Christmas is Gyoza Season

Gyoza dumplings are some of my favourite nibbly things out there. They cost a bomb to eat in restaurants and let’s face it, the North is hardly blessed with places to eat them, unless you fancy braving Yo!Sushi and its rotating belt of dubiously warm plates. However, they cost next to nothing to make at home; all you need is to source the wrappers from a Chinese supermarket and you’re set. I made these for our traditional Christmas Eve buffet, which is a little nibbly things dream, peppered with dozens of amuses bouches that I spent all day happily preparing.

At one point I had an insatiable curiosity for all things dumpling, and frantically searched for recipes for ‘potstickers’ on the internet; they just seem to be gyoza that are half-fried, half-steamed, which is what I’ve made here. You can make gyoza with whatever filling you fancy, but king prawn is always going to be a family favourite! I also don’t see any harm in brushing pre-steamed dumplings in a little oil before baking them in the oven. Though the texture isn’t wobbly like steamed dumpling (rather, it becomes crunchy), it makes them easier to include on a buffet, which is always a good thing.

Makes about 15-20 gyoza

Ingredients:

1 packet defrosted gyoza wrappers (circular are my preference, but square wonton wrappers also work well)

250g raw king prawns

1 small thumb fresh ginger

4 spring onions

1 small handful (about half a can) water chestnuts

1 dsp cornflour

1 dsp oyster sauce

Method:

1)      Roughly chop the raw king prawns. You want them to be a little chunky, but not so big that they’ll burst out of the little wrappers!

2)      Peel and very finely chop the fresh ginger and spring onions. Mix with the chopped prawns.

3)      Drain the water chestnuts and chop finely, before adding to the prawn mixture, along with the cornflour and oyster sauce. The cornflour will thicken any juices that may occur during cooking and stop them from giving the dumplings soggy bottoms after all that hard work. If you like, at this point add a little chopped chilli for some heat, but I like to keep my dumplings mild and spice them up with a dipping sauce.

4)      With your mixture assembled, take a gyoza wrapper and place a small teaspoon of the mix in the centre of the wrapper, before brushing the edges with water and pinching to seal.

5)      Put a song on and work through the process many times until you have used up the mix! They keep well in the fridge on a cling-filmed plate, covered of course to stop them drying out.

6)      To cook the dumplings like ‘potstickers’ heat 1 dessertspoon of sunflower oil in a large frying pan and gently sauté their bottoms for a few minutes until they start to crisp up. Then turn up the heat and pour over a small ladleful either of stock or water. Cover the pan with a large lid or tinfoil tent to allow them to steam for a few minutes.

7)      If there’s still water in the pan after those few minutes, remove the lid and turn up the heat again, blasting it off in order to re-crisp the dumpling bottoms.

Serve immediately with a dipping sauce- I always plump for my bottle of sweet chilli, but add vinegar to thin it down. The vinegar really peps up the gyoza too, cutting through the sweet, rich flavours and complimenting them at the same time. Happy Holidays!