Thursday, December 02, 2004

Experiment Going On - Hanetsuki Gyoza -


Well, the quest for the potstickers with hane (wing) has been quietly going on, and today I can proudly show you my progress. This was my previous attempt. And now I can make a bigger and crispier hane like this !!

Maybe you think “what’s such a big deal about the so-called hane with potstickers.” Oh, it’s just a Japanese thing. I don’t remember how it started, but hane-tsuki gyoza (potstickers with wing) is treated like something better than regular potstickers in Japan these days. And actually, eating the crispy hane with juicy gyoza is really really wonderful, let me tell ya.



The secret of my success this time was using both flour and potato starch. Last time I mixed potato starch with water and poured into the frying pan when the gyoza were almost done. This time I used both flour and potato starch, poured in the mixture earlier, then covered with lid and heated for a few minutes. When almost done, I removed the cover and turned the heat to high to let the water evaporate. It worked. When the hane turned golden brown, I scraped off the gyoza altogether with hane and put on a plate with hane-side up. Yes, that’s the way it should be served. Seriously. I’m not kidding.


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OK, I’m going to add some details here.
Now I have to make a confession ;P The ones in the photo are store-bought chilled gyoza. This is how it actually went: I made some gyoza from scratch for lunch and experimented on the hane part, but it didn’t turn out well. So I bought some chilled gyoza for supper and worked on the hane again, then got the result as shown in the photo:D

For my hand-made gyoza, I used some beansprouts (microwaved and chopped), ground meat, minced leek and ginger, seasoned with salt, pepper, sake, oyster sauce and soy sauce. Sorry I don’t remember how much of each. I got the idea of using beansprounts in place of cabbage from a TV show, but it didn’t taste as good as I expected.

For the successful hane, I mixed 2/3 teasp. flour, 1/2 teasp. potato starch and apx. 50cc water. I heated some veg. oil in a frying pan and placed the gyoza to slightly brown the bottom, but kept the heat rather low. Then I poured in the mixture, lifted up each gyoza a little to bring the starchy mixture underneath, and covered with lid, still keeping the heat rather low. After heating for axp. 3 to 4 min., I opened the lid and turned the heat up. I needed to keep moving the frying pan on the heat so that the hane browns evenly. When the hane looked dried enough, I poured in a little veg. oil. It’s supposed to bring up the temperature, add crunchiness to hane and at the same time detach the hane from the pan. I got this idea from some websites.

So, folks, next time I’ll work on the filling some more and make my special hanetsuki gyoza!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Looks delicious! Really nice and crispy. Any chance of posting your gyoza recipe with instructions on cooking? Plus the proportion of flour to potato starch?

Fish Fish said...

Hee... I saw in V6 ranking bout gyoza, and saw this Hane Gyoza too. Yap, they used the flour as well. Urs look as good. :)

obachan said...

> Hi! Anonymous commenter,
Thanks. OK, it’s gonna be a bit long so I’ll add it to the post.

> fish fish
Do you think so? Oh I’m so happy :D

pinkcocoa said...

hi obachan
the hane looks really yummy! Last time, my mum and I experimented with it as well after seeing it on tv. We used cornflour and water. Oh it was so crunchy! hehe. We used store bought frozen chinese dumpling (very similar to gyoza).
Oh, I also wanted to tell you I finally made tamagoyaki (the sweet one) last weekend with my non-stick fry-pan! It was so well-received, I didnt even get a chance to take a pic! Thanks so much for the recipe ;-) The next time I make it, I will remember to take pics and blog about it. hehe. *hugs*

obachan said...

Hi pinkcocoa,
Oh, cornflour must be a good idea, too. Hmmm… never thought about it.
I’m so happy to hear about your tamagoyaki. Yeah, please take pics next time. BTW, I can’t open the comment pages on your site any more. Wonder why…..

Anonymous said...

Obachan,

Thank you for sharing your recipe and techniques. Now I know why my gyoza doesn't have that nice brownest that yours have. My heat temperature was too high. And now I should have that nice hane crispiness as well. Aloha, lance

obachan said...

No problem ;)