Gyoza

A personal favourite of mine, haven't made them in quite a while, but managed to wing the recipe from memory. From what I understand there isn't much difference between Japanese gyoza and Chinese dumplings (or pot-stickers as the Americans seem to call them), but perhaps the fry-steam-fry method of cooking (see below) is a bit more typical for gyoza, and the way they're folded might be a bit different. Either way these are by no means authentic or traditional, but they sure are tasty.

I used one cup of plain flour and got 34 gyoza, the dough was a bit thick for some so maybe could've gotten more.

For the meat I used chicken mince (well actualy just biffed a chicken breast into the food processor) and added a bit of tamari soy sauce and sesame oil. I probably would've used a filler too like cream cheese or bread crumbs, but I didn't have any. Some chives or other flavoursome green stuff or even ginger, garlic or onion would probably go a treat too.

Instructions

1. Knead the flour a little bit of water (keep adding until it's a fairly dry dough

2. Roll the dough flat (1-2mm) on a well floured surface, and keep flouring as you go - cut the dough using a knife if you run out of space and do it in batches

3. Use a mug or something else circular to cut out circles (you an freeze these dough circles at this stage, if they're well floured they shouldn't stick together so you can stack 'em)

4. Add a blob of meat or whatever else into each one

5. Fold in half and make pretty (either do some little overlapping bits like i've done here, or use a fork to press some lines in, or google "how to fold gyoza" [or dumplins or pot-stickers]).

6. Freeze any you won't use, cook the rest

7. There's lots of ways to cook them but I go with the fry-steam-fry method - add some oil to a big frypan that has a lid, fry the bottom of them, then add a cup of water and put the lid on for 10 mins or so, then take the lid off, let all the water evaporate and then fry them a bit again.

8. Eat 'em (go good with some soy sauce with a dash of vinegar and some ground chilli)