Melbourne Recipe Club

Ingredients (for dumplings)

• 500g Chinese cabbage (less than half typical cabbage)
• 2 1/2 (12.5 mL) teaspoons salt
• 500g lean pork mince
• 2 1/2 tablespoons (37.5 mL) vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons (30 mL) sesame oil
• 5 spring onions (scallions)
• 5 tablespoons (75 mL) sake
• 2 1/2 tablespoons light soy sauce
• 5 teaspoons (25 mL) caster sugar
• 5cm piece of fresh ginger
• pepper
• 60 gow gee wrappers (they need to be  round)
• vegetable oil for frying
• water for steaming

Method

1. Combine all ingredients for dipping sauce and set aside. The chilli oil is optional, depending on taste. Now to make the dumplings…
2. Finely chop the cabbage, place in a large bowl and sprinkle with the salt. Mix well and set aside for the cabbage to wilt a little.
3. In another bowl, combine the pork mince and the oils, mixing well.
4. Chop the spring onion stems finely, grate the ginger, and set both aside.
5. When the cabbage is wilted, place in a strainer and press to remove as much of the water as you can. If there is too much liquid in the mix, it will be a bit runny later.
6. Add the cabbage to the pork mince, and mix in with the spring onions, sake, soy sauce, sugar, half of the ginger, squeeze the juice in from the other half of the ginger (discarding the pulp), and pepper.
7. Make the individual gyoza dumplings by placing a wrapper in the palm of one hand, spooning in about a tablespoon of mixture into the middle, using a finger dipped in a glass of water to lightly wet half of the circumference of the wrapper, fold in half around the mixture, place onto a flat surface with the edge up, then pleat along the edge to seal. Or you can see some good instructions on another site. If you use too much mixture or too much water, it will be difficult to seal when you fold in half.
8. I kept my dumplings in the fridge over-night, but the wrappers went a little soft and sticky. I understand that they can be freezed well, though.
9. To cook, the dumplings need to be fried and then steamed. Traditionally this is done in the same frypan, but I almost blew up the kitchen doing it this way initially. A safer way (that also is a bit faster if you’re making a lot of gyoza, as in this case) is to use a frypan to fry and then transfer to a separate steamer (eg. a bamboo steamer sitting on a wok with about 1/2 cup of water boiling in it). When frying, use a small amount of oil and flip the dumplings once to ensure colour on two sides. Then the dumplings should be steamed for another minute or two until fully cooked.
10. Serve hot, as batches come out of the steamer, with the dipping sauce.

Serves 8 (making 60 dumplings).