Tabletop Hotplate Gyoza
ホットプレート羽根つき餃子·(hotto purēto hanetsuki gyōza)
Hare no Hi: Weekend Rituals & Family Tables
Friday night around the dining table, dragging the electric hotplate to the center signals a night of family collaboration, cold beer, and an obscene amount of garlic. Working through a stack of supermarket wrappers, we make fifty dumplings at once, relying on the technique of wringing the water out of the cabbage and beating the meat into a sticky paste to lock in the juices. The oil hisses loudly as the first batch cooks. Finish with a flour slurry for that shattering, golden crust, open a cold Sapporo, and let everyone fight over the crispy bottoms.
Before you start
Dissolve the bouillon.
Mix the 1 tsp chicken bouillon powder with 1 tbsp warm water in a small dish until completely dissolved.
Prepare the starch slurry.
Whisk the 1/2 cup warm water with the 2 tsp all-purpose flour in a small bowl until smooth.
Mix the dipping sauce.
Combine the 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup rice vinegar, and chili oil in a small serving bowl.
Ingredients
- green cabbage2 1/2 cup
- kosher salt1/2 tsp
- ground pork1 lb
- garlic chives1 large
- ginger1 tbsp
- garlic cloves2 med
- soy sauce1 1/2 tbsp
- sake1 tbsp
- toasted sesame oil1 tbsp
- sugar1 tsp
- chicken bouillon powder1 tsp
- warm water1 tbsp
- white pepper1/2 tsp
- round gyoza wrappers50 med
- neutral cooking oil2 tbsp
- toasted sesame oil1 tbsp
- warm water1/2 cup
- all-purpose flour2 tsp
- soy sauce1/4 cup
- rice vinegar1/4 cup
- chili oil1 tbsp
Method
- 01
Purge the cabbage of excess water.
Toss the minced cabbage with the kosher salt and let it sit at room temperature for 15 minutes, then forcefully squeeze out and discard the expelled water with your hands.
- 02
Knead the pork into a sticky paste before adding the vegetables.
Vigorously knead the ground pork with the grated ginger, garlic, 1 1/2 tbsp soy sauce, sake, 1 tbsp toasted sesame oil, sugar, dissolved bouillon, and white pepper until it becomes pale and cohesive.
- 03
Gently fold in the greens.
Add the squeezed cabbage and chopped garlic chives to the meat paste, mixing gently with your hands just until distributed to avoid crushing the vegetables.
- 04
Fold and pleat the dumplings.
Place a tablespoon of filling in the center of a wrapper, wet the top edge with water, fold in half, and pinch three or four pleats along the edge to seal it tight.
- 05
Sear the gyoza on the hotplate.
Heat the tabletop hotplate to medium-high, spread the neutral cooking oil evenly, arrange the gyoza in a tightly packed circular pattern, and fry uncovered for a minute or two until the bottoms turn golden brown.
- 06
Steam the dumplings with a starch slurry.
Give the flour and water slurry a quick stir to recombine, pour it directly over the hotplate, and cover tightly immediately to steam for 5 minutes.
- 07
Fry the slurry into a shattering golden skirt.
Remove the lid and let the remaining water cook off. Drizzle the remaining 1 tbsp of sesame oil around the edges and watch the white starch fry into a deep golden, lacy lattice.
- 08
Rest briefly to set the wings.
Turn off the heat and wait 60 seconds for the starch to harden slightly. Slide a spatula underneath and flip the connected dumplings onto a platter so the crispy wings face up.
Notes
Refrigerate the filling if you have the time.
Letting the mixed filling rest in the fridge for 30 minutes firms up the pork fat, making the dumplings significantly easier to fold and pleat.
Do not overfill the wrappers.
A wrapper that is only seventy percent full is much less likely to burst or tear during the steaming process.
The bouillon is the grandma's secret.
A touch of dissolved chicken bouillon or MSG mimics the rich, savory meat juices (nikuju) found in a high-end restaurant dumpling.
From Cook Japanese in America.