You know what, I’m not to sure how these little things should be called Gyoza ? Jiaozi  ? pot-stickers ? something else ? go figure…

Nevertheless, there’s like a gajillion varieties of them, here’s mine, simple and tasty.

For around 35 dumplings

for the dough :

• 200g organic flour , or plain all purpose flour
• 50g sticky rice flour (alternatively you can probably use tapioca starch)
• 125cl water

for filling

• 500g skinned and deboned pork belly coarse minced or just minced with a knife
• 2 green onion with their leaves,or chives
• 15 basil leaves
• 1tsp grey kosher salt

for deglazing

• 2cl sesame seed oil
• 3cl soy sauce
• 15cl water

Prepare dough ahead

Mix wheat and rice flour before adding water, one half first, start gathering your dough in crums, then add the rest and knead until dough is smooth

What about that sticky rice flour ? most recipes say all purpose flour is fine…

It is fine, but adding one fifth of  that flour will bring you a slightly better texture when cooking, it will highlight the contrast between the crunchy bits of the dough that were cooked sticked to the pan and the gummy soft texture on the rest of the wrapper.

Rest dough arounf one hour.

For the filling, mince onion, basil leaves, crush salt and mix with the meat.

Once your dough is rested, cut it into 10g patties,

Flatten, in round shapes, you may use a cookie cutter if you have difficulties getting them round. they should be the size of your palm.

Fill your wrappers with one teaspoon of garnish and foldaccording to your preferred shape

I fold my dumplings in this traditional shape : whywouldIbothertheyregoingtoeatthatlikegreedypigsanyway

a genuine classic for those of my kind who have the patience and dexterity of a mammoth doing meth

I’m sure you can find a tutorial on Youtube

Before cooking, mix the deglazing ingredients (it’s a trap! it won’t mix : oil and water, do try to get it mixed a bit though)

Cooking happens in two steps :

Give your dumplings a little singe on a medium heat frying pan,(roughly 30 seconds), when they start browning, pour 3mm of your deglazing mix at the bottom of the pan and cover quickly. let the steam go out, nudge them gently to keep them from actually sticking.

Once all the water is evaporated, turn them upside down to give them another browned edge.

serve hot with a little soy sauce on the side for dipping.