Gyoza - 1st attempt

Woah... i must be a genius! Bursting with shrimps and scallops! ooh! Was feeling like muching on some guo1 tie1 a.k.a. chinese potstickers, brother of japanese gyozas, cousin of korean mandoos (hereinafter known as GTs) this weekend, hence this foray/venture into the dark, scary unknown. there are GTs, and there are GTs [note the obvious change in intonations, first inflex to insinuate the good, the second to indicate the bad]. and then there are the rare GTs made to suit personal tastes e.g. the ultra difficult to please hubby known as hao-e. recall, he doesn't eat pork, which so happens to be the main ingredient of GTs. hmm....

so as with the xiu1 mai2 i did some months back, (you remember those do you?) the usual GT recipe was adapted to suit hao-e the emperor's preferences...

Stella's Shrimpilicious GTs
(makes around 20 GTs)
Around 20 medium shrimps, minced (don't dump into the blender, use the age-old manual chopper, i.e. your kitchen knife)
Around 10 small fresh scallops, diced
2 stalks of green onions, coarsely minced
1 tsp minced ginger
2 tbsp bamboo shoots coarsely minced (i use the canned ones; could be replaced with water chestnuts)
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp rice wine
20 dumpling skins (round ones)
1 tbsp of cooking oil
Water

1. Mix all the ingredients up in a big bowl, minus the skins (!).
2. Put about 1 wad (whatever you can pick up with a tsp) in the middle of a dumpling skin, wet the edges (careful with adding too much water), close it up by joining the ends of the diameter of the skin i.e. opposite ends, forming a semi-circular shape.
3. Press the 2 sides down to increase the surface area on the bottom of the dumpling. this is a bit difficult to describe in words. look at photos above. Remember it needs to be pan-fried, so increasing the bottom surface will ensure that your shrimp is cooked faster.
4. Grease the bottom of the pan with cooking oil- use a flat-bottomed non-stick pan for best results - place the pan over medium heat.
5. Place the dumplings into the pan, taking care not to let them stick to each other. in other words, don't over-crowd! you might have to separate them into 2 batches.
6. Brown those GT bottoms!
7. Once they are nice and browned, pour in around 0.25 cups of water (use your estimation skills - don't drown those GTs now). Cover the pan - be careful of oil splatter! Turn heat down to low.
8. Remove pan from heat once the water has evaporated. The water is meant to steam the GTs so that the filling gets thoroughly cooked.
9. Carefully remove the GTs from pan - they may stick, so careful not to tear the skins.
10. Serve with sliced fresh ginger in soy sauce/dark vinegar.