Recipe! Summer Stamina Giant Gyōza (Patreon)

In Japan -- especially in the sweltering summer months -- you'll see a lot of food labeled "stamina". Basically it means there's a lot of garlic or chines (nira) involved.

I love, love, love gyōza and I love, love, love garlic so this was our dinner for two nights running. So here are some summer stamina pot stickers made my favorite way (very crispy!).

Ingredients (these are all "about" measurements because I ended up having meat left over and making a gyōza omelette our of it):

Gyoza wrappers (30) I like the thicker kind

Minced meat (used pork, beef is out of this world expensive here) (around 400ish grams)

Nira (always translated as chives, but I feel it's different. Funny story, I THOUGHT I bought nira but ended up buying a big bunch of thin spring onions...so I used that. Next time I'll get nira!

To flavor meat:

Oyster saucer (2 TB)

Soy sauce (2 TB)

Sesame Oil (2 TB)

Katakuriko (potato starch, I think corn starch will work fine) (2 TB)

Powdered chicken soup stock (torigara soup) (1~2 TB)

Ginger (fresh or tube, I used about 2 TB from a tube, if fresh grate)

Minced garlic (fresh or tube, I used fresh...a lot)

Sugar (1 teaspoon) , optional

Pepper (tekito, to taste

(Oh! I also added a couple splashes of cheap red wine we had in the fridge, beer would work, too. I saw a program on Japanese TV ages ago that said the secret to juicy gyōza wasn't the oily parts, but some other liquid. This place used some oolong tea in with the meat. Wow! Not enough to make it soupy, but I ~imagine~ it steams up inside the closed wrappers and helps cook the meat, then when you bite into the pot sticker later, it's all juicy goodness, but not so oily. I usually splash in beer if there's any laying around. I've done tea too. Julyan swears by a little water.)

Tadah!

The above is what mine looked like pre mixing. Of course, those SHOULD be nira not green onions, but I love hosonegi, so it's okay. I'm not bitter.

After you mix all the ingredient into the meat, I usually take a spoonful, make a small meatball, cook it in the microwave, and taste it to see if the seasoning is right. Adjust as needed.

Put in fridge for about 30 minutes. Fill a very small bowl with water and a spoonful of katakuriko (potato starch, or corn!) and mix. This will help you glue down those edges. Gotta keep stirring every time you use it because the starch settles.

Fill and fold your gyōza per your favorite method. I put some oil in the bottom of a pan and went ahead and lined them up in concentrate circles as I made them. Sometimes I put them on thin bed of katakuriko so they don't stick. But for this recipe sticking together is the point. Wait til you see the end!

After you fill the pan, turn on the heat low to medium and back and forth, making sure they're cooking slow enough that the meat cooks, but getting some nice brown on the bottom -- but not burning. I'll turn the stove up at the very end, so slow is fine. I also threw in a splash or two of water and put the top on to steam them a little.

I usually flip them with long chopsticks one at a time, so all sides are crispy. It's like deep friend gyōza using just a little bit of oil. But there's today's method I quite like that's easier actually.

After they've got a nice brown on the bottom and I've check to make sure their cooked inside, I take that small dish of potato starch and water, stir it and dump it in.

Does this work?

The above link is ~right~ before I threw in the water and potato starch. You can see it behind the pan.

Below is after I poured it in.

The bottom gets kind of sticky and gloopy at first. But just hang in there. I turn the heat up some, make sure they're not sticking to the pan and then after the gloopy goo part has all gone crispy, I add a drizzle of sesame oil, then flip them upside down on a plate. Oh, I use a paper towel to make sure there's no oil left. Scared it'll drip on my arm when I flip them.

Beware popping oil! Gyōza are nasty like that.

So the magic is that it becomes one giant stuck together gryōza. I know! Right?

Top with finely chopped spring onions and dip into ponzu or soy sauce with vinegar, anything you like!

This recipe pretty much knocks out all those polite chopstick manners I talked about a few episodes ago. At least the "don't use your chopsticks to cut something". You kind of have to. Or knife and fork it. That's fine, too. Or, hear me out, wait till it cools a little and use two hands. I really love gyōza.

Here's another photo from last night, night #2. Yeah, I guess that recipe makes a lot. I still had meat left over. And like I said, Gyoza Omelette was super delicious, too. 💕

What's your favorite gyōza? I like cheese, too.

Love you all! XO, stay safe and well,

t

P.S. All envelopes with postcards and stickers have been sent (last week), so they should be arriving soon.

BiG P.S. The Carp-Faced Boy and Other Tales is finished! Richard sent it to a whole bunch of audio book places and we're waiting for it to get put up. Kappa, oni, tengu, amabie tiers, I'll be giving you the MP3 soon. I need to make sure I get the right version from Richard. BIG BIG P.S. Remember Spencer's super cool book cover Uncanny Japan artwork? Well, he is an angel and a half and is letting me make t-shirts out of it!! I put it up on Threadless, but I need to make adjustments I think. Those last two P.S.s I'll blog about later in the week when the book is ready to give out and the Threadless store has all the merch fixed.