Feb 24th Snack Bento

Most of my time this morning was spent making breakfast (four-grain strawberry and banana pancakes. Yum!), so I just threw together the quickest of snack bentos as BF was getting ready to leave.
The dumplings are gyoza from a batch I made this weekend (recipe: here). I couldn't get my hands on round gyoza wrappers so I ended up buying square wonton wrappers instead. Originally I had planned to cut them into circles, but when I discovered that you can fold the square ones into these adorable pyramids, I left them the way they were.

To fold dumplings this way, first brush the outer perimeter of the square with water and then place about a teaspoon of filling in the middle. Fold in two diagonally opposite corners and pinch the tip to connect them together. Fold up the remaining two corners and press together the seams to seal them. Pinch the tip once more.

I like the way these look so much that I might start doing them this way on a regular basis. I cooked them by frying them until the bottoms were brown and then steaming for an additional 7 minutes. Wonton wrappers are thicker than round gyoza wrappers so they hold up really well when frying.

To add some colour and to stabilize the gyoza, I included a few pieces of steamed broccoli and some blackberries. The sauce bottle contains a mixture of rice vinegar and soy sauce.