When we stayed with our friends in Okinawa, Japan, I wanted to cook them a meal. I’d seen pumpkins everywhere, which reminded me of a wonderful stew we had at Brown’s Field (of which more in a later post).
But while we were shopping I saw gyoza wrappers. For a while now I’ve been thinking that the potential for unusual fillings in these delicious little parcels as been criminally under-explored. As everyone knows, Elvis was a big fan of fried banana and peanut butter sandwiches. It just came to me as if in a dream as I stood in front of the refrigerated pastry selection: why not replace the toast with gyoza wrappers and fry them instead? I am proud to announce that my latest gyoza innovation, Elvis dumplings, was a great success.
They were very simple to make. 1) Buy jiaozi/gyoza wrappers. (2) Mash a banana. (3) put a small blob of peanut butter and a small blob of banana in a wrapper, and fold into a dumping (my friend Diana has already put online the best explanation I’ve seen on how to do this. You can use water instead of egg for sticking the edges together). (4) Cook them pot-sticker style. (5) Eat and be happy.,
I love pot-stickers - dumplings which have been fried rather than boiled. To cook place them carefully in a thin layer of fairly hot oil in a large pan or flat-bottomed wok, and fry them for maybe 5 minutes. The aim is to get a lovely, crispy, brown surface on the bottom sides. When they all have golden-brown bottoms, pour in some water (say half a mug) and cover quickly (watching out for spitting oil). The cooking is completed by steaming the dumpings in the pan, until the water has all evaporated or been absorbed.
Incidentally, at the same time, I made a savoury filling of shiitake mushrooms, red cabbage, green onions, pine nuts, ginger and garlic, very finely chopped and seasoned with soy sauce and sesame oil. It was a good filling. What I liked most was the red of the cabbage showing through the dumping wrapper. I’m planning on trying other colourful fillings in the future. Any ideas? Blueberries? Beetroot? They’s all purple/red though. I need more colours. And flavours. I’m thinking tomato and marmite; chilli and tea; curried potato (we’re talking mini samosas here); whiskey and ginger.
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