Gyoza!

Gyoza have to be one of my favourite foods in the whole world. One of the best things about these little dumplings is that they're super easy to make! My recipe comes from the rather glorious Wagamama cookbook which you can buy here. I've had mine for years now and I wouldn't be without it.

If you can't wait for your copy to arrive, here's the how-to for these tasty Japanese morsels.

(This recipe is for 'ebi gyoza' which are prawn dumplings but you can easily substitute the prawns for veggies like carrots, cabbage, onions and celery or even minced chicken)

You will need:

150g cooked peeled prawns

140g canned water chestnuts, drained

2 spring onions, trimmed

110g fresh spinach leaves

10g cornflour

1 tsp oyster sauce

1 tsp light soy sauce

1 tsp sesame oil

1 packed gyoza skins (you can get these from Chinese supermarkets)

pinches of salt, sugar and white pepper

1. Blitz the prawns, water chestnuts and spring onions in a blender until minced.

2. Wilt the spinach in a colander by pouring over boiling water. Leave to cool and then squeeze until free of excess water.

3. Finely chop the spinach and stir into the prawn mixture, along with the cornflour, salt, sugar, white pepper, oyster sauce, soy sauce and sesame oil.

4. Put a spoonful of the mixture in the centre of each gyoza skin. Moisten one edge with water then fold into a half moon shape. Press down to form a neat crescent.

(Now at this point I usually freeze them in batches so that I have them ready whenever I want them - but if you're eating them now, read on...)

5. Heat a large frying pan on medium for 1-2 minutes, until hot and smoking, add 1 tbsp vegetable oil.

6. Put 3 or 4 dumplings in the pan and gently saute for 2 minutes on low, until starting to brown.

7. Take the pan off the heat, add 3 tbsp water and cover immediately with the lid/foil. Return to the heat for 1 minute then remove and leave for another 2 minutes. This should have steamed them nicely.

8. Dip in soy sauce and enjoy!