[UP2 Final Draft]

https://www.justonecookbook.com/gyoza/

 

Homemade Gyoza: A Fun and Tasty Experience

I chose a gyoza recipe from the blog Just One Cookbook by Namiko Hirasawa Chen. She is a Japanese home cook who lives in the United States. Her website has many Japanese recipes written in English. I picked this gyoza recipe because I really like gyoza and wanted to try making it by myself. I often eat gyoza at restaurants, but I have never cooked it at home. I also wanted to practice English through cooking. The website is easy to read, and the photos help beginners follow each step.

First, I bought the ingredients. I used ground pork, cabbage, green onions, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, sesame oil, and gyoza wrappers. The original recipe also used sake. I didn’t have regular sake, but I used ryorishu (Japanese cooking sake) instead. I think it worked well and gave the meat a nice flavor.

I chopped the vegetables and mixed everything in a bowl. Then I wrapped the filling with the gyoza wrappers. It was my first time, so some shapes were not perfect, but I had fun. I cooked the gyoza by pan-frying, then adding water and steaming. The result was crispy on the bottom and juicy inside. They tasted better than I expected!

The recipe was easy to follow. The pictures and detailed steps were very helpful. I liked how the author gave freezing tips, too. The flavor was great. One small weakness is that the recipe uses sake, which some people may not have. I think it would be nice to suggest cooking sake or another option.

The blog also included stories and background about gyoza. I liked reading about how the writer’s family eats gyoza. The writing was friendly, and the pictures made it easy to understand the cooking process. These parts made the experience more fun and personal.

I enjoyed this cooking experience a lot. I learned how to make gyoza from scratch, and I improved my cooking and English skills. I recommend this recipe to people who like Japanese food and want to cook at home. From this process, I also learned how to write clear recipes and share cooking tips, which I can use in my own food writing for class.