How to make GYOZA 🥟 (Fried Dumplings/Potstickers) 〜餃子〜 | easy Japanese home cooking recipe

Welcome to Taiji's Kitchen. Today I'm going to show you how to make gyoza, or Japanese-style fried dumplings. As you can see, I'm in a different kitchen, so I moved to a new place due to some personal things. But, of course, I'm going to keep making these videos. So gyoza originally comes from China, and I think in China they call it chaozu. It was imported about 100 years ago, during the time when Japan occupied part of China. So we imported a lot of culture during that time, and especially the food, and this was That's also why we have ramen as our culture, even though it originally comes from China. But after we imported them, we kind of made it Japanese, and this is Japanese-style. And today I'm going to show you the version that I make quite often at home. Then, let's get started. Here are the ingredients for making gyoza. I have here ground pork meat, a couple cloves of garlic, ginger, scallion, and cabbage. And then here, here I have gyoza skin. I think this you can find in most Asian shops in the frozen section. So what you want to do is you want to take it out of the freezer the night before, and put it in the fridge, and let it slowly defrost in the fridge. Then for the seasoning, I have salt, and for the dipping sauce at the end, we're going to make it from soy sauce, vinegar, and sesame oil. I have here Japanese rice wine vinegar. If you don't have this, then you can also use other vinegar, like apple vinegar or white wine vinegar. So let's cut up the ingredients. I'm going to use about a quarter of this cabbage, so we're going to use probably about three or four pieces of this cabbage. I'm going to first separate the stem. I'm going to cut these in very small pieces. We're also going to cut these cabbage in small pieces. So ideally, you want to cut it like these small pieces. If you can't, it's not that big of a problem, but it'll just be a little bit difficult to wrap it with the gyoza skin. So the cabbage is all cut up. So this may seem quite a lot, but they're going to kind of shrink, so don't worry about it. Then we're going to cut up the scallions. What I like to do is I'm going to kind of cut it in the middle like this. I'll need one more. This part, of course, doesn't have to be that perfect. And we're just going to cut them into small pieces like the cabbage. So let's prepare the garlic and ginger. Take a little black part off. So if it's difficult to peel off the garlic, then what you want to do is kind of give it a little smash. And the skin will peel off very easily. And then the ginger. Take off the little dried parts off, and then take off the skin. And then we're going to grate this. So for this recipe, you want to use a grater rather than a garlic smasher because you want to have really good, finely grated pieces so that you have an evenly distributed flavor. So I have all the ingredients cut up. Let's mix them together with the meat. So in a bowl, I'm going to put in all the ingredients. The ground up pork meat, the grated ginger and garlic, cut up scallion, and cut up cabbage. I'm going to put in half of it for the first time. And then you want to mix it really well. Once it got good mixed, I'm going to put in half a teaspoon of salt. And then I'm going to put in the rest of the cabbage. So you want to mix it very well so you can see no pieces of meat left like this. Let's wrap this in the gyoza skin. So these gyoza skin, they usually have like 40 or 50. Here unfortunately they don't say. Let's see. Let's count them up. So that's about 20, so I would assume that's about 40 inside. So for this, you're going to need a little bit of water. So there are some different ways to wrap the gyoza in the skin. I'm going to show you a couple ways today. So you want to have just about a teaspoon or so of the inside, put it in the middle like this. It's always better to put too little than too much. And what you want to do is you want to kind of wet all the way around. So the easiest way is just you wrap it like this, and then you want to try to get all the air out. You can finish like this. You can put some pleats like this. That's one way. So I'm going to show it again, put about a teaspoon of the inside, wet all around, put them together, take out as much air out as possible, and then 1, 2, 3, 4 or so pleats. So then I'm going to show you another version, the version I like to make. So I'm going to put about a teaspoon, so far it's the same, wet all around. And then what I like to do is I like to make pleats here like this, only on one side. 1, 2, 3, 4, I like to make 4 like this. And then you have a form like this. I think this is the most common way, I don't know. I'm going to bring it together here, 1, 2, 3, 4, like this, and then you want to squish it together so that they get glued, like so. And as you're doing this, you kind of want to try to get all the air out, otherwise it can explode and then you lose all the juice, like this. Okay let's make the rest. So when I usually make it at home, one person will make this, and then everybody comes together when it's about time to wrap, and then we all wrap so that it'll get faster. But today I'm only doing it for myself, so I have to do all the work. Oh, oh, oh, oh, I totally, totally forgot. So in this, you want to put some sesame oil. I totally forgot about that. About a tablespoon of sesame oil. And then of course you want to give it a mix. Then I'm going to have to wash my hands again. So I'm really sorry about that. Then let's continue making the gyoza. Wow, look at this. I just finished perfectly. So this is the last batch, and this is the last skin. So this is finished for making gyoza. Let's fry them. Before we're going to fry the gyoza, let's make the sauce. For the sauce, we're just going to make soy sauce and vinegar in a one-to-one ratio. So I'm going to put two teaspoons of soy sauce, and to this about a half teaspoon of sesame oil. That's finished for the sauce. So let's fry the gyoza. I'm going to heat the frying pan with high heat. So the frying pan is heated. I'm going to put in some sesame oil, and then we're going to put in the gyoza. And the rest of this, I'm going to freeze it and then save it for later. And then here I'm going to put in some water, about two teaspoons, and then I'm going to let it steam like this for about a minute or so. So once the water has vapored, then I'm going to take off the lid and then let it grill for about 30 seconds or so. So once you start to hear the sizzling sound, then it's finished. Then let's put it on a plate. Oh, look at that. Wow. That looks amazing. Let's eat. Okay, let's eat. Itadakimasu! Oh, that looks so delicious. Then let's dig in. Put on the sauce. Itadakimasu! Oh, this is so good. I don't know if you can hear the crunchiness of the skin. You can really taste the sweetness of the cabbage and the pork. It's a really great mixture. The sour soy sauce is also really great. It's adding really a punch to the flavor. This matches rice also perfectly. And if you like it spicy, you can put some chili in here. It's also going to be good. So I don't know if you have noticed, but all the ingredients of gyoza, so cabbage, scallion, garlic, ginger, and meat, they're all full of umami. So this is just a really great mixture. And the sour soy sauce, the sourness just kind of really brings out the sweetness of cabbage and the pork. So this is a really great combination. Really delicious. Gochisosamadeshita! That was totally savory. So making gyoza is a little bit of work, I have to admit, especially this wrapping part. But once you get the hang of it, it goes pretty fast and it doesn't have to be perfect. I hope you enjoyed the video. If you like what you saw, please hit that like button. And if you have any questions or requests, please write anything in the comments below. And I look forward to seeing you in the next video. Bye!