Gyoza

Continuing on the Japanese theme. If using ready made gyoza wrappers, these little pockets of delight can be made within minutes. They are different from the ones I ate in Utsunomiya, but also very good. Ponzu sauce is an absolute must.

You'll need:
300gr pork mince
3 pak choi leaves, finely chopped
spring onion, finely chopped
3cm ginger, finely chopped
sriracha sauce or chilli flakes
Worchestershire sauce
20-25 gyoza wrappers
ponzu sauce to serve with

1. Mix the pork mince with pak choi, spring onions, ginger, chili and a sprinkling worchestershire sauce and season with salt.

2. Put a spoonfull of the filling in the middle of the gyoza wrapper, wet the edges with some water and close into a half moon shape. Pinch the edges. TIP: do not put too much fillling inside - gyoza wrappers are not as elastic as dough for Polish pierogi or Georgian chinkali and so they would break if overfilled.

3. Heat up some oil on the pan and fry the gyozas until golden brown and then add some water to the pan (1-2cm), cover with a lid and steam the dumplings for a minute or two (no more as they become soft very quickly). This way they will be both crunchy and soft. Serve immediately with ponzu sauce!

Buon appetito!

Japanese beef and mushroom wok

I recently set off on a culinary journey to Japan and came back full of new inspirations, having discovered some new extraordinary flavours and ingredients that were previously completely unknown to me. So, today I propose a dish that uses some of the classical Japanese ingredients and plays on Japanese flavours, even if the end result might be far from authentic. I found pak choi and the different mushrooms in a supermarket around the corner, so depending on where you live, they might not be as difficult to get as it may first seem. Mirin and Japanese seven spice mix might be more difficult to get, but luckily I found a great Japanese store here in Brussels (to buy the former, I brought back with me lots of spices from Japan as is my usual habit when travelling abroad).

 Udon and soba noodles from a Japanese shop in Bxl (Tagawa, I highly recommend it)

You'll need:
a beef steak
soba or udon noodles
one baby pak choi
spring onion
one red chilli
4cm ginger, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
lime zest
Japanese 7 spice mix (shichimi togarashi)
epoki mushrooms
shiitake mushrooms
chestnut mushrooms
dark soya sauce
mirin
salt

1. Start off by preparing all of the ingredients, the cooking time is very short so there won't be time to prep while it cooks.

2. Season the beef in salt and shichimi togarashi and quickly fry on a hot pan. Remove from the pan and let it reston the side.

3. Put the sliced mushrooms on the same pan on which you just fried your beef. Add ginger, garlic, chilli and lime zest.

4. Boil the noodles. One minute before they are ready (follow the instructions on the packet, they should take a just a few minutes to soften) add pak choi and spring onion.

5. Slice your beef, add it to the pan with the mushrooms. Add soya sauce and mirin. Add noodles with the vegetables and stir so that the sauce covers everything, et voila!

Bon appetit!