These are little pockets of heaven
I made them for my Grandma’s 91st birthday and they were gone in less than 5 minutes
They freeze well, so make a big batch and pull them out whenever you need them
Dumplings ingredients
- 2 cups filling (see vegan meat recipe)
- 15-20 gyoza wrappers
N.B. scale filling and wrappers based on how much of each you have; stick 1 tbsp. filling per wrapper
For vegan meat recipe
- 1 package of tofu
- 200g Quinoa
- 4 spring onions, minced
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tbsp. grated ginger
- 2 tbsp. Sesame oil
- 1 tbsp. soy sauce
- 1 tbsp. sake
- 1 tsp. salt
- ¼ tsp. white pepper
- 2/3 tbsp. oil for frying
For the dipping sauce
- 2 tbsp. soy sauce
- 2 tbsp. rice vinegar
- Chilli oil (optional)
(Optional: You can fill the gyoza’s with anything you like, it’s another good way of getting rid of leftover veg/meat, just make sure the filling isn’t too wet or dry)
Method
- Freeze the tofu overnight. Defrost and thoroughly wash and squeeze out as much water as possible. The more you wash and squeeze the more the taste of the soya disappears.
- Crumble the tofu into small pieces
- Wash the Quinoa and cook by covering with water and simmering until all the water is gone. Drain and place in a mixing bowl with the tofu
- Add the spring onions, garlic, ginger, sesame oil, soy sauce, sake and season to taste. This mixture actually tastes quite nice and any left over can be eaten as a healthy side or salad.
- Wash your hands or put on food-safe glove and mix the filling with your hand, using a kneading action to bring the mixture together
- Place a wrapper into the palm of your hand then place a spoonful of filling into the centre of the wrapper
- Dip the fingers of your other hand in a bowl of water, and wet the entire rim of the wrapper. This is what seals the pleats into place
- At this point you can just seal the dumpling or you can be more fancy and try and pleat with your right thumb and forefinger. This is not as difficult as it sounds, if you fancy trying, this link is where I got the recipe from and has step by step instructions
- http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-asian-dumplings-from-scratch-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-190431
- If you are not going to eat the dumplings straight away, place them in a freezer bag and put them in the freezer
- To cook, add 2 tbsp. of oil to a pan over a medium heat
- Once the oil is hot, place the gyoza in a pan; fry until the gyoza are starting to tan on the bottom. Add 1cm of water to the pan and place a lid over the top (or foil to cover if you don’t have one) and allow gyoza’s to steam. After steaming allow the remaining water to burn off and fry the dumplings until crispy
- To make the dipping sauce, combine equal parts of the dipping ingredients and chilli oil to taste
