Homemade Gyoza (Potstickers)

Whew, lots of December things to catch up on here on the blog! Despite a crazy few weeks of exams and papers and presentations, I still managed to squeeze in some baking to get rid of some stress.

December 11, 2015

For a long time now, I've been wanting to make my own gyoza (Japanese potstickers), as they are a little hard to find in my corner of the world when I am at college. I found the gyoza skin recipe on La Fuji Mama and had it bookmarked for about a year before I finally got to it and made these.

First I made a pan of filling. To keep it relatively simple, I just stir-fried chopped Chinese cabbage, shiitake mushroom (dried and rehydrated), carrots, and ginger, which I seasoned with vegetarian oyster sauce. On hindsight, adding something to try and make it hold together more easily would have made wrapping the gyoza easier, but I was out of tofu and patience.

Then I made the skins, and rolled them out flat. As I am not proficient at making nice circles with just the rolling pin, I cheated by using a circle cutter to cut them out with.

Everything was kept under a wet towel while L and I wrapped them (she helped me to speed up the process). I think we made about 33 of them, though the dough was a bit too thickly rolled, and the thicknesses were uneven.

Then L helped me fry them on a nonstick pan until the bottom was nicely browned, before adding hot water to the pan and covering it, to steam the tops of the gyoza.

We ate these dipped in a mix of veg ponzu sauce (mix of soy sauce and citrus) and chili.

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GYOZA SKIN RECIPE

  Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup boiling water
• flour for dusting

  Procedure

1. In a bowl, mix flour and salt. Make a well in the middle.
2. With chopsticks or another utensil, add hot water in the well and mix in flour progressively until a dough is formed.
3. Roll into a ball. Some more water may be required.
4. Cover with a damp cloth and let site for 1 hour.
5. Knead on a floured surface for about 5 mins.
6. Form into a log and cut into about 40 slices.
7. Roll into round skins (or use round cookie cutter to make circles), dusting both sides with flour.
8. Fill and cook, or wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until use.

Vietnamese Spring Rolls

 

For a cultural event at my university back at the end of April, I had opted for making around 25 servings of Vietnamese spring rolls. I had originally planned on another recipe, but due to a lack of certain central ingredients, I settled for these ones.

I made these (around 12) as a test run to see how much ingredients were required for how many rolls. For the actual event, I had made roughly 50 rolls, all made on-spot, as the rolls don't stay fresh overnight, and I did not have the time to roll them just before the event. They were well enjoyed, and so I leave the recipe here on this post for anyone who would like to try them at home!

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RECIPE (for about 12 rolls)

  Ingredients

     Rolls

• 1/2 block tofu (250 g)
• 2 medium potatoes, grated
• 1 large carrots, grated
• raw rice, a handful
• salt, sugar, pepper, to taste
• 12 rice paper wrappers (translucent rice paper for spring rolls)
• warm water
• iceberg lettuce, 2-3 leaves
• cilantro, mint, perilla, or other fresh herbs

           Sauce

• 2 tsp sugar
• 2 tbs soy sauce
• 3 tbs warm water
• 1/4 or 1/2 lemon's juice, or to taste

  Procedure

1. Make the filling: cut tofu into slices, and pan-fry until golden on each side. Cut into thin strips.
2. Stir-fry the grated carrots until cooked through.
3. Deep fry (or stir-fry) grated potatoes until cooked through. To prevent them from sticking too much, rinse grated potatoes in water and pat dry.
4. Mix with the tofu, carrots, and potatoes together, and season to taste.
5. In a dry pan, heat raw rice grains until they become browned but not burnt.
6. Wait until cooled, grind the toasted rice into a powder. Add about 2-3 tbsp to the filling.
7. Dip and turn a sheet of rice paper wrapper in warm water until all parts are wet. Lay flat on a plate and wait until it softens.
8. Put some lettuce, a stem or two of cilantro, and some mint near the lower edge of the rice paper wrapper, in the middle.
9. Top with a tablespoon or so of filling.
10. Roll the bottom edge towards the middle 1 or 2 times.
11. Fold in right and left sides.
12. Finish rolling until edge of the rice paper wrapper is reached.
13. Cover with plastic wrap to keep from drying.
14. Make the sauce: dilute sugar in the warm water, add soy sauce and lemon juice.

  Tips

• Shredded and stir-fried cabbage can be added to the filling
• Most of the time, the grated potatoes are deep-fried and added to the filling at the last minute before rolling to keep crunchy. In my dorm conditions, I stir-fried them because deep-frying was not really an option.

Eggless Quiche

I got a new kitchen (with induction stove, microwave, and oven all included) installed in my to-be apartment at home! I really was looking forward to testing the oven!

I found a pastry dough in the freezer, and decided to tackle an egg-free version of quiche. Going with what vegetables were available, I quickly stir-fried some shredded carrots, celery, cauliflower, and frozen green peas. To that, I added some crushed tofu (about half a block).

To bind it together, I made a béchamel sauce which had Greek yogurt instead of milk or cream (for a healthier option, as well as for thickening purposes. I was really surprised when the quiche came out of the oven somewhat yellowed! I guess the browning from the oven, plus the color of the carrots kind of helped to bring out such a color. I am very happy with using tofu and béchamel to bind things together into a quiche, so I'll likely make it again.

Curry Samosas

November 10

For an Indian-themed Hallway dinner, I tackled some homemade curry samosas. Instead of using some spring roll wrappers like last time, I made the dough myself this time. I also baked these instead of frying them, to save time and also because I don't particularly like frying things.

I used this recipe as a base, but made the curry with only potatoes, green peas, and peeled tomatoes, to which I added spices, chili, and a bit of yogurt. I also brushed the outsides of the samosas with some olive oil to aid the browning of the dough.