There are certain rules of order that stand true 99% of the time: Meat of any kind on a stick is delicious. Children under the age of 6 will always have sticky hands. Anything in dumpling form is amazeballs.
I have been craving some gyoza style dumplings for a bit now. And we as live in this quarantine situation, I thought there was no better time than the present to make these bad boys happen.
- Add 1 pound ground meat (pork is preferred, but I had turkey. No biggie. Still delish. Though I would stay away from ground beef as it tends to be too wet and oily for sealed packets of love.) to a bowl with a handful of chopped shrimp.
- Squirt a generous portion of sriracha into the bowl and throw in a handful of green onions.
- Add 1 cup or so of chopped and sauteéd cabbage to the bowl (cooking it down a bit before hand is needed as otherwise it doesn’t have time to soften up inside the dumpling) with a full chopped jalapeño.
- Salt, pepper, etc. If you are like us, add some cayenne. Because spicy.
Mix up your mess and set aside. You can totally make your own wrappers, but I had some in the freezer, so clearly I went that route this time. Fill your wrappers with a spoonful in the middle, wet the edge of your wrapper and seal. Do this a million more times.
Heat a TB of so of oil in a pan and brown the bottom and each side. Just as everything is browned and looking good, add a bit of chicken stock to the pan and cover. (2-3 TB…?) Leave to steam for 3-4 minutes, uncover until the rest of the liquid evaporates.
Move to plate. Avoid maxiofacial burns by waiting a minute or two to eat, then shove in face. Repeat.
The dude was a big fan of dipping in sweet chili sauce. I whipped up some half-assed gyoza sauce with random bits in the cupboard and it turned out great. Soy sauce, mirin, a dash of Japanese vinegar, splash of sesame oil and a generous squirt of sriracha. (Yeah. I do actually have all of that stuff in the cupboard)
annie.crafty.pants 