Shiitake and Ginger Gyoza

Earthy, with a bolt of ginger.

Umami mushrooms, crunchy sprouts and a strike of ginger. Yeah, oishii. And a good way to get mushrooms into teenage kids. Start the day before by soaking the shiitake.

For 30 pieces - serves 4 as a meal, 6 as a decent snack

Ingredients
1 packet (about 30 sheets) gyoza wrappers (gow gee wrappers are fine)
Sesame oil, for frying
300ml water, for steaming

Filling
40g dried shiitake mushrooms (soak for 24 hours before cooking)
2 cups, or 150g, cabbage (I use wombok)
2 cups, or 100g, bean sprouts
1/4 cup shallots
3 tablespoons finely chopped garlic chives
2 teaspoons ginger, finely grated or minced
2 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon miso paste - white or red, it doesn’t matter. If red, take care with the salt.
2 tablespoons breadcrumbs (I used panko here)
1 teaspoon shoaxing rice wine or cooking sake
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon soy sauce
Big pinches of salt and pepper

Sauce
4 tablespoons soy sauce
6 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoons sesame oil
Pinch of salt or sugar to taste
(optional add in - white part of a shallot, ginger, chilli oil, minced garlic)

Method

For the filling

1. .Soak the dried mushrooms the day before. Using a ziplock bag makes things easy when pouring off and squeezing out the liquid.

2. Finely chop the cabbage, garlic chives, shallots and mushrooms.

3. Sprinkle salt on the cabbage, leave it for about 15 minutes to extract liquid (so gyoza aren’t watery when cooked). Wrap with a clean tea towel and squeeze out the water.

4. In a large bowl, combine all ingredients and mix through with your hands.

I used a gyoza press for the shape here. Remember, wet the edges of the wrappers with your fingers so the sides stick together.

If you don’t have a gyoza press, just wrap by hand. It’s easy.

1. Take a wrapper in one hand, fold over the filling with about 1/3 of the near side wrapper.

2. Pinch it at one end (I’m right handed, so I start from the left), use your index fingers to make a S-shaped pleat. Press down and seal.

3. Continue pleating to the other end. The near side should be flat and the far side pleated. Make sure there’s no air bubbles.

4. Place each gyoza on a floured plate or board. Push them down gently to make a flat bottom. Cover with plastic or a wet cloth.

   Wrapping photos and options at the ‘Wrap it’ link below.

To pan-fry the gyoza…

1. Heat frying pan and add sesame or any vegetable oil. Cook on a medium-high heat.

2. Add gyoza to the pan when it’s sizzling hot.

3. After 5 minutes or so, or when the gyoza bases are brown and crispy, sprinkle with some sesame oil.

4. After the oil, pour in some boiled water (say, 100ml per 10 gyoza) and cover to steam for 5 minutes or so.

5. Open the lid and cook until any remaining water evaporates.

6. Sprinkle some sesame oil. Remove from the heat when the base of the gyozas are deep brown and crispy. Amp the heat if you need to.

7. Use a spatular to turn out the gyoza with their crispy base facing up. Photos at the ‘Cook it’ link below.

Combine the sauce ingredients and serve!