Whether you’re talking about work, play or food, variety is indeed the spice of life, and for me, it’s what keeps me looking forward to the next day or my next meal. At our table, dinner is usually a genre-bending mishmash of random experiments for work, along with a few vegetable dishes, and perhaps an indulgence or two, such as a plate of sashimi or a platter of cheese. While the food on the table rarely matches, it’s never dull, and the disparate flavors occasionally lead to unexpected pairings that evolve into a new dish.
The other day I had a plateful of garlicky pan-fried gyoza on the table, which sat next to a plate of ripe, creamy gorgonzola. At some point in the meal, I still had a piece of pungent gorgonzola melting on my tongue when I took a bite of a crisp potsticker. The rich, salty cheese enveloped and tamed the intensely green garlic of the chives while synergizing with the savory porcine juices flowing from the dumpling as it burst open.
Inspired by dinner that night, I came up with these Gorgongyoza substituting cauliflower in place of the usual cabbage and adding gorgonzola to the filling, which not only provides a huge flavor boost, it also makes the mixture more tender and juicy. The amalgam of melted cheese, umami-rich pork juices, pungent chives and nutty sesame oil is indescribably good.
I served this with a dipping sauce made with a 1:1 ratio of 15 year aged balsamic to soy sauce, which creates a marvelously complex array of fruity, caramel notes with a pleasant balance of sweet, salty savory and sour tastes. The sauce paired beautifully with the Gorgongyoza, but I love condiments, and I also brought out some ume(Japanese apricot) jam, as well as with honey, which were both splendid.
By nature, these dumplings are pretty Asian, but they could easily be turned into delightful ravioli by sandwiching the filling between two potsticker wrappers and then boiling them, before serving with a tomato sauce.
One last thing I wanted to touch on is the water/starch mixture I use to fry the gyoza. This is what gives the gyoza their ultra-crisp “wings” and what makes them all stick together. If you don’t want them to stick together, use plain water (without the starch) to steam the gyoza. While they won’t end up quite as crisp, they’ll still be good and they won’t all stick together.
Units
Ingredients
Gyoza filling
- 260 grams cauliflower florets (~1/2 head)
- 200 grams ground pork
- 100 grams garlic chives (finely minced)
- 165 grams gorgonzola
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- ½ tablespoon potato starch
- ½ tablespoon toasted sesame oil
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
Gyoza
- 60 potsticker wrappers
- vegetable oil (for frying)
- potato starch (for frying)
Sauce
- 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of a water to a boil and then add the cauliflower florets. Boil until the stem parts are tender (about 10 minutes). Drain and let the cauliflower cool enough to handle. Mince and the cauliflower so that it forms a rough meal with each piece about the size of a large grain of rice.
- Add the cauliflower, ground pork, garlic chives, gorgonzola, soy sauce, potato starch, toasted sesame oil, and black pepper to a bowl. Put some gloves on and use your hands to knead the mixture together until smooth, breaking up the gorgonzola as you go. You want to leave some small lumps of gorgonzola, but there should not be any large chunks.
- Wrap the gyoza. Check out this post for an animated gif, or this post for set by step photos.
- Add 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil to a non-stick frying pan and swirl to coat evenly. Add the pot stickers to the pan either placing them in rows, or in a circle (as shown). The potstickers should be touching each other, but be careful not to overcrowd the pan. How many potstickers you'll be able to fry at one time will depend on the size of the pan, but don't use a pan that's much larger than the heating element of your stove otherwise the gyoza won't brown evenly.
- Prepare 1/4 cup of water with 1/2 teaspoon of potato starch mixed in.
- Turn the heat onto medium-high heat and fry the gyoza until they just barely start to brown on the bottom.
- With a lid in one hand to shield yourself from any splattering oil, add the water and potato starch mixture around the gyoza and immediately cover the pan with the lid. Steam for 3 minutes, or until the water is almost all gone (if the water evaporates before 3 minutes, open the lid a crack and add a bit more).
- Remove the lid and fry until golden brown on the bottom. Invert onto a plate and serve with the dipping sauce. Repeat with the rest of the potstickers.
