Earlier this month, for my birthday, Chris got me a Nintendo DS Lite that I’ve been hinting around like crazy for and the most beautiful earrings from Tiffany (the mere sight of that blue box sets my heart aflutter!) The jewels have been attached to my head and the DS to my grubby little mitts ever since.

One of my favorite games is called Cooking Mama where you make recipes while Mama scores things like your dumpling wrapping, shrimp peeling, egg cracking, and veggie slicing capabilities. If you fail a task, “Dont worry, Mama will fix it”, but she is clearly disapointed and deducts points accordingly.

I’ve been playing the game so much I’m pretty sure I’m getting subliminally programmed because I’m now craving all the things Mama and I made. Like gyoza, I want those soft juicy little dumplings so bad right now I can’t stand it. She’s all the time cussin’ and shaking her oddly formed angry fists at me. Isn’t she cute? Here’s a little flash video, just wait till you hear the song too, I love it:

Now, the moment we have all been waiting for has finally arrived, I officially announce my Cooking Mama Recipe Series. Wherein I’ll cook one of Mama’s recipes each time. I’ll try to do good for Mama, I know how she can be! First up the Gyoza I’m craving, yummy dumplings filled with gingery pork served with a mouthwatering dipping sauce.

wonton wrappers
pork ground or minced
2 tb ginger root, grated
soy sauce
rice vinegar
sesame oil
1 egg

Mix pork, ginger, egg together with a few shakes of rice vinegar, sesame oil, and soy. I also put a little chili oil in but its up to you. Then place some filling in the wrappers, brush water around the edges, and fold and pinch them together like Mama says.

3 ts brown sugar
1/2 c teriyaki sauce
2 ts fresh minced ginger
1 tb green onion, chopped

For the sauce, stir all of the ingredients listed above together making sure all the sugar has dissolved.

Heat a large nonstick pan with a little peanut or veggie oil and arrange the dumplings in one layer. When you start to hear a sizzle and they are golden on the bottom, add about 1/2″ of water and cover tightly. Keep the heat up pretty high and cook untill all the water has evaporated. This lets them primarily cook from the steam and still get crispy on the bottoms like this, see? I think maybe even Mama would be proud!

{tags cooking mama nintendo dslite pork dumpling gyoza recipe}