Friday 28 July 2017

Delicious Dumplings

Goyza dumplings
... nom nom nom


Delicious Dumplings - Secret Chef recipe 




Easy as, steamed dumplings! Perfect for a cold winter day. 

Popular with children, and a fantastic cooking activity for keen young chefs too! 

We are making steamed dumplings here. 


If you are avoiding Asian style restaurants due to food allergies, here is a perfect recipe - no need to miss out and in fact I don't think you can find as good as these at any shop. Homemade dumplings are the best, hands down! 

Ingredients:

  • 400 grams quality organic ground pork mince (or chicken mince)
  • Half small Napa (Chinese) cabbage
  • Fresh ginger – 5cm piece or to taste
  • Garlic chives optional
  • Soy sauce or tamari
  • Sesame oil - optional
  • Dumpling goyza wrappers (rice based rather than wonton)
  • Dumpling sauce of your choice
  • Cornflour (wheat free is best)

Eeasssssy, lets go! 

Thinly slice cabbage. Sprinkle liberally with salt. Now, let the cabbage sit quietly.
Juices will start to release. Sit for about an hour


 


Meanwhile make your filling mix.

Finely dice your ginger and garlic chives. Add ginger, chives and a good dash of your soy and other flavours to taste. Put to one side for a short while to marinate and allow the flavours to infuse.

Back to the cabbage. Squeeze out liquid with your hands. Rinse under water through a sieve. Squeeze out again. Combine the mince mixture with the cabbage well. Almost kneading to combine.


Remember! Try to use an equal amount of pork/chicken mince to the cabbage. Roughly one to one. This gives a great texture as well as flavour balance – yum!


Goyza time!

Arrange your wrappers on a clean board. Around one teaspoon of mix for each wrapper  - spoon a small amount of the mix into the centre of the skin. 

Dip your finger in some water and moisten the edge of the skin to make it easy to seal. Fold the filled goyza skin in half and pinch at the top to seal it. Dip your water and cornflour mix (2nd picture).


Folding is the tricky part but don’t be overwhelmed, it takes only a little practice to become a master at this! You are folding over and pinching as you go. (see picture below right)


  

Cooking time

Ok. Now it’s time to get the water on.
We are making Steamed Dumplings here, rather than fried or boiled. Tasty and easy to do.

We are using a double boiler steamer here. Bring the water to the boil.

Coat your steamer lightly with vegetable oil or baking paper. This is to stop them from sticking. (hence, the other name for these dumplings, pot stickers). Make sure they are spread out evenly and not touching each other.

When the water has come to boil, add your dumplings to the steamer top.  Place a lid on top of the pan and leave the heat on high.
Cook for 8-9 ,minutes.






Eating time
You can buy or make your own dumpling sauce. 

Be quick! ... best enjoyed when hot and steamy! Enjoy ! YUM!



Great winter food! 
Tips and Information

Freeze uncooked Goyza to cook and eat at a later date - and they do freeze amazingly well. Great, easy hearty food to pull out on a week night or when friends drop round. 


You can substitute the meat for other vegetables to make vegetarian gyoza. Try using shiitake mushrooms as an ideal substitution for meat. You can also make chicken or prawn gyoza if you feel like a change from pork.