Gyoza dumplings are typically made with wheat based wrappers. This recipe uses more readily available rice paper. Using rice paper only really lends itself to pan frying and not to the steamed equivalent which is so popular in Japan. The advantages of using rice paper though are that it is gluten free, you don’t have to order ingredients online and they are thinner which means more room for the delicious filling.

Ingredients

For the filling:

  • 2 x Pure pork sausages – remove skin and lightly fried
  • 15 x King prawns – cooked and roughly chopped
  • 1 x heaped teaspoon Garlic paste
  • 2 x spring onions – finely chopped
  • Coriander (small handful) roughly chopped
  • Ginger (small head) – finely chopped
  • Lime zest (2 strips finely chopped) and juice (big squeeze)
  • Soy sauce (big glug)
  • Fish sauce ( bigger glug)
  • 5 x schezuan pepper corns (crushed in pestle and mortar)

For the Wrapper

  • Rice paper (you can get it in any chinese supermarket) – briefly submerged in water and left for 2 minutes to soften.

To Garnish

  • Crushed peanuts (I used chilli nuts)
  • Crushed schezuan pepper corns
  • Chopped spring onion
  • Chopped coriander
  • Splash of good dark soy

Method…

  • Make the filling by combining all the ingredients above and mixing thoroughly
  • Take softened rice paper and place a good tablespoon of the filling mixture in the very middle. Create a half moon by folding the circular paper over the filling and press the edges together, Draw the corners of the half-moon to the centre in a croissant like shape. (shape is known as ‘big hug gyoza”)
  • Note: Because these are not the traditional wheat variety, they may not stick as well. This is why A) you have to pan fry these, if you poach or steam they will simply fall apart; and
    B) you may have to man handle them a bit, they are quite tricky to maintain the shape.
  • Pan fry on both sides for a couple of minutes in a little oil on a moderate heat.
  • Garnish as above.