I’ll admit, there are certain dishes that taste just as good store or restaurant bought as they do homemade. Gyoza is not one of them. These little dumplings when made right are absolutely delicious.

Unfortunately, a lot of restaurants and frozen food aisles have mutant versions of these little buggers — from their machine-friendly simplified designs, tough dough wrappers and overly complex flavored fillings.

My recipe for gyoza takes into consideration a busy life-style, while not compromising on taste.

Making the gyoza wrappers from scratch does make a difference and my grandmother made delicious wrappers from scratch. However, the making of the dough and the rolling it into little circles is too time consuming for my lifestyle, so I do buy the wrappers. You can find them at any Chinese or Japanese grocery store.

Loni’s “No Gyoza For You!” Potsticker Recipe

• 1-2 packages of Gyoza wrappers

Filling:

• 1 pound of ground beef (I like to use 80/20 beef as the extra fat content does make for a more tender filling)
• 3 tablespoons of soy sauce
• 1 1/2 tablespoons of sesame oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of rice wine vinegar
• 1 large yellow onion (If you can only find medium onions, use two)
• 4 cloves of garlic

“You gotta have gumption” gyoza sauce:

• 4 tablespoons of soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons of rice wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon of garlic chilli sauce
• 1 teaspoon of sesame oil

1. Peel the onion, chop coarsely and puree in a food processor. Mince the 4 cloves of garlic. Heat up a large pan to medium with 3 tablespoons of canola oil and cook the onion until tender. Add garlic and let simmer to reduce the moisture content.

2. In a large bowl, add the ground beef, soy sauce, sesame oil and rice wine vinegar. Mix thoroughly. Then add the onion/garlic mixture and mix throughly again.

3. Place a small portion of the filling mixture at the center of a circular gyoza wrapper. Dip a finger in water and spread the water around the edges of the wrapper. Fold the wrapper over the filling and close by creating pleats as shown in the photos.

4. In a large pan, heat up 3 tablespoons of canola oil at medium heat and gently place the dumplings into pan. Don’t crowd the pan, if you need to, cook them in batches. Cover pan and cook for 2 minutes. Add 2 tablespoons water and cover pan again. Cook for another 4 minutes or until the center is cooked.

5. Mix all the ingredients for the sauce together with gusto in a small bowl.

These dumplings will keep for a day so you can make them the day before, refrigerate and when ready, cook them.

Once done, place them on a plate and serve with sauce on the side.

Now if anyone tells you that you smell like a giant fried gyoza after you slaved over these, you can grunt, “No gyoza for you!” and they will regret it.

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Loni Kao Stark

Loni is a self-professed foodie, adventure travel seeker and aspiring artist. It's been said her laugh can be heard from San Jose all the way to the Golden Gate Bridge. She's been known to dance and spin across Napa and the Baja. The former Ms. Global Petite runner-up is host of WineTube TV, SSC Presents and The Artist Diaries. In a former life she was simply: "sushiweakness." More »

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