Alexandra says
60 potstickers seems like a large quantity for my table. Do you think these would freeze well, or would it be wiser to halve the recipe?
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Alexandra, I guess it depends on how many people you’re feeding, I can easily put down about 15-20 of these, so this is intended to feed 4 people. You can freeze these by lining them up on a parchment lined sheet pan. Once they’re frozen solid you can put them in tupperware or a freezer bag for long-term storage. Then to make them you can fry them straight out of the freezer but they will require a bit more steaming time, everything else is the same.
Emanuel Sampy says
Hi,
Emanuel Sampy says
Probably a silly question but… having the chance to live in Paris, any chance we can substitute Gorgonzola for any other blue cheese, roquefort or even Stilton ? Bravo for your great site, very beautiful and inspiring !
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Emanuel, nope, not a silly question at all and thanks for your nice comment! I think any mild blue cheese should work fine. I’d stay away from ones that are too pungent or two salty though as they’ll overpower all the other ingredients.
Emanuel Sampy says
I’m impressed by your swift answer. Congrats, you guys are real professionals in the US… but we do made the cheese more pungent ! Thanks again for great recipes and gorgeous pics !
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Emanuel, yes, Roquefort might be a bit strong for this (though you could try it). I used a Gorgonzola Dolce.
Ikeasha says
Hey, Marc… would you happen to have a dough recipe for the wrappers?
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Ikeasha, I don’t usually make my own wrappers, but these use a hot water dough (made by mixing boiling water into flour).
Kathy Stroup says
This is amazing!!! You should make a video of this one; it’s pure genius! Just the words, Gorgongyoza, and Balsamic Soy Sauce are exploding in my mouth! And that is the most stunning presentation of gyoza I’ve ever seen. You could at least put this up on the Patreon. This dish really shows how a sophisticated palate works across cuisines.
I’m going to be tackling gyoza in the next week or so. I found a recipe for fresh wrappers on Just One Cookbook’s website. It’s the only reason I don’t make them: the wrappers I can get here are pretty gross. I usually make Potstickers for that reason. I have Ming Tsai’s recipe, which includes the dough. I wasn’t sure if the doughs were similar enough to just substitute. I know gyoza wrappers are much thinner. I’m going to use a pasta roller to get them thin enough.
I will be sure to make some Gorgongyoza while I explore. I hope my plate will be as pretty as yours!
Marc Matsumoto says
This was after I stopped doing creatively named recipes (in favor of more search engine friendly names), but I just couldn’t resist🤣
Good luck with the gyoza wrappers. I’ve only done it once (when I was cooking in Saudi Arabia), and it was a lot of work. The dough is a hot water dough, and I used a pasta machine to roll it out thin as well. Want to use a lot of potato starch to keep them from sticking together.
Kathy Stroup says
Thanks for the reply, and thanks for wishing me luck! My husband LOVES the name!😁 I love an excuse to get out one of my gadgets and use it. Thanks to you I have loads of potato starch in my pantry! I have tried using tapioca starch to keep wrappers from sticking, but it affected the product when I cooked it. Potato starch is much friendlier.
I’ll come back and let you know how it goes. It might be a couple of weeks because I have a fast planned for next week, and I definitely need to eat these when I make them!
BTW, I keep losing track of my comments here. I’m going to have to keep a log so that I don’t miss one of your replies. I always love hearing what you think of my comments! If you don’t have time to reply it’s fine, but if you do and I don’t get back to read it, I feel like I’ve wasted your time. I’ve been here a lot since you helped me solve my browser problem. It’s Heaven!💗
Marc Matsumoto says
So glad to hear Chrome is working out better for you. How’s the fast going? Regarding keeping track of comments, are you getting email notifications when I reply to your comments? They’re supposed to go out automatically, but now I’m worried they’re not working right.
Kathy Stroup says
I have not been getting notifications for a long time. I vaguely remember getting them years ago. I only get your newsletter announcing this week’s recipe.
