Pork Gyozas

Ingredients

100g white cabbage

100g Chinese leaf

3 spring onions

300g minced pork

1 tsp sesame oil

1 tbsp mirin

2 tbsp soy sauce

1/2 tsp grated ginger

2 cloves garlic

2 packets gyoza/dumpling skins

Vegetable oil

Soy sauce and Chinese rice wine vinegar, to serve

Method

Chop the cabbage, Chinese leaf and spring onions - I use a food processor to cut everything down. Then you have to squeeze hard to remove the excess liquid - this is a really important step. Once you've done that, stick the veggies in a large bowl. Then chop up the garlic and put that on top, together with the minced pork, mirin, sesame seed oil, soy sauce and grated ginger. Mix well - use your hands!

To make my dumplings I use a gyoza press I bought from the Japan Centre in London. I used to make dumplings by hand and doing it that way takes forever. It still takes a while to use the press, but all in all it's much easier. You just place the skin on the open press, add a small teaspoon of filling, then wet the edges and bring the handles together. To make gyozas by hand, you hold the dumpling skin in the palm of your hand, place a teaspoon of filling in the centre, wet the edges, fold the skin in half and press the edges firmly. Then press and pleat the edges to seal.

If you thought that was fiddly, try cooking them! Heat a small amount of vegetable oil in a pan, and place five gyozas inside. Any more than this won’t cook properly - you're going to fry and then steam them, so you need that extra empty space.

Fry the gyozas for two minutes on a high heat, then add around three tablespoons of water. Cover straight away with a snug lid, and allow to bubble for two minutes on medium low, or until the water has evaporated, then take the dumplings off the heat and allow them to sit in their own steam for around a minute. Now you can take the lid off and start all over again!

Eat with a dip made of equal quantities of Chinese rice wine vinegar and light soy sauce.

NOTES:

You can make the dip fancier by adding chopped chilli, chives, garlic, ginger or a couple of drops of sesame oil.

You can freeze these gyozas and they'll keep pretty well. Defrosting them is hit or miss as the skins can go soggy. The best bet for cooking previously frozen gyozas is deep frying, as they are less likely to break up or turn into a soggy mess.

Use turkey or chicken mince if you prefer.