My Japanese friend in Melbourne gave me some tips for making gyosa. Basically they are-:
1. Knead the meat for quite a while to make the dumplings tender.
2. Grate the ginger and add the juice not the ginger bits to the mixture.
3. Use Japanese gyosa wraps not Chinese ones- the Japanese ones are thinner.
4. Sprinkle the dish and pan with potato starch (similar to cornflour) to stop the dumplings from sticking to the pan.
5. Squeeze the finished dumpling slightly to remove air so they do not get bubbles.
6. Add some salt to the chopped cabbage and leave for 10 minutes before squeezing the moisture out. Then add to the gyosa mixture. This stops the dumplings from becoming soggy.
She used a Japanese soy sauce for the dipping sauce- I just use a basic soy mixed with rice wine vinegar.
We made half prawn and half pork dumplings and they were delicious!
Thank you Chika!
To get a basic recipe for gyosa go to your favourite cooking site. They are easy to make, but it takes time to chop the cabbage and mix the filling, especially if you are making a lot of them.
Enjoy!