Fried Dumpling, Potstickers, Gyōza 锅贴 (Chinese)

Originally uploaded by 拜小樂 | Ivy

锅贴 guō tiē is pan-fried jiaozi, also known as potstickers. Peking Ravioli in Boston, Wor tip (Cantonese Jyutping: wo1 tip3). It has so many different names but basically they are a Northern Chinese style dumpling popular as a street food, appetizer, or side order in Chinese, served also on a dim sum menu.

The filling for this dish usually contains pork (sometimes chicken, or beef in Muslim areas), cabbage (or Chinese cabbage and sometimes spinach), scallions (spring or green onions), ginger, Chinese rice wine or cooking wine, and sesame seed oil.

Guotie are shallow-fried in a wok (Mandarin 'guo'). A small quantity of water is added and the wok is covered. While the base of the dumplings is fried, the upper part is steamed and this gives a texture contrast typical of Chinese cuisine.

An alternative method is to steam in a wok and then fry to crispness on one side in a shallow frying pan. Exactly the same dumpling is boiled in plenty of water to make jiaozi and both are eaten with a dipping sauce. Three or five folds are made on one side of the round wrapper that is rolled so that the edges are thinner than the middle. This gives the base a large surface area that helps to give the dumpling stability to stand up in the pan.

The Chinese method of preparing the dough is to pour boiling water onto the flour and letting stand for five minutes and then adding a small quantity of cold water. This helps to activate the gluten in the dough.

Here's a video recipe for the Japanese yaki-gyōza 焼き餃子, enjoy :