A burst of juicy flavour, crisped skin on the outside, Japanese pan-fried dumplings or gyoza are a popular dish for a simple weekday meal. The key thing that makes gyoza so special – and different from most dumplings – is that they are first fried, then steamed for a short time. This gives the dumpling the best of both worlds – a little bit of crispiness, and softness from the steaming.

What’s great about gyoza (or pretty much any dumpling) is that you can customize the filling. This recipe uses vegetables and mushrooms, but you can add anything you want! Popular fillings include:

• Cabbage
• Ground meat, like pork, chicken or beef. You can even use chopped prawns.
• Chives
• Spring onions

You can find dumpling wrappers at your nearest supermarket. Ensure it’s thawed on the day you want to cook your gyoza! If you prefer to go the homemade route, check out our recipe for do-it-yourself dumpling wrappers/skin here.

This recipes makes the filling for around 16-20 dumplings.