270 Gyoza

2026-07-02

Ingredients:

  1. 1 napa cabbage
  2. 6lbs of ground pork
  3. 6 packages of gyoza dumpling wrappers (~45 each totaling 270)
  4. 6 spring onions
  5. 1lb of peeled garlic (1 shallow tub from HMart)
  6. 1 large ginger

Instructions:

  1. Dice the entire head of cabbage
  2. Place the cabbage into a cloth lined strainer that sits in a bowl
  3. Salt the cabbage thoroughly
  4. Peel the ginger
  5. Mince the spring onions, garlic, and ginger. Set aside
  6. Wrap the cabbage up in the cloth, twisting the cloth and expressing the remaining water from the cabbage.
  7. Mix all filling ingredients until evenly incorporated
  8. Salt and pepper to taste (Usually I’ll cook test portions of the filling to make sure it’s seasoned properly)

Wrappers:

The wrappers are made of raw dough and will congeal if they thaw too much or get wet. Timing the thaw is important; when making this recipe alone, I can usually get away with moving all the wrappers from the freezer into the fridge the day of. I’ll then open and use a new package of wrappers as I get through them. I would leave all the wrappers out on the table if this is group activity.

Resist the temptation to peel wrappers off the stack if they are partially frozen. Peeling often tears the wrappers. The warmth from your hands is often enough to loose the top wrapper off the stack.

Folding:

  1. Place the wrapper in your non-dominant hand
  2. With a spoon, scoop a ball of filling and smear it across the inside of the wrapper
  3. With a wetted finger, trace along the upper edge of the wrapper in a semicircle
  4. Fold the wrapper in half with your non-dominant thumb
  5. Roughly line up the wrapper edges
  6. Place your dominant thumb on the beginning of the wrapper edge
  7. With your non-dominant hand, push the wrapper edge over your dominant thumb. This forms a pleat
  8. Remove your dominant thumb and press the pleat flat
  9. Repeat until the gyoza is sealed
  10. Place the gyoza on the counter and gently shape it so it sits upright and forms a crescent shape

Packaging: I steam all the gyoza before packaging them into gallon ziploc bags. Steaming them beforehand helps them from sticking together in the freezer. I briefly considered dusting them in cornstarch too, but this seems unnecessary right now.

Additives: I’ve added lemongrass in the past. Don’t do this. It’s really tedious to process and gave my most recent batch a gritty texture. I like the flavor and will probably substitute the regular lemongrass for the tube paste in the future.

This recipe was adapted from Kenji Lopez-Alt