Best Gyoza Ever

I made the best batch of gyoza ever last night. Maybe it was the freshness of the pork, or maybe it was the (too much, I thought after I poured it,) sesame oil, but they were awesome.

Gyoza

• potsticker wrappers (circular, sold frozen or refrigerated, but not the same as wonton wrappers)
• chopped-up cabbage, boiled
• green onion
• a bit of ginger, minced
• a clove of garlic, minced
• ground pork
• soy sauce
• sesame oil
• rice vinegar

Chop up your cabbage into little bits and boil it.

While it's boiling, chop up the green onions (mainly the green part is important, not the white part), the ginger, and the garlic.

Once the cabbage has boiled for a minute or two, remove from heat, drain, and rinse with cold water to cool down. Then drain again (I used our new salad spinner).

Add cabbage to bowl with ginger, green onion, and garlic, and then add the meat. There should ultimately be a nice balance of meat and cabbage, with just a little more meat than green stuff.

Add the soy sauce (a glug), sesame oil (less than soy sauce), and rice vinegar (about the same as the oil). Then mix with your hands.

Take as many wrappers as you think you're going to make from the package, and reseal the rest and put them in the fridge.

Set up your filling area with a bowl of water, a plate for the gyoza, a plate with the wrappers, a spoon, and your filling bowl.

Spoon a bit of filling into the center of the wrapper. A heaping teaspoon is all I can usually fit.

Wet your finger with the water and run it along the inner circumference of the wrapper.

Press the wrapper into a bulging semicircle. You should aim to crimp the edge together to form a better seal, like this person has done:

When all the filling is done, it's time to heat up your skillet. The goal is to brown the bottoms and then steam the inside.

Heat the skillet (I used cast iron) on about medium-high. Put sesame oil and maybe a little canola or other vegetable oil in there (not olive oil--it'll smoke).

When hot, add the gyoza in a couple of rows, touching each other. If they fry together, so much the better.

In a few minutes, the bottoms should be nice and brown. When this happens, you can flip them over or not, up to you.

When they are brown on one side, it's time to steam. I hope you have a lid that can cover either the whole skillet or just the gyoza inside it. I used a smaller-than-the-skillet lid that I just rested on the skillet's bottom, around the gyoza.

Pour just enough water onto the hot pan to get things nice and spattery and steamy. Clamp the lid down to make a nice seal. Turn the heat down to low.

After a few minutes, take off the lid and feel a gyoza. The filling inside should be firm and hot.

Remove from the pan. Serve with a dipping sauce of 65% rice vinegar, 30% soy sauce, and 5% hot oil.