nourish: gyozas

mmmm...dumplings. How I love finger food. Little snacky morsels are my favourite. So festive. I got busy the other weekend and made myself feel special by making some delicious gyozas. Sometimes called potstickers, which is perfect because you first fry them, thereby sticking them to the pot, then throw some water in to finish cooking by steam.

I used the recipe from here, albeit a little hacked. I traded the pork mince for chicken mince. I used a bit of wombok rather than white cabbage. I also chucked some spring onions/ shallots/ green onions/ whatever you call them, finely chopped, into the mix.
Things I learned when making gyoza:
1. Whilst cooking shows make it look terribly posh and difficult to fold dumplings, for us normal folk, as long as it seals, any fold will do.
2. My stove is still crap.
Now to The Stuff and Nonsense Patented Rating System for Recipes.

Tightarseness: This recipe gets 3 out of 3. Very cheap ingredients, especially when I also made fridge-leftover-fried-rice-surprise to go with it.

Leftoverability: You can (apparently) freeze these before you cook them to have delicious snacks ready in the freezer. I just ate them all. They don't keep well once cooked, and anyway, I challenge anyone not to eat them straight out of the pot. 2 out of 3.

Tastyliciousness: Super-duper. Chewy and crunchy at once, tasty in the middle. I love these things. yum. 3 out of 3.

Into the mouths of babes: I was surprised when my kids actually had a go at these. They ate a couple each, as well as some rice. I would imagine they would just as easily reject them though. 1 out of 3.

Singlehandedness: Sadly a 0 out of 3 here. Definitely a weekend only recipe.

So in total, a 9 out of 15 points. Not something I would cook all the time, but a dish that is one of my faves.

Buon appetito!

S.