Gyoza: dumplings fried, steamed and fried again in one pan
Classic Japanese gyoza differ from Polish pierogi above all in that they are not boiled in water but taken through three stages in one pan — frying, steaming under a lid, and frying again until dry. That is what gives them a glassy, crisp base and a soft, steamed top. The dough is flour and boiling water, the filling pork with squeezed Chinese cabbage.
Your own work in that: 1 h 40 min.
- Dough 15 min
- Dough resting 30 min
- Filling 20 min
- Shaping 35 min
- Frying 30 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneKnead a boiling-water dough
Put the flour and salt in a bowl, pour in the boiling water and stir with a spoon until it forms lumps. When it is cool enough to touch, knead by hand 8 minutes into a smooth, fairly firm ball. Wrap in film and rest 30 minutes.
Ingredients: 300 g plain flour · 160 ml boiling water · ½ tsp salt
TipBoiling water partly gelatinises the starch and weakens the gluten. That makes the dough pliable: it rolls very thin without springing back, and once cooked it is soft rather than rubbery.
Boiling water, eight minutes, then thirty under filmSalt and squeeze the cabbage
Chop the cabbage very finely, toss with the teaspoon of salt and leave 10 minutes. Tip into a cloth and wring it hard over the sink: about 100 ml of water should come out and the volume should halve.
Ingredients: 300 g minced pork · 200 g Chinese cabbage · 1 tsp salt · 2 cloves garlic · 15 g fresh ginger · ½ bunch spring onion · 1 tbsp soy sauce · 1 tsp sesame oil · ½ tsp sugar · ½ tsp black pepper
TipChinese cabbage is 95 % water. Unsqueezed, it releases that water into the filling during steaming, the wrapper softens from the inside and the dumpling splits in the pan. This is one of the commonest reasons gyoza fail.
Ten minutes in salt, then wrung in a clothMix the filling
Mix the pork, squeezed cabbage, garlic, grated ginger, spring onion, soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar and pepper with a hand or spoon for 2 minutes, always in one direction, until the mass turns sticky and paler. Fry a teaspoonful to taste, then season the rest.
TipLong mixing (traditionally in one direction) draws out the meat proteins that bind the filling, so it holds as a ball and doesn't fall apart while you fill the wrappers. The test spoonful is the only way to season a filling you cannot taste raw.
Two minutes in one direction, until stickyRoll the wrappers
Divide the dough into 4, roll each into a rope and cut into 9 pieces (about 13 g each). Flatten each and roll into a 9 cm circle, thinner at the edges than in the middle. Keep the finished wrappers under a cloth.
Nine centimetres, edges thinner than the centrePleat and seal
Put a heaped teaspoon of filling (about 12 g) in the centre — there is enough filling for all 36 wrappers. Wet the edge with a finger, fold in half and pinch at one point. Then work 5–6 small pleats along the front edge, sticking each to the straight back edge. Stand the dumpling pleats up and press the base lightly so it sits flat.
TipThe pleats are not decoration: the extra dough at the front curves the dumpling into a crescent and creates the flat base it will fry on. Without them gyoza topple over and the base browns only in patches.
Five pleats at the front, a straight back edgeFry the bases for two minutes
Heat a tablespoon of oil in the pan over medium-high heat. Set 12 dumplings (one of three batches) flat side down, close together but not touching. Fry 2 minutes without moving them, until the bases are golden. Lift one to check, not all of them.
Ingredients: 3 tbsp rapeseed oil · 80 ml water · 3 tbsp soy sauce · 2 tbsp rice or cider vinegar · ¼ tsp chilli flakes · ½ tsp sesame oil
Flat side down, two minutes untouchedAdd water and cover
Pour in 80 ml water (stand back, it erupts in steam) and cover immediately. Steam 6 minutes, until the water has evaporated and the tops turn translucent and glossy.
TipThis is the stage where the dumplings actually cook: steam penetrates the wrapper and brings the meat to 75 °C inside. Frying alone would never cook the filling before the base burned.
Water, steam, lid on for six minutesUncover and crisp the bases
Take the lid off and fry another 1–2 minutes, until the last of the water evaporates and the bases sizzle again and turn mahogany and glassy. Lift with a spatula, turn them crisp side up and serve with a sauce of soy, vinegar, chilli and sesame oil. Fry the other two batches the same way, each in a fresh tablespoon of oil and with 80 ml water.
Lid off, until the base sizzles again
Before you start
For the freezer
Lay raw dumplings on a tray so they don't touch and freeze, then bag them. Fry straight from frozen: 2 minutes in oil, 8 minutes under the lid instead of 6, everything else unchanged. Thawed, they go sticky and tear.
Shop-bought wrappers
Chilled gyoza wrappers from an Asian shop save half an hour and are thinner than anything you can roll at home. Thaw them in the fridge, never in a microwave — they dry out and split when pleated.
Vegetarian
Instead of meat, 250 g mushrooms chopped and fried over high heat until their water has gone, plus 150 g tofu crushed with a fork. The mushrooms must lose that water in the pan, or the filling will be wet.
