cook

Today, I invited a few neighbors for Happy Hour.  Everyone bought a bottle of wine.  I served a L'Estandon rosefrom Cote de Provence.  I love to drink roses in the summer. I love its color and refreshing taste.  Dan came with a red wine from La Vieille Ferme from Cotes du Ventoux. He said it wasa good one and a great buy - under $10.  He was right.   Ellen brought a beautiful Santa Barbara Chardonnay from Gainey Vineyard. This one was a hit.  

I decided to make Gyozas for everyone. They are the perfect food for a casual gathering. People love to participate in the wrapping process .  No one quite wraps gyoza the same way. I once made gyozas for a party of sixty Brazilian and Canadian film crew in Toronto. There were about 7 or 8 people who volunteered to help and the volunteers kept growing. The kitchen got chaotic and Tommy, one of my volunteer wrappers, ended up slicing his finger with a glass he was using to cut the wonton skins into roundshapes. He had bought square wrappers by mistake instead of the roundones we commonly use for gyoza. Austin, his boyfriend had to rush him to emergency. I felt really bad. Some of the gyozas that we made that evening turned out like empanadas and charcoal but we managed to fry them all up and feed the hungry crowd. They were ecstatic but it was a lot to manage.  

I make my gyozas with three folds on each side. I have tried folding them in one direction but they don't come out as nice. Gyoza making is similar to knitting. Once you get into a certain habit, it sticks with you.  In my meat Gyoza, I use ground pork or chicken, shrimp,scallions, napa cabbage, garlic and ginger. It's all chopped up evenly and I marinate the meat mixture in sesame oil, sake, and soy sauce for a few hours. For today's happy hour, I made two packets worth of gyoza,about fifty in all. They disappeared along with the wines, lemon cillo and the strawberry buckle that Ellen and Liz each went back home to get.  It's good to have neighbors over.  We were one happy bunch. Since I was out of town on Memorial day, this really felt like my first day of summer.  Please also refer to the pictures in the Gyozas I made for a Summer lunch. (here is the link)

GYOZA

Serves 4 (or more as appetizers) 

• 2 packages gyoza wrappers (about 50 pieces) 
• 3/4 lbs ground pork or ground chicken
• 2 cups napa cabbage, chopped finely
• 6 shrimp, deveined and chopped finely
• 3 scallions, chopped finely
• 1 tbls ginger, peeled and chopped finely
• 1-2 clove garlic, peeled and chopped finely
• 1 tbls soy sauce 
• 1 tbls sake
• 2 tsp sesame oil
• 1/2 tsp salt
• dash of pepper
• 1 tbls water
• Sesame oil for cooking
• Serve gyoza with Chili Oil (La yu) and soy sauce

1. Combine the meat, cabbage, scallions, ginger, garlic, soy sauce, sake, sesame oil, water, salt and peper. Mix well. Refrigerate for a few hours to marinate the meat. 
2. Prepare a cup of water in put it to the side of the cutting board where you will make the gyozas. The water will be used like glue to seal the wrapper.
3. Put one wrapper on a clean dry cutting board. Place approximately 1.5 teaspoons of meat in the middle of the wrapper and fold in half.  Do not overstuff the wrapper. It will tear. Seal the edge of the wrapper by basting it with water.  You can do this by dipping your finger intothe cup of water and use the wet tip of your finger to baste the edge of the wrapper.  Make folds as in the picture or anyway you like.  Use more water to baste and seal areas of the wrapper that are open. You don't want the meat to fall out while frying.  Line wrapped gyoza on aplate. You can refrigerate the gyoza at this stage for a few hours andcook them later but best if you fry them right away.
4. Ina medium size non-stick frying pan, pour about 2 tablespoons of sesame oil or more and heat pan to medium. You will get the best results when the pan is heated evenly.  It's the same idea as making pancakes. Put about half the gyozas in the pan. When the bottom of the gyozas are evenly brown, pour about 3/4 cup of water or enough to cover the gyozas a third way in water. Turn heat to a low and cover the pan.  Let it simmer until almost all of the liquid is gone. Open the lid and bring the pan to a medium high.  Let the bottom of the gyozas get crisp. You can add a teaspoon of sesame oil in the pan if you want to have a really crispy finish.  Loosen up the gyozas with a spatula.  When all of them look crispy, transfer to a serving plate, brown side up.  Serve immediately with chili oil and soysauce.  While everyone is eating the first batch, you can start the second batch.  Makes about 50.