Oyaki (Flour Dumplings Filled with Seasoned Greens)
Oyaki from Nagano: a thin wheat dough wrapped round a filling of greens seasoned in advance, shaped into a round, browned in a pan and finished under a lid. It was eaten in place of rice in country too cold and steep to grow it.
Ingredients
- Dough
- plain flour300 g
- warm water180 ml
- salt0.5 tsp
- Filling
- nozawana pickle · or pickled mustard greens or takana300 g
- sesame oil1 tbsp
- soy sauce1 tbsp
- sugar1 tsp
- dried red chilli · sliced, optional1
- To cook
- neutral oil1 tbsp
- water · for the lidded finish50 ml
Steps
- ⏲ 30 min
Pour the warm water onto the flour and salt, bring it together and knead until smooth. Cover and rest for 30 minutes.
- ⏲ 5 min
Squeeze the nozawana pickle dry and chop it finely. Fry it in the sesame oil, add the soy sauce, sugar and chilli, and cook until no liquid is left. Let it cool.
Divide the dough into 8, flatten each thin to the size of your palm, put a spoonful of filling in the middle and gather the edges over it. Turn seam-down and press into a round 8-10cm across.
- ⏲ 6 min
Heat the oil in a frying pan and cook over medium heat until both sides have golden patches.
- ⏲ 10 min
Pour in the water, cover and cook gently. When the water has gone, uncover and let the base crisp again.
Variations
- Steamed oyaki. Around Zenkōji in the Nagano basin they are usually steamed, despite the name.
- Aubergine and miso. Aubergine dressed in miso as the filling.
- Sweet. Red bean or squash fillings make a sweet oyaki.
- Anbo. In Sakae village, where rice does grow, the dough is rice flour.
Tips
- Season the filling first. Miso, salt or soy go in before wrapping.
- Cook the filling dry and let it cool before wrapping.
- Brown the outside, then cook it through under a lid.
- Roll the dough thin. It can almost show the filling.
- Reheat cold ones in a pan.
More detail and the reasons why (2)
- One name, three ways of cooking. According to Japanese Wikipedia, oyaki were originally wrapped, lightly seared dry on an earthenware pan, then buried in the hot ash of the hearth to bake and steam. Once the hearth disappeared from homes they were cooked on an oiled iron plate or in an oven, and around Zenkōji they are usually steamed, yaki ("grilled") in the name notwithstanding. This recipe browns them in a pan and finishes them under a lid, so the surface comes out like a gyoza base while the shape is closer to hotteok.
- Wheat in place of rice. Much of Nagano is too steep and cold for rice, so wheat and buckwheat were grown and their flours eaten as a near-staple. The vegetable fillings are seasoned in advance with miso or soy, and in early Meiji records the vegetable used most was turnip. On 14 August, at Obon, oyaki were placed on the household altar as an offering.
The basics behind this dish
- Deep Frying: Temperature, Batter, and the Second FryFrying is not cooking in oil so much as trading the food's water for it. Two temperatures, what each kind of coating is for, and why the second fry exists.
- Heat Control: Preheating, Oil, and Reading the PanThe same ingredients become a different dish depending on pan temperature. When to add the oil, how to read heat by sound, and which dishes want low heat instead.
- Knife Skills: Grip, Cuts, and Why Size MattersHow you hold the knife matters more than how fast you cut. The pinch grip, the claw hand, and why uniform size is a cooking decision rather than a cosmetic one.
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