Potstickers -- A Hundred Gyoza and the Meditation of December

Mid-December and the rain has turned serious — not the gentle mist of October but the steady, committed rain of a Portland winter, the kind that makes you wonder if you live in a city or an aquarium. I bought Miya a tiny yellow rain jacket and she looks like a small duck and I am unreasonably delighted by this. We walk in the rain every day because I refuse to be a Portland parent who does not walk in the rain. The rain is not an obstacle. The rain is the landscape. You put on a jacket and you go.

I made a big batch of gyoza this week — Fumiko's recipe, a hundred of them, frozen in rows on a sheet pan. December is the month for freezing gyoza because January will demand them for New Year's and because the act of making a hundred gyoza is meditative in a way that December demands. Fold, fill, pleat, place. Fold, fill, pleat, place. The repetition is a metronome and my hands are the music and by the time I have a hundred gyoza lined up like soldiers I am calm in a way that no medication can replicate. This is not a replacement for medication. This is the supplement. The pill and the pleat.

Brian asked me what I want for Christmas. I said I want a morning alone. He looked confused. I said I want to wake up, make miso soup, drink it in silence, and write for three hours without anyone needing anything from me. He said, "That is a weird Christmas gift." I said, "That is the only gift I want." He is going to buy me something from a store. I will smile and say thank you. He will mean well. I will wish for the silence. This is our dynamic and I have stopped expecting it to change.

Miya is nine months old and she stood unassisted for five seconds this week. Five full seconds of independent standing, swaying like a tiny drunk, grinning at me with four teeth and the supreme confidence of someone who does not yet know that gravity always wins. I counted the seconds out loud. Five. She sat down. She looked up at me as if to say: see? I did it. And she did. She absolutely did.

I wrote a blog post about freezing gyoza — about preparation, about the beauty of doing the work now so that the future is easier, about the Japanese practice of readiness that Fumiko embodies and that I am trying to learn. The post was practical — how to freeze, how to cook from frozen — and also personal, because everything I write is personal, because I do not know how to write about food without writing about myself. The food is the self. The self is the food. I have stopped trying to separate them.

So here is the recipe — the one I mentioned, the one that started as practicality and became something else entirely. I made these gyoza when I was thirty-seven weeks pregnant and convinced I was running out of time, and I folded every one of them thinking about Miya, who did not yet have a name, and now she stands on her own two feet for five whole seconds and grins at me like she invented gravity. The work I did then feeds us now; the freezer still has a bag. That is the whole lesson, I think, wrapped in dumpling dough.

Potstickers (Homemade Gyoza)

Prep Time: 1 hour | Cook Time: 10 minutes per batch | Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes | Servings: About 50 gyoza (serves 8–10)

Ingredients

• 50 round gyoza wrappers (store-bought, or homemade from 2 cups all-purpose flour + 3/4 cup boiling water)
• 1 lb ground pork (80/20)
• 2 cups napa cabbage, very finely minced
• 1 tsp kosher salt (for cabbage)
• 3 green onions, finely minced
• 2 cloves garlic, grated
• 1 tsp fresh ginger, grated
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp sake or dry sherry
• 1/2 tsp white pepper
• 2 tbsp neutral oil (per batch, for cooking)
• 1/3 cup water (per batch, for steaming)

• Dipping Sauce:
• 3 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp rice vinegar
• 1 tsp chili oil or toasted sesame oil

Instructions

1. Draw out the cabbage moisture. Toss minced napa cabbage with 1 tsp kosher salt. Let sit 10 minutes, then squeeze firmly in a clean kitchen towel until as dry as possible. This step keeps your filling from turning soggy.
2. Mix the filling. Combine pork, squeezed cabbage, green onions, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, sesame oil, sake, and white pepper in a bowl. Stir in one direction until the mixture becomes slightly sticky and cohesive—about 2 minutes by hand. Cover and refrigerate 15 minutes if time allows.
3. Set up your folding station. Place wrappers, a small bowl of water, a parchment-lined sheet pan, and your filling within reach. Work with one wrapper at a time; keep the rest covered with a damp towel.
4. Fill and pleat. Place 1 heaping teaspoon of filling in the center of a wrapper. Dip your finger in water and trace the edge of the half that will become the seam. Fold the wrapper in half over the filling and press the center to seal. Starting from the center, make 3–4 small pleats along the front edge, pressing each pleat firmly against the flat back. The bottom should be flat so the gyoza stands upright. Place sealed side up on the sheet pan.
5. Freeze for later (optional but encouraged). Arrange gyoza in a single layer on the parchment-lined sheet pan, not touching. Freeze until solid, about 2 hours, then transfer to zip-lock bags. They keep for up to 3 months. Do not thaw before cooking.
6. Pan-fry and steam. Heat 1 tbsp neutral oil in a 10–12 inch nonstick or cast iron skillet over medium-high heat. Arrange gyoza flat-side down in a single layer without crowding. Cook undisturbed 2–3 minutes until the bottoms are deep golden brown.
7. Add water and cover. Carefully pour 1/3 cup water into the pan (it will spatter). Immediately cover with a lid. Reduce heat to medium and steam 4–5 minutes, until the water has evaporated and the wrappers look translucent. From frozen, add an extra 1–2 minutes.
8. Crisp and serve. Remove the lid and let any remaining moisture cook off, 30–60 seconds. Drizzle 1 tsp sesame oil around the edge of the pan if desired. Slide onto a plate crispy-side up. Serve immediately with dipping sauce.
9. Make the dipping sauce. Stir together soy sauce, rice vinegar, and chili oil. Adjust to taste.

Nutrition (per serving, ~5 gyoza)

Calories: 280 | Protein: 14g | Fat: 13g | Carbs: 26g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 610mg