Japanese Pork And Mushroom Gyoza With Beet and Carrot Slaw

Looks pretty tasty, right?

That was my dinner last night. An odd combo? Maybe. Delicious? Definitely. I was really happy with how well the 3 dishes went together.

I made Pork and Mushroom Gyoza with an easy veggie fried rice and oh-so-pretty Beet and Carrot Slaw with a Poppy Seed Vinaigrette.

The slaw was soooooo unbelievably easy to make. I am definitely bringing this to the next BBQ I am invited to. The colors are amazing. The Gyoza (pronounced - "gyooh-zah") were a little more fussy to make but were certainly worth the little bit of effort they required. The dipping sauce I made to accompany it really put it over the top.

I ever-so-slightly adapted the Goyza recipe from an article in The Province Newspaper, from Chef Bill Jones' new cookbook. (I cut the recipe out and didn't happen to keep the piece with the name of the cookbook. Sorry about that.)

I am sharing the Gyoza recipe, the dipping sauce, the slaw, and the dressing. Let's get right to it!

Japanese Pork and Mushroom Goyza with Dipping Sauce

(Slightly adapted from Chef Bill Jones, The Province Newspaper)

Ingredients

Dipping Sauce

1/4 cup rice vinegar

1 Tbsp soy sauce

1/4 tsp ginger

2 tsp Thai Sweet Chili Sauce

Gyoza Dough

1 cup flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 to 1/2 cup boiling water

Gyoza Filling

1/2 lb ground pork

1/2 cup mushrooms, diced fine

1/4 cup cabbage, shredded

2 Tbsp onion, diced fine

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp cornstarch

1 tsp sesame oil + a little more sesame oil for frying

few Tbsp extra oil for frying

Directions

Prepare sauce: whisk together rice vinegar, soy sauce, ginger, and chili sauce. Chill until ready to use.

Prepare dough: In a food processor, pulse together flour and salt briefly. Slowly add the water through the feed tube until dough comes together in a ball. (The original recipe stated 1/4 cup boiling water but I used closer to 1/2 cup.)

Remove the dough from the processor, cover in plastic wrap, and let rest for at least one hour - up to 3.

While dough is resting, prepare filling: In a large bowl, combine pork, mushroom, cabbage, onion, cornstarch, and 1 tsp sesame oil until well combined. Place in a large sauce pan drizzled with a little sesame oil,  over medium high heat.

Cook until pork is no longer pink.

Set in fridge to cool.

When dough has rested and filling is cool, assemble your goyza.

Cut dough into 24 equal pieces. The pieces should be about the size of a small walnut.

Lay a piece on a floured work surface and roll out to a very thin circle. Place 1 Tbsp of filling into center of circle.

Dip your fingers into a bowl of water and wet the edges of the circle. Fold circle in half and seal the edges by pinching together. Be sure to keep any filling out of the edges or it won't seal firmly. Make 3 or 4 small folds along the edge to make a pleated finish.

Repeat until all 24 pieces of dough have been used. (I place mine on a cookie sheet lined with plastic wrap and cover with a tea towel to prevent them from drying out.)

In a large, non-stick frying pan, heat about 1 - 2 Tbsp of oil over medium high heat. Add the gyoza to the pan and cook for 1 minute.

Add 1 cup of water and cover frying pan with a lid. (Careful, this will spatter a bit as you add the water!)

Cook, covered for 7 - 8 minutes, until moisture evaporates.

Remove lid and continue cooking until bottoms are browned, about 2 more minutes.

In the photo above I flipped one over so you can see how nice and crispy the bottoms should be.

Remove from heat and serve with dipping sauce. (You may need to give the dipping sauce another quick whisk before serving it.)

And now for the Beet and Carrot Slaw:

Beet and Carrot Slaw with Poppy Seed Vinaigrette

Ingredients

Slaw

4 large carrots, grated

1/4 of a medium cabbage, grated

1 large beet, grated

1/2 small onion, diced fine

Poppy Seed Vinaigrette

1/3 cup sugar

2 Tbsp sesame seeds

1 Tbsp poppy seeds

1/4 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

2 Tbsp onion, diced fine

1/2 cup olive oil

1/4 cup white vinegar

Directions

Combine grated carrot, cabbage, beet, and onion in a medium sized bowl.

Prepare dressing: Whisk together all dressing ingredients until combined.

Drizzle dressing over salad and toss to combine. Start with a few spoonfuls and go from there until you reach your desired taste. Store remaining dressing in the fridge.

A couple of notes:

1. The original recipe stated the pork mixture did NOT need to be cooked first. You can fill the wrappers raw and it will cook in the pan while it steams. I am really nervous with pork and felt better cooking it before filling the wrappers.

2. After I grated my beet I drained the excess moisture out of it by using a cheesecloth. I didn't want the beet juice muddy-ing up the color of the salad.

3. The veggies in the slaw are all raw! There is no need to cook anything first.

4. The veggie fried rice in the photo doesn't really have a recipe. I just fried up some veggies I had on hand, added the cooked, leftover rice I had, added a few Tbsp of soy sauce, and heated through.

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