Gyoza / Japanese Style Dumplings

Gyoza is originally a Chinese dish, which has become very popular across Japan. This recipe shows how to make the gyoza dough , filling, and walks you though the cooking process with descriptive photographs. Makes 30 gyoza.

Ingredients:

Dough:
3/4 cup water
8 oz bread flour

Filling:
8 oz ground pork
Fresh cabbage
Fresh chives or spring onion
Fresh garlic
Fresh ginger
Sake
Soy sauce
Sesame oil

Dipping Sauce:
Soy sauce
Black vinegar

Method:

Dough:
Mix water and flour to a dough. It shouldn't be sticky, but soft (as an ear lobe). Put a damp towel over the dough, and let it stand for several minutes. Separate the dough in 30 pieces, and form each of them to very thin discs with a diameter of about 4". The middle of each disc should be a bit thicker than the edge.

Filling:
Cut cabbage leaves, spring onion, ginger, and garlic in very small pieces. The amount of these ingredients should equal the amount of meat, but in general you should use the amount that you like (for example more or less garlic, depending on your preference).
sprinkle a bit of salt on the cut cabbage and let it stand for 5 minutes, then press the water out of the cabbage. Mix the cabbage, green onion, ginger, garlic, and ground pork together. Add some salt, pepper, soy sauce, sake, and sesame oil. Mix it all very well and set aside.

Making and frying the Gyoza:

Put some of the filling onto a piece of dough. Remember that the filling should suffice for 30 gyoza pieces. Moisten the edge of the dough with water. Moisten only a semicircle, not all the way around. Close the gyoza. While closing it, fold the edge about 6 times as shown on the image. Fry the gyoza in a bit of hot oil until the bottom is brownish, then add water so that the gyoza are in the water with about half of their height. Keep at high heat and wait until all the water has vaporized. Then remove the gyoza from the heat. Serve with a dipping sauce consisting of the same amounts of soy sauce and black vinegar. You can spice it up by adding a teaspoon of pickled ground chile with garlic.