Pork Gyoza

These are a beautiful Japanese style dumpling filled with ground pork and Napa cabbage which are quickly fried and steamed to create a crispy outside and a deliciously juicy and tender filling. The closest to soup dumplings that I have come to so far!

I first encountered gyoza at a friend’s family dinner where everyone gathered around the table to build these little guys in an assembly line fashion, I loved this format and will be making them for family and small gatherings in this fashion. Our friends served them to us steamed or boiled, and I remembered thinking, the only way this could possibly be more delicious is if it had a bit of a sear on the bottom.

Yose Nabe (Seafood Hot Pot)

This dish seemed like a perfect representation of our Communal Dinners. The Yose Nabe (Seafood Hot Pot) is a mixture of all of the fish you can think of, like a gathering of friends. Some even add chicken thighs and tofu to the mix. To make it even more communal, the dish is generally served in separate parts on the dining table with the broth simmering directly on a butane stove in the center of the table. Everyone adds whatever they would like to eat, cooking together and bringing more and more complexity to the delicious broth!