Cooking gyoza’s with School of Wok

 

I was recently invited by The School of Wok to take part in an online cookery class. This is not an advert or sponsored post, it was through my job (I work for a large insurance firm and part of my role is events). 

Yes we might all be tired of doing things via Zoom but it was a great way to see how we can create fun events for people despite lockdown restrictions now being lifted a little further.

The School of Wok is an award winning cookery school in London so when I saw the invite land in my inbox I jumped at the chance of taking part. I adore cooking and am always on the hunt for new recipes. 

Gyoza's are delicious dumplings and whilst this isn't something I would order when I go out for dinner, I can honestly say I gobbled up at least 8 of the 15 that I made!

I was sent a kit ahead of the class which consisted of flour, dipping sauce and the marinade for the filling and I had to buy some pork mince and some spinach.

You can choose your own filling; some of the people in the class used tofu, salmon, prawns.. its up to you. When I make them again I think I will try using fish. You could also use kale, or mushrooms if you didn't want to use spinach, the key is making sure that whatever you use it has to be chopped up really finely so a sharp knife is key.

I made around 15 gyoza's but I had some filling left over which Mr Poachie fried up and ate.

It was a similar process to making ravioli, you can't use too much filling otherwise you won't be able to squish them together. If they don't seal you can add a little water to the edges to help make them stick.

  

Now at this point in the class, my internet conked out so I couldn't see what was going on and I carried on making them but when I was reconnected to the class I realised I had made them into the wrong shape. It didn't matter but if anyone is looking at these thinking 'they don't look like gyoza's', this is why.

Once you had sealed all of the parcels together, we had to heat some oil in a pan and fry off the bottom of them so that they were a little crisp. Then we added a small amount of water to the pan (this makes it spit a lot!) and then cover with a lid and steam for 6 minutes. 

This is what makes them crunchy and doughy. Perfection.

Having not eaten these before, I didn't know if I should have cooked anything else to go with them but I think they were fine as they were just with the dipping sauce. If you wanted to make these ahead of time you can, which is helpful if you wanted to serve them at a dinner party as you would only need to be in the kitchen for 6 minutes to cook them.

I do like Asian cooking but it's just not something that I do very often. I think now I will definitely try to do more as it was great to eat something different for dinner and they were scrummy.

I garnished mine with a little spring onion but this again was optional.

I have just been on to the School of Wok's website and they have a really big variety of cooking classes and kits, if lockdown lasts much longer and you are looking for something fun to do with your friends I would recommend this!

Again, this isn't an ad, I just really like food.