Gyoza

Grate cabbage and carrots into shreds, set aside. Wash and slice mushrooms, set aside. (I prefer to use dried shiitake, which must be soaked in warm water for 30 min. prior to use. Discard stems of shiitake, and use the mushroom soaking water for soup or whatever.) Chop the scallions coarsely. Crumble pork and fry it, drain the excess oil. Remove pork from the pan, stir fry the cabbage, carrots, mushrooms and ginger in the traces of pork oil left in the pan. Add the pork and scallions, toss until scallions are tender. Add black pepper, memmi, and soy sauce to taste. (I use more memmi than soy sauce, but you may not find the sweetness of memmi to your liking.) Gyoza skin, incidentally, is different from wonton skins. Wonton skins are thinner and do not take abuse well. Anyway, take one gyoza skin and lay it in the palm of your hand. Add ~1 Tbsp. of filling, dip a finger in water and wet the entire edge of the skin. Close the dumpling securely, crimping the edge with your fingers. Set finished dumpling in a lightly oiled non-stick frying pan. Work quickly - it helps to have helpers at this point. Lay dumplings closely together in the pan but do not let them touch; otherwise, they will be forever bonded during the cooking process. Once the pan is full, set it over medium heat for a few minutes - check the bottoms frequently - they should be nicely browned on the bottom. Now add water until the gyozas are ~1/3 immersed (watch out, the pan will sizzle), Cover loosely (I use a lid that is a bit smaller than the pan diameter) and let steam until the water has evaporated. Gently pry the dumplings off of the pan and serve "bottoms up." Make a dipping sauce of soy sauce and rayu, serve with lots of hot fluffy rice. You can also use this filling for egg rolls - simply wrap in egg roll wrappers and deep fry until the skins are golden and crispy. Drain well and eat while hot. You can adjust the contents (shrimp instead of pork, add broccoli, decrease the ginger, etc.) as you like - this is a very flexible recipe.