Fried gyoza (Japanese dumplings) filled with Sri Lankan spicy mackerel (saba) filling.
Ideal as a party-food or snack, easy to make, and freeze well.
They are super-crispy and tastes so good, so you don’t really need any dipping sauce but ketchup or chili sauce goes well with these spicy bites. Just feel free to serve them with your favorite sauce.
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Everyone loves Gyoza
Gyoza is one of the most popular foods in Japan. They are made of a thin sheet of wheat flour with a filling that can be boiled (sui-gyoza) pan-fried (yaki-gyoza) or deep-fried (age-gyoza). The filling for this dish usually contains pork, cabbage (or Chinese cabbage), scallions, ginger and sesame seed oil.
They are incredibly versatile and very flexible, so you can easily change the ingredients for the filling depending upon what you have or what you are in the mood for and then just fold them the way you like.
more Japanese recipes
Potesara (Japanese Potato Salad)
Japanese Coffee Jelly with Agar
EASY Japanese Coffee Jelly
gyoza with a twist
In this post, I will show you how to make Japanese fried gyoza with a Sri Lankan twist. You can easily make them using shop-bought gyoza wrappers. You can make Sri Lankan spicy fish filling with canned fish called saba kan. Saba kan or canned mackerel is the most popular canned fish in Japan. Feel free to try other canned fish like Tuna.
Sri Lankan Fish Filling
You can make the filling with fresh fish like tuna, but most of us use canned fish just for convenience, mostly canned mackerel or canned tuna. In this recipe, I used canned mackerel for the filling and didn’t drain the water.You can add chopped onion, garlic & vegetables cut into small pieces and mashed potatoes into your fish filling and flavor it with spices like pep
per, chili, turmeric, clove, cardamom or cinnamon. If you don’t have whole spices, just add about 1/2 teaspoon of of garam masala. Feel frre to adjust the seasonings to your liking. Make sure to remove whole spices and pandan leaves before filling the gyoza. I love to eat curry leaves because of the taste, flavor and health benefits, so I usually don’t remove curry leaves.
More sri lankan recipes
Spicy Chicken Curry
Coconut Milk Egg Curry
Chicken Curry with Coconut Milk
Spicy Tuna Fish Curry
Jiaozi, Gyoza, Potstickers and Wontons
All of them are dumplings. Jiaozi ( jow-zee) is a type of Chinese dumpling and jiaozi are usually filled with ground pork, cabbage, and scallions, and served with a dipping sauce made of soy sauce, vinegar, and sesame oil. They are called shui jiao, if boiled; zheng jiao, if steamed; and guo tie or jian jiao, if pan-fried.
Gyoza is the Japanese version of Jiaozi. Pan-fried jiaozi are commonly known as potstickers or panstickers in North America, or yaki-gyōza in Japan. Wontons are another type of Chinese dumplings and typically a square thin sheet.
Folding Gyoza; the fun & challenging part
There are many ways to fold gyoza. The simplest folding method is to place the filling in the middle of the wrapper. Dip one finger in water and draw a circle along the outer edge of the wrapper, then fold over and seal, making sure you apply enough pressure so that the edges stick.
Choose the method you like
They look nice when there are several small pleats in the top half of the wrapper. In this post, I’m sharing 2 folding methods. Choose the pattern you prefer or just wrap them up in your own style. Fold the wrapper in half, start making pleats only on one side before you seal in the filling. OR Fold the wrapper in half, seal together and then pleat across. Probably, this will be a bit easier.
Making Gyoza: Useful tips
- Once you open the wrapper package, keep it covered, otherwise, they will dry out very quickly, and then it will be difficult to handle them.
- Be sure to place only a teaspoon of filling on the wrapper and seal well your gyoza to avoid leaking when you fry them.
- Keep the folded gyoza covered all the time, otherwise, they will dry out.
- Make sure the oil is at the right temperature, adjust the heat as needed, and don’t overcrowd the saucepan with gyoza when you fry them.
- It only takes about 20 to 30 seconds on each side to fry the gyoza to a golden color. You want them golden brown and crisp.
- When you have finished preparing the gyoza, you can fry them or freeze them. Place unfried-gyoza in one layer on a baking tray and wrap with plastic wrap and then freeze. Once the gyoza are frozen, you can transfer them to a freezer bag.
Fried Gyoza Filled with Mackerel Recipe
How to Make Fried Gyoza Filled with Mackerel
Ingredients
- 1 pack gyoza wrappers L size/25 wrappers
For the filling
- 1 tbsp clove garlic finely chopped
- 1 tbsp ginger finely chopped
- few curry leaves optional
- 2 thin slices of pandan leaves optional
- 1 green chilli finely chopped
- 2 cardamom optional
- 3 cloves optional
- 1 cinnamon stick 4 cm (optional)
- 4 tbsp onion finely chopped
- 3 tbsp leeks finely chopped
- Salt & black pepper to taste
- 1 tbs chilli powder
- 1 tbs chili flakes
- 400 g caned fish
- 1/4 tbs turmeric powder optional
- Salt & black pepper to taste
- 250 g potato boiled and mashed
- Oil for cooking
- Dipping sauce of choice
Instructions
- Heat oil in a saucepan over medium heat.
- Add garlic, ginger, curry and pandan leaves, green chili and stir.
- Add onion and leeks and stir.
- Add salt, pepper and chilli powder & chilli flakes and stir fry all together for about 2 minutes
- Add canned fish and break it up into pieces with your wooden spoon whilst continuing to fry the ingredients in the frypan for about 3 minutes.
- Add salt, pepper and turmeric and continue frying until the excess moisture in the frypan has evaporated for about 2 minutes
- Finally add mashed potato and cook for about 2 minutes while stirring. Your mixture should have a relatively smooth consistency by this stage.
- Take the pan off the stove and transfer into a bowl and allow to cool.
- Prepare your work-station with a small bowl of cold water, gyoza wrappers, a tray for the finished gyoza, a spoon, a plate.
- Take a single gyoza wrapper and place a teaspoonful of filling in the center.
- Dip one finger in water and draw a circle along the outer edge of the wrapper so that it’s wet all around.
- Fold the wrapper in half, seal together and then pleat across, making sure you apply enough pressure so that the edges stick.
- Transfer the patties to a plate and cover with a plastic wrap.
- Repeat with remaining wrappers and the filling.
- Heat some oil in a pan over low to medium heat.
- Fry them in small batches, making sure not to overcrowd the pan, until they turn golden brown in the center and slightly darker at the edges (about 30 sec per side).
- Remove wontons from the oil & place on a paper towel to drain the excess oil.
- Serve hot, either with or without a dipping sauce.
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