An Asia Preview, I Hope
Jan was itching to make these gyoza, which we had originally made for a Christmas party. Technically, the recipe is Steamed Pork and Jicama Dumplings. They are better than most gyoza from Japanese restaurants. The jicama provides a crunch to compliment the soft ground pork.
Wonton wrappers are one of the wonders of the grocery store, along with frozen puff pastery and phyllo. These three items are difficult or impossible to make at home and open up all kinds of possibilities in the kitchen. Without them we couldn’t make Jewish Turkey-Wonton Soup, Mushroom and Goat Cheese Strudel or Moroccan-Style Chicken Phyllo Rolls. We haven’t posted any recipes with puff pastry; that’s an idea for next week.
Choosing this recipe for a weeknight was ambitous, but went surprisingly quick. The first time we made these was a bit of an ordeal. This time we didn’t bother to cut the wontons into circle, which had little impact on the end result and was a huge time saver. It was much easier to gather the edges and form the dumpling. Our teamwork finished off the dish in just over an hour.
The simple Thai Red Curry Soup With Chicken and Vegetables was a nice compliment to the dumplings. Jan was able to whip this up while we were finishing off the dumplings. It also tasted fantastic. The flavour to effort ratio was extremely high. Some of the reviews at Epicurious are accurate and entertaining:
- “Super-Bomb-Incrediblicious. Easy to make, and easier to eat”
- “This is very very tasty and pretty much idiot-proof.”
Overall, a tasty meal for a Monday night.