your hands, set aside.

Make the dip by mixing the soy, vinegar, oil, garlic, ginger and spring onion together, the chilli is for decoration, add some slices on top. Set aside

Assemble the gyoza’s buy cutting the dough into 1 inch chunks, roll onto a floured surface (I used cornflour) then with a cookie cutter cut out a perfect circle. My cutter was 78mm.

Place the wrap in your hand and with a wet finger wet around the edge. Place a teaspoon of the mince in the centre then fold the wrap in half.

I tucked the ends in but this is not essential.

Starting from the centre make folds in the dough to seal. Slightly make an arch in the shape then place onto a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper and dusted with flour. Continue to make the rest of the gyoza’s.

Once prepped you can wrap in cling film and store in the fridge until ready to cook.

To cook take a pan with a lid, heat up 1 tablespoon of sesame oil, add the gyoza’s around 5 at a time depending on the size of your pan.

Place them in the fatter side down and cook for 3 minutes or until the bottom becomes brown.

Then add ¼ cup of water and pop on the lid. Keep the heat high and cook for a further 3 minutes. Remove the lid and drizzle in a little extra sesame oil cook for a further minute then serve up with the dipping sauce.

You can make this without the mince just blitz up carrots, cabbage and oyster mushrooms then add the rest of the filling ingredients.

Enjoy xx

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