A couple weeks ago I posted here a little something about our gyoza feast with family. Today we did it again but we broke the rules and it was delicious. So instead of making plain gyoza we decided to make a few batches - each with a twist.
The normal gyoza ingredients - garlic, ginger and chives… with a couple extras - shiso and shiitake mushrooms for the variation batches.
Perilla or shiso leaf, which is member of the mint family, has a very distinct flavor. It’s often served with sashimi or sushi but there are many ways to use this ingredient. Today it was shiso leaf and mozzarella cheese!
Batch number two included these skrimp, cut up teeny tiny, with a little miso paste and shiitake mushrooms.
You can use any kind of miso paste but this one is a special miso from Kumamoto. My wife’s family is from there and we often use Kumamoto ingredients at home. It’s a bit sweeter than regular miso as is their soy sauce.
Shiitake mushrooms were also cut up as small as possible.
A common denominator in all of the batches was cabbage.
…and hakusai, or nappa cabbage, for all of you gringos.
And here I am, three beers deep, doing the cabbage chop. I normally karate chop cabbage bare handed like Chuck Norris but for the photo I used a knife.
… she puts the shiso in the gyoza wrap
… and adds a little shrimp mix
… topped with a little mozzarella cheese and it looks like we have ourselves a party folks!
Haha excellent post, I actually thought about you tonight as I was making gyoza!
And weirdly we had a few with a twist, as I ran out of gyoza filling with 8 skins togo (yes I know bad filling management) so the remaining 8 had chili con carne (yesterdays leftover lunch) and some cheddar as the filling. Suprisingly nice!
HIlarious! Nice to know I was on your mind while you were making gyoza :)
Damn shiso! Never thought of adding it to gyoza. You also seem to adding cheese. The first time I did that I got a strange reaction from the gal I was making it with.
Although after trying it with cheese she was a fan.
Shiso and cheese are the bomb together! Add a little pork and we’re talking borderline criminal activity.
It’s 23:10 and I had dinner before but you make me hungry again… Anything with shrimp sounds good to me!
Nice shots!
(we can feel your rage during the cabbage chop, this cabbage had no chance ;-)
Jerome, Thanks for checking it out. If the leftovers weren’t frozen there’s a good chance I’d be back in the kitchen cooking up another 6.
Oh man! Gyoza with cheese sounds great. I can almost taste it. Take ‘er easy with the knife. You don’t want to lose a pinky finger.
how do you make the little pancakey things??
Are you talking about okonomi yaki? :: http://images.google.com/images?q=okonomi%20yaki
It’s just like a pancake filled with veggies, seafood, meats… whatever you’d like really. I’m not a bog fan of them to be honest but if we happen to make it one day I’ll be sure to upload the process.
I bet I can eat a hundred of them in one sitting!
Let’s have a gyoza eating contest and see who can polish off the most. I’ll put my money where my mouth is and then some.
I also like the chopping shot. I can see the infamous Cafe Bustello in the background
Thanks for all the comments Rob. I’m glad you’re enjoying the blog. I take requests too :)
Chuck Norris!!! Lol
could you fedex me a dozen of each please! yum yum! I think I’m gonna make some..
You should send me some too in a zip file!