I love gyoza. I have loved gyoza since I lived in Japan. I think it was one of the first foods I ever ate out there actually. Once I got paid that is because until I got paid, all I could afford was daily 50¥ pot noodles and a banana maybe.
Anyway back to gyoza. I have taken to making them of late. I find it quite therapeutic. When I was in Hong Kong for work, I took a food tour. I remember the elderly ladies in Sham Shui Po sitting and chatting away over piles of wrappers. They made light work of the huge buckets of wonton stuffing in front of them. A perfect bundle every time.
Mine are not so pretty but they were tasty and I’ve tried various different combos to get the girls to eat veg they don’t much like that I have on the plot. Kale. Chard. Cabbage. Basically any brassica. They love gyoza so much too that as long as there is a hint of prawn and some soy sauce for dipping it matters not what the bulking vegetable is.
The dough is actually very easy to make. It’s a very simple three to one ratio of flour and water with a dash of oil. The measures below make around 60 wrappers or 30 wrappers and a batch of noodles.
You can use pretty much any brassica. I have tried this recipe with a large head of broccoli, 5-6 Cavolo Nero leaves, 2 packs of tenderstem broccoli or purple sprouting broccoli. Below I have used a small pointed green cabbage as that’s what came in my Oddbox delivery this week.
Brassica and Prawn Gyoza
For the dough
- 3 cups plain flour
- 1 cup just boiled water
- 1 tbsp veg oil
For the filling
- 2 tbsp veg oil
- Your choice of brassica roughly chopped or finely shredded
- 3 fat cloves of garlic minced or a few squirts of puréed garlic from a tube
- 2-3 tbsp lemon juice
- Salt to your taste
- 500g bag of large raw prawns
To make them
Mix together all the ingredients and bring together into a firm ball. Depending on your flour you may need a little more water but you want something a bit tougher than pasta dough.
Once you have a ball of dough, knead on a lightly oiled surface for a few minutes and then cover in cling film and leave for at least 15 minutes to rest.
For the filling, put the oil into a wok on a low heat, add your choice of brassica and sauté for a few minutes. I quite like letting it stick a little to the wok to get a few burned bits. Add the garlic and lemon juice, stir through and then pop a lid on to let the veg gently steam. You do t want to fully cook it. Just steam til there is a bit of bite.
Wash the raw prawns, put them into a food processor and blitz. Add the veg and blitz again. I like quite a chunky texture but it does make it harder to use as a filling. If it’s your first time, maybe go for something closer to a puree.
To make the wrappers, divide the dough into three pieces. Roll one into a ball and then roll it out as thin as 2mm. If you are doing this by hand I suggest that you roll the dough on to greaseproof paper and then cover with cling film and then roll over the cling film to get it even thinner. This method takes a bit longer so I have started to use the pasta machine. Roll the dough through each click of the wheel til the end and you’ll have about the same even thickness as hand rolling.
Then you simply take a large biscuit cutter and cut out your wrappers using rice flour to prevent sticking.
Then plop about a heaped teaspoon or so of the mixture into the middle of the wrapper and flatten slightly. Repeat til all the mixture is used up.
Then using some water, wet the edges of the wrapper and bring one side over to the other sandwiching the filling in between. Press down on the edges to seal them and you’re done. I don’t know how to crimp the edges or fold them so I don’t really bother! The ladies in Sham Shui Po did show me but I don’t remember and I don’t have the patience anyway.
To cook them, put your wok onto a medium heat and add a splash of oil. Pop the gyoza onto the base of the wok. I do this by picking the gyoza up from the middle crescent edge and then pressing it filling side down so you get a flat bottom. Fill up your pan with more gyoza in this way leaving about half a centimetre gap between each one. Cook for a couple of minutes to harden the base and then pour in about three to four tablespoons of water around the sides and then immediately put the lid on. The water creates steam which cooks the gyoza. Cook for 5 minutes and then place on your serving platter.
We have these with a dip of just plain light soy sauce and sesame seeds. Husband dollops in a little sriracha sauce. They are also rather nice with Eat Sleep Wild Trailblazer sauce.