migrant|roo

Rob and Dave, a couple of old Uni friends, swung by to stay with us this weekend which was really awesome. Awesome and full of long afternoons in the pub, loads of cooking and loads of Guitar Hero.

I cooked Vietnamese chili, salt and pepper squid - which is becoming a real favourite - and chicken with chilli and lemon grass. Cooking it was a bit of a haze; no photos I'm afraid, doing it after hours in the pub plus the whirlwind I'd creating in the kitchen, and Guitar Hero duels were a little too distracting.

Sunday started slowly (with a hangover) but good coffee and eggs on potato farls got us moving soon enough. Moving enough to somehow end up in an oriental supermarket shopping for lunch.

Pork and Prawn Gyoza

• 50 frozen gyoza wrappers


• 200g pork mince


• 12 large raw peeled prawns, finely chopped


• 6 finely chopped spring onions


• Half a finely chopped chinese cabbage


• 6 cloves of garlic, finely chopped


• 1 large piece of ginger, finely chopped


• 1 tablespoon of caster sugar


• 2 tablespoons Kikkoman soy sauce


• Dash of rice vinegar

Lots of chopping eh? I had lots of help in the kitchen from Jo, Dave and Rob luckily! Mix it all up and you're ready to roll (I fried a test gyoza off to test the seasoning).

The gyoza wrappers were frozen, but by the time they'd been out for 30 minutes or so they were easy to handle.

We learnt quickly that dry hands really help, so that the wrappers don't stick to your hands. Stick a bit of the pork and prawn mix (not too much), and then use a bit of water around the edge to act as glue to seal it. Squeeze it close, and line 'em up.

We made 50. Less 1 that was the test, and 1 that was put down because of severe deformity.

It might seem that 48 gyoza is a lot for 4 people, but as soon as we cooked half and started eating it was pretty obvious that we weren't going to be able to stop until they were all gone ;)

I wonder if I'll ever get bored of cooking Asian food..