Easy Pan-fried Gyoza Pancake 簡単餃子のパンケーキ

A couple of weeks ago I posted about how to make Japanese gyoza dumplings from scratch (http://okonoms.blogspot.com/2012/08/japanese-pan-fried-gyoza.html). The purist in me goes in that direction every now and then, where the idea of convenience and time-management fly out the window and I want to make gyoza that are truly and unequivocally homemade. On the other extreme, there is the why-bother-with-all-the-trouble attitude that I more often get into - I want the gyoza now now now and I'm staaaaaaarving for dinner. So... here is my answer to that!

This is the savory gyoza pancake. No individual wrapping, no individual pan frying. This is one, big, juicy gyoza saucer, straight from the frying pan to the table.

To start, I make all of the stuffing for the gyoza as I would with regular gyoza (see my prior posting with all of the ingredients). Ok, I set that bowl full of stuffing aside.

I grab a big plate. I place my store-bought gyoza wrappers on the plate in a flower pattern. 

In the center, I place one last gyoza wrapper. I add a little moisture to each of the wrappers by wetting them with some potato starch water (a small amount of starch dissolved in a few tablespoons water).

Instead of store-bought wrappers, could I instead make the wrappers from scratch? Absolutely. But then it'd be too much time and trouble for my poor, starving stomach. We'll leave that option for another day.

Next, I plop all of my stuffing at once on top of the starch-moist wrappers. Gently, so that I don't move around the wrappers underneath, I spread and smear the stuffing across nearly the entire surface of the wrappers, leaving a little on the end open like if I were putting toppings on a pizza.

Over the top of my stuffing, I add another layer of my gyoza wrappers in a flower pattern, identical to the bottom layer, adding a little moisture to the wrappers as I go.

Now, into the big frying pan. I've made my gyoza "pancake" the size of a big plate but made sure that it also fits neatly into my biggest frying pan. I heat up some sesame oil and vegetable oil on the bottom of the pan. This oil is important because it'll get my gyoza crispy and beautifully browned together on that side.

I can hear it sizzling. I let it brown for about 5 minutes on medium heat, lifting it up slightly towards the end to check that it's nicely browned. It comes off the pan, onto a plate momentarily. I add a little more oil to the pan and let that warm up.

I then put the pancake back onto the pan, with the browned side up. Time for the top to brown on the bottom! I let that go for a couple of minutes, and then in the fine fashion of all good steamed gyozas, I add a couple of tablespoons of water to the pan and quickly cover it tightly with a lid. Now I can hear the water dancing around with the oil inside, steaming the gyoza pancake. When the sounds subside, I open the lid and take a peek to see how it's looking. I check if the bottom is nicely browned.

Ah, it's purrrtty. I cut it like a pizza, grab a slice, dip it in the soy sauce-vinegar dipping sauce (with hot sesame chili oil too, since I love spice) and nom nom nom it! Dinner is ready in a flash. Often eaten with white rice on the side.