As for the fasting, it suits me. I’ve become quite proficient at it. It’s easier than anything else I’ve tried to improve my health. I’m kind of an “all or nothing” type, so not eating is so much easier than trying to figure out what, when, how, etc.. I put it out of my mind, and when I have eating intrude into my consciousness, I just make a plan to have that item when I’m done fasting.
I try to stay away from food media during a fast, but I’m not very good at it. I love reading, watching, and thinking about cooking so much! This recipe for Taiyaki has my mind doing backflips. I want to try a hundred things with it! I woke up today thinking about corn batter, like a cornbread, with blueberry filling or bacon and sweet corn. I told my husband that I will start experimenting with it after my fast ends on Sunday. Getting the pan will take a few days, anyway.
I hope that Nanmadol doesn’t treat you too badly this week. We had a hurricane graze us a couple of weeks ago. It wasn’t too bad, but we don’t usually get rain in August! It pushed the temperatures up, along with the humidity.
Marc Matsumoto says
Ugh, that’s not supposed to happen. Just tested it and it looks like the emails aren’t going out. Won’t have time to get to this before my trip, but I’ll try and find a day after I get back to figure out what’s going on.
As for fasting I’m with you on being an “all or nothing” type. I don’t like to calorie restrict my meals, so I generally avoid breakfast(when I’m not hungry anyway) and take most of my calories in an 7-8 hour period with a regular-sized lunch and a big dinner (I might even sneak in dessert). Then I’m usually up for another 6-7 hours during which time I don’t eat anything else until lunch the next day. This was enough to maintain my weight, but not enough to lose any, so for the past few years I’ve been adding 20-30 minutes of body weight cardio into the mix 7 days a week. Haven’t actually lost any weight yet but I’ve gone down from 33 waist to a 29, and my body feels lighter with less aches and pains.
Love the idea of using cornbread batter in the Taiyaki maker. Would be awesome to do one filled with chili, or pulled pork, or jalapeno cheddar. The only thing is it doesn’t hold a ton of filling (you could probably get away with 2 tablespoons max), so whatever you add needs to be pretty concentrated. I’ve been thinking about doing a Croque Monsieur filled with Comté in the batter and filling with ham and bechamel because by putting the cheese in the batter it leaves more room for the filling (and the cheese should get crisp).
Kathy Stroup says
There’s no Reply button to reply to your last comment, so I’m putting it here.😄 Sounds like you’ve developed a wonderful regimen for staying healthy! And you look great, as I have said; you look younger and more fit than you did three years ago. You’ve probably replaced fat with muscle, so you haven’t gone down in weight, just gained fitness. Some people actually gain weight when they start exercising regularly and eating healthier. You are winning your forties!
Ham and cheese is definitely on the list of fillings I’m going to try. Cheese in the batter and bechamel would certainly level it up! The only thing I really haven’t thought of trying to fill these with is fish!😂
Marc Matsumoto says
Thanks Kathy! Ironically “winning” is probably something I cared more about in my 20’s and early 30’s 🤣 So on fish, I was thinking a creamy bacalhau filling might be pretty tasty. Or just add Pataniscas batter straight into the taiyaki mold.
Kathy Stroup says
Wow, it must be tough living in your mind sometimes! So much in there! I have a hard enough time focusing with my limited experience and puny knowledge. Oh man, I’ve only had Bacalhau once, but I crave it still. Pataniscas!?!? 🤯 Ever have that moment when you go, “Why hasn’t anyone thought of this?” I mean, that looks like it was made specifically to be in a fish-shaped pan.
My latest Taiyaki adventure happened because I was messing around with your recipe and, of course, failing. I put coconut flour in the batter, but it didn’t quite work. I messed with it a little bit, then got bored of failing, so I chucked out the batter and quit. There were 2 Taiyaki sitting on the rack, but I couldn’t bear to throw them out. I stuck them in the freezer. Today I remembered them while I was trying not to eat my husband’s last Puerquito cookie I brought him back from the flea market. I just pulled it out and started munching on it. It was fantastic! Somehow it had the perfect texture for being eaten frozen. I started dreaming of a Taiyaki ice cream sandwich as I polished off the second fish. Of course, now I can’t remember what was in the batter!🙄🤣😋