Gyoza Night

Posted July 6th, 2010 in Food 2 Comments »

I think I’m starting to be sick…!! (>0<)  I suddenly had sore throat after dinner last night, so I had a glass of strong lemon tea to ease the pain.  I hope it doesn’t get worth.  I don’t normally take medicine unless I feel really really sick.  I try to get recovered by eating nutritious food and taking good sleep 😉

By the way I had a gyoza night yesterday!  Gyoza originally came from China, and has became a very popular item across Japan.  You can find gyoza at Japanese restaurants as a standard menu.

Gyoza is basically grilled.  However, there are other types of gyoza such as deep-fried (age-gyoza) and simmered in the soup (sui-gyoza) in Japan.  I love sui-gyoza, as I like soupy food 🙂  It’s like wonton soup.

If you have cooked gyoza (grilled) before, you may know that it’s not as easy as cooking age-gyoza.  Deep-frying is very easy, you just need to drop it in hot oil and wait until it turns golden brown. Same as sui-gyoza.  You just need to drop it in soup and cool until done.   When you want to grill it, you may experience the gyoza skin ripping off and all the juice coming out.  If it happens, you will have very dry, less-tasty gyoza which doesn’t look as same as before you placed in the frying pan.

Grilled gyoza should be juicy and have crunchy golden skin.  You don’t need to flip the gyoza around while cooking.  You can just colour one side until golden, and that’s enough.

You will need a frying pan and a matching lid, as the gyoza need to be steamed and cooked in the pan with a lid.  The method is same for both fresh and frozen gyoza. You can buy different flavours of gyoza at Asian grocery shops, including pork, prawn, vegetables, chicken and duck.

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1. Pour 1 tbs of oil in a frying pan and place over medium heat.  Arrange gyoza, the flat side at the bottom, as much as they can fit in the pan.  The oil starts to sizzle.  Cook over medium heat, and wait until the bottom starts to colour.
2. Add water (the amount depends on how many gyoza you are cooking.  If you are cooking with 30cmØ pan, add 1/4 cup water.)  After adding the water, it starts to make splashing noise.  Cover with lid, and turn down to low heat.
3. Cook until the liquid is almost gone, or for about 3~5 minutes.  Remove the lid, and turn up the heat to medium.  Cook off any liquid left in the pan.  Once all the liquid is gone, turn off the heat.

The bottom of the gyoza should be golden and has crispy skin.  Scoop with a flat spatula and serve.

Gyoza and beer over watching tv ….  Home style Izakaya is done! 😀

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