28th December 2012
One of my favourite dishes is a Japanese dumpling known as gyoza (not to be confused with malignant entity of Ghostbusters fame Gozer).
After turning vegan fortunately it was easy peasy to veganise. The dumpling skin is already vegan (usually just flour and water) and for the filling you can use whatever you like traditionally it’s mince.
With a box of Fry’s mince and a packet of gyoza skins in my freezer (not Gozer thank goodness) I didn’t resist the call to make them for very long.
The dumplings are easy to make once you get the hang of the quantity of filling (too much and it won’t close, too little and you have a sad little dumpling) and the crimping to seal it.
Dipped in a simple sauce of vinegar, chilli oil and soy sauce it takes me back to my childhood. I like to pierce the dumpling whilst dipping so that the sauce really gets inside the dumpling.
This is a basic recipe but you could use any vegetables you have, you could even marinate the mince before using to give it some extra oomph.
Gyoza
Makes 26 pieces
Ingredients
- 26 gyoza skins (also called pastry or wrappers, check the ingredients as sometimes they can contain egg)
- 1/2 packet Fry’s vegetarian mince (cooked with gravy per instructions on box)
- 1 small clove of garlic minced
- 1 small carrot diced into small pieces
- 1 large leaf of cabbage shredded finely
- 6 g garlic chive (or regular chive) cut finely
Dipping sauce
- 1 tbsp soya sauce
- 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar (or any other vinegar)
- few drops of chilli oil
Method
To make it quicker I always seperate out the skins first.
Mix together all the ingredients for the filling. Take one skin and place about one heaped teaspoon of the mixture (more or less depending on how big your skins are) in the centre.
Then you need to wet the entire outside edge of the skin, a finger dipped in water works well. Fold two sides of the skin over so they meet and crimp the edges to seal it together.
Repeat this till all the skins are used.
On high heat a large frying pan that has a lid, add a little oil and place some of the dumplings in the pan. You want the bottoms to go brown.
Pour a little water into the pan, if it is hot enough to brown the bottoms it should now sizzle, this will create steam so you need to place a lid on the pan until the dumplings are cooked. The skins should become translucent when this is done. You may need to do more than one batch to get them all done.
Mix together the dipping sauce ingredients and dip away!
These can be served on their own as starter or with rice or noodles for a main meal.
I am going to try these out this year. Great recipe Mits!
*wonders if I’ll get any* 🙂