Gourmet Emperor: Master Of Culinary World 127 Making Gyoza

"Come on, Henry…you already kissing with Clara and Claire, what makes you groggy like that?"

"Still this is my first time kissed by you in the lips, sis"

"Oh? Do you want more?"

"Sis… Don't joke with me with something like that"

"Alright alright…that was a joke. But it's fun to see your face when teased like that…hihihihi"

Seeing my sister happy face when teasing me, make me feel ease. If that accidental kiss can make her happy, then so be it, although it seems I will never able to forget the sensation made from that kiss out of my mind.

"Sis, I still have other things to do. I'll visit you again with new dish after I made it"

"Oh? You're leaving?"

"I'll back later with host plan for the banquet that I told you yesterday"

"Okay, thanks for that curry dish, Henry"

I leave my sister room and heading to my room. There's no one the when I arrive in my room. I took off my coat and change into a simple dress and take my knives set before I go to the kitchen again. Since they already know how to make noodles, I guess I should make another dish which usually comes along with ramen, its gyoza or also known as j.a.panese dumpling. It is good to eat with ramen but also can be eaten as a snack. Like the curry powder, usually, I can get gyoza wrapper in the supermarket so I only need to make the gyoza filling. I already search in the online shop, but there's nothing such gyoza wrapper there. Maybe because they can't decide how they going to sell that wrapper, in kilogram weight or by how many sheets, but it doesn't matter since it's quite easy to make the gyoza wrapper. The problem is the time needed to make it. And I must make it gyoza wrapper now because it takes quite a time to prepare it.

I back to castle kitchen and see Craig is no longer there and the cooks still trying to make that noodles dough. A table immediately prepared for me in the kitchen. I cut the pleasantries and say my intention come to the kitchen this time.

"Guys, I will give another recipe that goes with the noodles. Prepare these ingredients as I said, there are three kind of ingredients, one for the wrappers, one for the filling, and last dipping sauce. For the wrappers, I only need flour, water, and salt, and for the filling, I will need these ingredients:

2 cups chopped cabbage, 1/4 cup chopped onion, 1 clove garlic, chopped, 1/4 cup chopped carrot, 1/2 pound ground pork, 1 egg

For the dipping sauce, just give me some vinegar and soy sauce"

The cooks prepared what I ask while I prepared the tools I needed like knives, cutting board, and rolling pin. After the ingredients ready and prepared in my table, I start to make the gyoza wrappers first. The ingredients to make wrapper are: 2 cups flour, ½ tsp salt, ½ cup water (½ cup = 120 ml, should be around 120 - 150 ml, plus more if necessary) (Just boiled), and some potato starch

Since the ingredients are ready, my hands start to make the dough.

"Take a look for how I make this dough, gentlemen. It needs quite some time to prepare, so you must calculating cooking time when you want to make this dish later"

After giving that speech, I start to make the dough.

Sift the flour into a large bowl.

Add salt to just-boiled water and mix until completely dissolved.

Add the just-boiled water into the flour little by little, stirring with a spatula. You will eventually need to use your hands to form the dough into a ball. If the flour is still separated, add 1/2 Tbsp. water at a time till you can form the texture into a ball.

Transfer the dough to the work surface and knead the dough for 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes, the texture of the dough will be much smoother. Cut the dough in half.

Shape each half into a long log, about 1½ inches in diameter (it doesn't have to be perfect if you're going to use a cookie cutter later). Wrap each log with damp fabrics. Let it sit for 30 minutes.

Unwrap the dough. Sprinkle a little potato starch on the work surface and cut each log crosswise into about 12 pieces (may vary depending on the log length and width). Cover the dough with damp kitchen towel at all time to prevent from drying.

For each piece of dough into a ball shape.

Press the ball onto the work surface.

Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough, but DO NOT roll out (flatten) the TOP and BOTTOM edge. This is a trick to make a nice round shape.

Rotate the dough 90 degrees and repeat rolling the dough to make a nice round shape. Try to roll out the dough to a thin circle.

Sprinkle each wrapper with potato starch and stack the gyoza wrappers. Make sure to the wrappers covered with damp kitchen towel.

Now the gyoza wrappers are ready to use. And while waiting for gyoza dough to rise for 30 minutes, I use that time to make the gyoza filling

1. Heat sesame oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Mix in cabbage, onion, garlic, and carrot. Cook and stir until cabbage is limp. Mix in ground pork and egg. Cook until pork is evenly brown and egg is no longer runny.

2. Preheat vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.

3. Place approximately 1 tablespoon of the cabbage and pork mixture in the center of each wrapper. Fold wrappers in half over filling, and seal edges with moistened fingers.

4. In the preheated vegetable oil, cook gyoza approximately 1 minute per side, until lightly browned. Place water into the skillet and reduce heat. Cover and allow gyoza to steam until the water is gone.

In a small bowl, mix soy sauce and rice vinegar. Use the mixture as a dipping sauce for the finished wrappers.

"Guys, this dish called Gyoza. This can be eaten directly or served with noodles. Now I will take this finished gyoza to my father to taste. You can start practicing to make this gyoza. You will see me often in the kitchen today since I still have more recipe to teach you all"

"Yes, thank you, young master"

I put the gyoza in two plates and the dipping sauce in small bowl. The first plate will be presented to my father while the other plate is for my girls to enjoy.