Japanese Pot stickers (Gyoza) and Pork Bun

Pot sticker is a very popular dish in Japan. It actually is a Chinese dish but I think Japanese people modified it  little bit. Normally, many Japanese household buy ready to make gyoza wrapper from the supermarket.

I am one of them. I never made the gyoza wrapper myself. Japanese pot sticker wrapper is very very thin so I think it will be difficult to make it at home.

Anyway, I made lots of them at once since it is time consuming task to make gyoza and freeze them for later.

I actually posted the gyoza recipe in a previous post so click here if you are interested in the recipe.

It need some practice to make those shapes but I think after a few of them, you will get the hang of it.
I used to make them with my mom when I was little so I had lots of practice on this.

I make dipping sauce with soy sauce, white vinegar and spicy oil called "ra-yu"

Some people like eating gyoza with ramen noodle, others like to eat with white rice. I like it both ways.

At home, we usually eat them with white rice.

Ramen noodle is also very popular item in Japan. You will find many different style of ramen noodle depend on the region. I like "Tonkotsu Ramen" from Hakata which is in southern Japan. Actually, I have never been to Hakata but Tonkotsu Ramen is so popular, you can find many Tonkotsu Ramen place in Tokyo. Tonkotsu means pork bone so the stock of this ramen noodle was made from pork bone.

Back to my gyoza. I realized that I did not have enough wrapper for gyoza filling so I thought about what I can do with these leftover gyoza filling.

I remember seeing pork bun in a magazine the other day and decided to make my own pork bun with gyoza filling.

The dough was bit too tough and it was supposed to be smoother but it came out OK. I steamed in a frying pan.

It does not look too great but it tasted good. I think it was pretty good for my first try. I am very proud of myself. My husband also liked these pork bun. I don't think he ever had pork bun before.

He ate many gyoza and also pork buns.

I was wondering what else I can make these pork bun with. Maybe I can put some peanut butter inside to make sweet bun.

Those buns are also popular in Japan, especially in winter time. It is a great snack. You will find different kind of buns at any convenient store in winter. I have seen pork bun, sweet red beans bun, pizza bun, curry bun and so on. I am sure there are bunch of more flavors which I don't even tried.

After making all the pot sticker. I seal them in a freeze back and date it and store in the freezer.

I think it is also fine to freeze those buns. I did not have any leftover to freeze so I did not freeze them this time but I think it will be a great snack. I think kids would like those also. You can make it with their favorite filling and freeze it and whenever they are hungry after school, you can take it out from the freeze and microwave it. I think it is healthier than eating store bought snacks :-)