Honoring Grandpa with His Infamous

One of my absolute favorite dishes growing up was one we had often when visiting my grandparents. My grandpa, Yoshio, would wrap pork and put a small slice of egg into a wonton and serve it with some white rice and soy sauce.

I have removed the egg from the recipe below, but if you want to add it you can simply cook a layer of eggs, like you make an omelet. Cook the egg and remove it from the pan like it is a pancake and cut small strips about an inch long and maybe a 1/3 of an inch wide. Basically make some small egg strips that you place in the wonton with the pork mixture.

There are two cooking methods listed in the recipe: steam or boiled. Boiled makes the wonton skins really soft and flowing. The steamed method is a bit more hard around the edges.

You can also take steamed or boiled dumplings, after cooking them, and add them to a saute pan with a tablespoon of oil and cook the dumplings by browning them on each side. This will create a crispier dumpling.

Unfortunately, I won't enjoy grandpa's dumplings when visiting as he passed away last month. My sister, wife, and I honored him this evening by making our favorite meal from him.

Yoshio’s Japanese Dumplings

Serves 6-8

1 1/2 lbs. ground pork
2 dashes worstershire sauce
1/4 tsp. curry powder
1/8 tsp. sage
1/8tsp. orange peel powder
1/8tsp. thyme
2tbs. poppy seed
1tsp. celery seed
dash pepper
3 dashes garlic powder
1/2 tsp. accent or msg
1/2 tsp. oregano
5-6 tbs. fine chopped onions

1 package of wonton skins, 4” squares
8 oz of water and a 1 tsp of cornstarch

Mix all ingredients and knead until meat becomes very smooth. After kneading, refrigerate (covered) overnight before making dumplings. Any excess mixture can be frozen for future use.

Optional: Cook 1 egg with dash of soy sauce. Cut cooked egg into small strips to put into wonton.

Get six-inch square egg roll skins and cut into 4” squares. Wrap meat, which can be wrapped without tearing egg roll skin, seal loose skin with a dab of water and cornstarch mixture. Let wrapped skin stand about 1-2 hours so skill will seal meat.

Boil a pot of water and cook dumpling for 15 minutes. You can also do this using a steamed method where the dumplings are steamed for 15 minutes.

Serve 6-8 pieces with a side of white rice (preferably short grain) and a small dish of Dumpling Goyza dipping sauce or soy sauce.