I've recently been to Japan which was very fun and very exciting. The purpose of my trip was to go snowboarding and quite frankly, I had the time of my life. I haven't been snowboarding for very long, so I'm still a bit of a noob, but I genuinely think it is the most fun thing someone could do with their time and I now like to spend all my time and money that I can on heading to the mountains and getting better at riding. This is a somewhat tricky thing to do in Australia because while we do have mountains that get snow in the winter, our snow season is notoriously fickle so there's no guarantee you'll have good riding conditions. We also don't have very many snow resorts, nor do I, like most Aussies, live particularly close to any of those resorts, which basically lots of Australians, myself now included, like to take off overseas chasing the snow. Hence the trip to Japan.
While snow was the purpose of my trip to Japan, the food also deserves a very honourable mention. Weirdly I have very little exposure to Japanese food, so I kinda didn't know what to expect. In actual fact, I had been warned that as a vegan, navigating the food scene in Japan would supposedly be very difficult. While I definitely had to do my research, I was very pleasantly surprised by how much Japanese food I could eat and also how damn tasty it was!!! We're talking ramen, soba noodles, udon noodle soup, some more ramen, and even some okonomiyaki (a kind of savoury pancake) that my lovely friend made especially for me because typically they're not vegan. Long story short, I ate well while I was in Japan and I came home feeling very inspired by Japanese cuisine!
While I didn't actually eat any of these in Japan, gyozas are a traditional Japanese dumplings and they are the bomb.com. I have experimented with a similar recipe before, my Tofu, Water Chestnut and Thai Basil Potstickers, (which are also delicious - would recommend making) but these particular dumplings are particularly special courtesy of the sesame crusted bottoms on each dumpling. When cooked, the sesame seeds go super crunchy and add in the most delightful flavour to the veggie gyozas. Honestly, I'm going to sesame coat all things that go in the frypan in my kitchen now because major yum!
Ingredients;
1 medium onion, finely diced
1 stalk celery, finely diced
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp minced ginger
1 carrot, peeled and grated
1 cup red cabbage, finely sliced
1/2 cup wombok (Chinese cabbage), finely sliced
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp dried chilli flakes
30 gow gee dumpling wrappers*
1/4 cup sesame seeds
Sesame seed oil
The Dipping Sauce
1 tbsp hoisin sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce
1. Take a large frypan over medium/high heat and add some sesame seed oil to it. Add in the diced onion, celery plus the minced garlic and ginger, stirring well. Cook for a few minutes until the onion starts to lightly brown.
2. Add in the grated carrot, plus the finely sliced cabbage and wombok. Mix through well, then place a lid over the pan for a couple of minutes.
3. Add in the soy sauce and the chilli flakes, again mixing everything through well. Allow to cook for a few minutes more then remove from the heat and allow to cool.
4. To make the gyozas, spoon 1 tsp (approx.) of the veggie mixture into the centre of each dumpling wrapper. Brush water around the edge of half the wrapper (I just use my finger dipped into a small bowl of water to do this). Fold the wrapper in half, then pinch the edges together to seal. For added pizzaz, when pressing the edges together slightly gather one side of the wrapper to create a small pleat of fold in the dumpling. Repeat the process with all the remaining wrappers.
5. Add the sesame seeds to a shallow bowl. After you've used all your filling and made all the gyozas, take them one at a time and brush a little bit of water on the bottom. Then press the bottom of each gyoza in the sesame seeds to coat the bottom of the gyoza.
6. Add some sesame seed oil to a clean frypan over medium/high heat (make sure the frypan has a matching lid - this is SUPER important because you need to cook and then steam them in the one pan). Add each gyoza to the pan and allow to cook till the bottoms are browned and the sesame seeds are golden and crunchy - this should take a few minutes. Add 1/4 cup water to the pan and immediately cover with the lid, allowing the gyozas to cook for a further 5 minutes.
7. To make your dipping sauce, mix together the hoisin and soy in a small bowl.
8. Serve the gyozas immediately after they've cooked. I like to add a sprinkling of finely diced spring onions and coriander over the top but that's just me being extra and is entirely optional! Enjoy!!
*You can buy gow gee dumpling wrappers from most supermarkets (I got mine in the fridge section of my local Woolworths), or alternatively most Asian grocers should also have them
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