I've been holding off on posting this recipe, a little fearful that I'd lose those of you who have been faithfully making each and every thing I've posted over the last 14 weeks with something scary and laborious sounding like home made gyoza. Don't be afraid! A home made dumpling like these tasty smoked tofu gyoza is not hard to make. Time consuming, yes, but difficult, no - especially with the aid of pre-made wonton wrappers for the outer casing, available in the produce section of most grocery stores.
If putting the time in to making something that requires repeated folding and sealing seems intimidating, here is what I propose you do: throw a gyoza party! Hear me out: gather a bunch of your pals together, get some sake or (and!) a few big bottles of Sapporo or Kiran, and get your fold on! I guarantee you'll have a better time than if you'd gone to the movies, and have a delicious meal to boot.
I got inspired to try making gyoza after a dinner out at a Japanese restaurant in Vancouver - the last supper for Paul and I en route to the airport before he headed back to Stockholm and I hung around in Vancouver for a little while longer. I had some veggie gyoza as a part of my meal, and I was struck by the simplicity and tastiness of the filling. I figured I'd give it a try making my own at home. The very next day I found myself in the produce section of a local grocery store with a package of wonton wrappers in one hand and a cabbage in the other, and it was a done deal. I was making gyoza.
Pork is a traditional filling for gyoza, but I wanted to make a vegetarian version (I think that goes with out saying), so I chose some smoked tofu, cubed up into teeny little squares. I used Soyganic, but Soya Novu also makes a nice smoked tofu (if you're local to Vancouver) and I'm sure there are others out there as well. If you can't find smoked tofu, regular firm tofu would do the job as well, you'll just need to add a little more flavour to your filling.
The bulk of the filling is cabbage - an entire head. It may seem like a lot of cabbage, but it cooks down considerably, and it also makes a lot of gyoza. Shredded carrot, ginger, garlic, and caramelized onions make up the rest of the filling.
The filling comes together quite quickly, and then comes the time consuming part - filling, folding, sealing. Going at it solo it took me about an hour to assemble two trays of gyoza. How many you end up with will be largely determined by how full you stuff them (I figure I ended up with around 60, give or take). I'd advise you to take a less-is-more approach at first. You'll likely run out of filling before you run out of wrappers, and they are harder to seal shut if you've over stuffed them.
You can cook all of your gyoza at once, or you can freeze them and eat them a few at a time. Place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and freeze in a single layer. You can transfer them into a freezer bag once they've been flash frozen.
I played around with a few different methods of cooking these from frozen, and I found that the best thing do whether you're cooking them fresh or frozen, is to pan fry them in a large skillet with a little bit of vegetable oil. If you're cooking from frozen, start with the heat a little lower and cover the skillet with a lid to keep the heat in. I found that boiling them first, even really gently, meant that quite a few of them fell apart by the time the cooking was done. I also tried a method my friend Sylvie suggested: putting the frozen gyoza in the skillet and pouring a teeny amount of water in, covering with a lid to let them steam, and then adding a touch of oil to fry them in, but I found a lot of them ended up sticking to the pan and falling apart using this method as well.
smoked tofu gyoza
Ingredients
- 1 package round wonton wrappers
- 200 g package of firm smoked tofu
- 2 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 large head of cabbage shredded finely
- 1 large onion diced
- 2 cups of grated carrot
- 4 cloves garlic crushed
- 4 tablespoon fresh grated ginger
- ¼ cup soy sauce I used Bragg
- Dipping Sauce:
- 1 scallion finely chopped
- 2 tablespoon fresh chopped cilantro
- ½ cup soy sauce I used Bragg
- ½ cup water
- ¼ cup rice vinegar
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 2 tablespoon brown sugar
Instructions
- Finely dice onion, and shred cabbage.
- Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat.
- Add onions, and cook, stirring occasionally, until golden brown.
- Add the cabbage, carrot, garlic, and ginger. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until cabbage has cooked down and the filling is soft.
- Add cubed tofu, and ¼ cup of soy sauce, and cook, for another 2 min.
- Turn off heat and set filling aside to cool slightly.
- Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Set up an assembly station with a stack of wonton wrappers, a small bowl of water, and your filling. Place a wonton wrapper in one hand, and fill with about 1 tablespoon of filling (you can try making fuller gyoza once you've got the hang of it).
- Dip a finger in the bowl of water, and run your wet finger around the perimeter of the wonton wrapper. Fold in half, and pinch around the edges to seal shut. Place on the lined baking sheet. Repeat.
- To cook the gyoza from fresh, heat some vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium heat.
- Place gyoza in a single layer in the skillet, leaving sufficient room to flip.
- Cook until golden on one side, flip, and cook until golden on the other.
- Serve immediately, or at room temperature.
- To make dipping sauce, whisk ingredients together in a bowl.
- Serve.
Angela
This vegetable dumpling recipe is great. I love the way of using ordinary vegetable : cabbage, carrot and onion with Smoked tofu. I am going to make it tomorrow.
themuffinmyth
Let me know how it turns out!
Ashley
Yummm I love gyoza and smoked tofu so these sound so deliciously perfect. I know what you mean about them falling apart when you try and boil them. 🙁 I've had many dumplings split apart in the water, very sad times.
Evil Jenn
Alex made these tonight and they were oh so good. We added minced pork (from a Vancouver Island farm) to ours. Gyoza is one of our favs so I was excited to see this.
We make our own wrappers with the KitchenAid mixer. It is a standard pasta recipe that can be whipped up super fast with only a little effort. And it really takes these to a new level of yum.
Tonight we tried frying, steaming and then the steam-fry-steam combo and the last two methods were my favs. Nice and light, and tasty.
This started out as our appetizer for the night, it then turned into the dinner main, and now Alex is lying on the couch in a gyoza comma.
themuffinmyth
Did you get the pasta rollers for your Kitchen Aid?
Evil Jenn
Yup, pasta rollers were my birthday present from Alex.
Made the pasta with the bread hook, then a small amount of hand kneading, let sit, put through rollers and ta da! I couldn't believe how easy it all was.
themuffinmyth
I love love love love love my pasta roller attachments. It's so great to have free hands (as opposed to with traditional hand crank rollers) and the dough moves through so quickly. Mine were a gift from Paul a few Christmases back. I'm happy to be back in the presence of my Kitchen Aid mixer and pasta rollers, and I'll be even happier when I have a mixer in Sweden too!
Allison
I finally got around to making these - and they're awesome.
After I browned them in the oil on both sides I added a 1/4 C water and let them steam so they were a little less crisp. They cooked up really nicely.
themuffinmyth
Right on! That's a good idea with the water after the oil. Although, I did enjoy the crispiness myself. I'm glad you made them!
Sylvie
Yes! I'm so happy to see this up! gyoza picnic to be redone!
themuffinmyth
That was good times indeed! Next time gyoza party/picnic!
heather
Should I spend time looking in the freezer to see if you left any in vancouver?? hungry right now and my personal chef is abroad.
themuffinmyth
You snooze you lose! Definitely nothing left in the freezer. I'm pretty sure I left some smoked tofu in the fridge though . . . you could throw a gyoza party!
Cammy
They Look awesome, and other then the wrappers I happen to have all the ingredients already. I'll make these for sure...
themuffinmyth
Gyoza party!
Jay
Hi,
Those look so crispy and like golden sunshine. simple delectabilicios.
Yummee Yumme, put it in my mouth! I love it!!!
Amelia Payne
I got your blog from Tasha Burnham, after I commented on how delicious one of her lunch salads looked... and, she told me it was one of her friends, and she has a blog!
Love the photography, love the recipes.
Any good ones for Tempeh?
themuffinmyth
Welcome to The Muffin Myth! Glad you're here and liking what you see.
I *love* tempeh, and just found a source of it nearby, so I'm sure something tempeh will be around the corner. I have a good marinade for strips of tempeh that is great in sandwiches or on salads. Also, you could use the miso glaze from the sandwich method post on tempeh instead.
Allison
yes! this is right up my alley... all about making stuffed foods, can't wait 🙂