Dumpling Cube

/ recipes

I love making gyoza, but because I am not adept enough at it to hand-make them at the rate my family consumes them, I wanted to try the Dumpling Cube my mother-in-law gave me for Christmas.  The result was my best batch of gyoza using the Classic Pork Gyoza from Japanese Soul Cooking as a starting point.  Of course, I would make a few changes:

Ingredients

  • 3 C finely chopped green cabbage (about 8 ounces)
  • 1/2 C seitan (optional, it was leftover from last week)
  • small bunch of chives
  • 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
  • 6 ounces woodear mushrooms, stems removed
  • 2 carrots, peel the skins
  • 1 T freshly grated ginger 
  • 1 pound ground pork
  • 1 T soy sauce
  • 1/2 C toasted sesame oil
  • 1/2 t ground black pepper
  • 1/2 t salt
  • 2 t sugar
  • 2 T corn starch, plus extra for dusting
  • 100 square wonton wrapper, 3-4 inches in diameter
  • 1 T corn starch mixed with 3 T cold water
  • 4 bouillon cubes dissolved in a quart of water

Steps

  1. Chop stuff.  Given how much work is downstream, I relied heavily on the food processor.
    Chopper: Cabbage, chives, garlic, seitan
    Shredder: woodear mushrooms, carrots
    Hand-grated: ginger
  2. Mix with soy, 2T of the sesame oil, pepper, salt, sugar and ground pork.  Work it until evenly mixed.
  3. In a separate bowl, mix the corn starch into water. This is going to be used to help fuse the wrappers.
  4. Heat a sauce pan with 2T sesame oil to medium-high.
  5. Load the Dumpling Cube with four wrappers:

    In this photo, I used round ones. just use the square ones.
    In this photo, I started with round wrappers.  Don’t.  Just use the square ones.
  6. Dollop a half ounce of filling into each wrapper.

    Dollop about a half ounce-ish of filling into each.
    Dollop about a half ounce-ish of filling into each.
  7. Paint with the corn starch solution.

    Coat with corn starch
    Coat with corn starch
  8. Clamp down.

    Fold up the sides of the dumpling cube. Easy-peasy!
    Fold up the sides of the dumpling cube. Easy-peasy!
  9. Repeat.

    Repeat a few times until you have a plate-worth ready to go.
    Repeat a few times until you have a plate-worth ready to go.
  10. To cook: in a large saucepan, add 2T of sesame oil. Add ~20 gyoza and cook about a minute on each side to brown. Pour in about 3/4 C of the boullion mixture and cover. Cook until the steam dies down.

    It's going to splatter.
    It’s going to splatter.
  11. Serve promptly.
    final
  12. I didn’t have the usual dipping sauces (rice vinegar, soy, fresh ginger, sesame oil) because these were plenty flavorful.

    Leftovers
    Leftovers

For dessert, I made black rice pudding.

Black Rice Pudding. This goes for $6/small cup at the local Thai place. Much cheaper to make myself.
Black Rice Pudding. This goes for $6/small cup at the local Thai place. Much cheaper to make myself.

Ingredients:

  • 1/2C Hei Mey (I got mine here)
  • Coconut milk (or coconut oil + milk)
  • 2T sugar

Simply cook the black rice in the Zojurishi rice cooker.  Stir in the remaining ingredients and serve.