0:00 Intro
0:29 Gyoza Dough
3:21 Gyoza Filling
6:33 Wrapping Gyoza
9:10 Pan Frying Gyoza
Today we're making Japanese dumplings, Gyoza. Here we try to recreate the gyoza from a Japanese Michelin dumpling shop. The video ( • Chef Hitoshi Umamichi ... ) about this shop only talked about the types of ingredients. However the quantity of each ingredient is not specified. Based on our own experience, after lots of trial and error, we created a totally workable recipe with all necessary details. The wrapper of our pan fried gyoza is silky and springy, and the filling is delicious and juicy.
500g Baker's Flour
30g + 50g Sesame Oil
320g Boiling Water
550g Pork Belly, Rindless
8g Salt
2g MSG
1tsp Ground White Pepper
1tsp Ground Black Pepper
10g Ginger
550g Chinese Cabbage
100g Garlic Chives
20g Vegetable Oil
First, let's make the dough for gyoza wrappers. Take a large bowl, put in 500 grams of baker's flour. With high-gluten flour we can make wrappers very thin and still springy. Add 30 grams of sesame oil to the bowl for extra flavour. This is a unique way of Japanese gyoza. Boil water with a small pot. Pour boiling water into the flour in small potions. Stir quickly while pouring. Boiling water can make some starch gelatinisation in advance. Dough can hold more moisture without being too soft and sticky. This will make the gyoza wrappers soft and silky. A total of 320 grams of water is used in this dough.
Mix well and transfer mixture onto the working surface. Knead the mixture into dough. At beginning, the surface of the dough is not smooth at all and you can feel a bit resistance in kneading. Don’t worry, put the dough into an airtight box and let it rest for 5 minutes. This will save you some effort. And it will be much easier to get a smooth dough. However, at this time, the gluten tissue has not yet been fully developed. Let’s put it back into the airtight box and rest for 30 minutes. Now the dough has become very soft and smooth. It feels like an earlobe. Knead a few more times. The gyoza dough is done now. Put it back into the airtight box for later use.
Here we use 550 grams of rindless pork belly. First, cut the pork belly into 0.5cm thick slices. Then cut into thick strips. Spread the pork strips evenly on the cutting board. Chop meat with a knife. It takes some patience and time. Just chop it over and over again, fold it over and over again until it looks like this. Be careful not to chop too finely. Otherwise it will lose its texture and tastes no difference to those from meat grinder.
Put the minced meat into a large bowl, add 8 grams of salt. According to the owner, use the kind with coarser grain. Add 2 grams MSG, 50 grams of sesame oil, 1 teaspoon ground white pepper, 1 teaspoon ground black pepper, 10 grams grated ginger. Mix well by hand and put it in the refrigerator to let the meat marinate for 30 minutes. Marinating overnight works better if you have time.
While waiting, let's prepare the vegetables for gyoza's filling. Blanch 550 grams of Chinese cabbage leaves in boiling water for 2 minutes. Take out and immerse in cold water to cool down quickly. Wait 5 minutes, take it out, squeeze out the water. Put the cabbage on the cutting board. Cut into strips, then chop finely. Like pork, don't chop it too finely, otherwise it will lose its proper texture. Wash and drain 100 grams of garlic chives, cut into small pieces of 0.5cm long. Put the chopped cabbage and garlic chives into the meat filling bowl just before making dumplings. Mix well by hand. Try not to put the veggies in too long in advance.
Cut a piece of dough and roll it into a long log. Weigh it, it is 178 grams. The owner said that the weight of each dumpling wrapper is 8 grams in his shop. Thus we can make 22 wrappers with this log.
Take a piece and pressed it into round disk. Roll out in one direction first with rolling pin. Then turn it 90 degrees and roll it again. At this time, the wrapper is too small. And the edges are too thick. We need to roll the edge of the wrapper thinner.
Take some filling and put it in the centre of the wrapper. The filling we made today can make about 70-100 gyoza.
The best way for frying dumplings is using a non-stick pan. You don't have to worry about the dumplings sticking to the bottom of the pan. Pour 20 grams of vegetable oil in a pan. Preheat over low heat. Arrange the dumplings neatly in the pan. Heat over medium-high heat. When you hear the bottom of the dumpling start to sizzle, put some water in the pan. Cover the pan and heat for 4 minutes. The amount of water to add depends on many factors, the firepower of the stove, the sealing of the lid, the size of the pan, the number of dumplings, etc. The safer way is to add a little less water at the beginning. Add some water when you feel that the pan is about to boil dry. It would be perfect that at the end of 4 minutes, all water is just evaporated.