Steps

1. Remove the core from 1/4 head of cabbage and separate the leaves.
   🕒 01:12
2. Lightly rinse the separated cabbage leaves.
   🕒 01:35
3. Cut off the hard V-shaped core of the rinsed cabbage leaves with a knife.
   🕒 01:47
4. Wrap the cabbage leaves in plastic wrap and microwave to soften.
   🕒 02:29
5. Finely chop the remaining cabbage core.
   🕒 03:09
6. In a bowl, combine 200g of ground pork, 1.5 tbsp soy sauce, 0.5 tbsp cooking sake (rice wine), grated ginger (to taste), 0.5 tbsp sugar, 1 tbsp potato starch, and 1 tbsp sesame oil. Mix well until the seasonings are fully incorporated with the meat.
   🕒 03:43
7. Add the chopped cabbage core from step 5 to the meat mixture from step 6 and mix together by kneading.
   🕒 04:30
8. Divide the meat mixture into 10 portions and shape them into balls with lightly oiled hands.
   🕒 04:53
9. Heat sesame oil in a frying pan. Wrap each meatball from step 8 with the softened cabbage leaves from step 4. Place them in the frying pan with the seam side down. The key here! Use larger leaves as they are, and overlap or roll smaller leaves. It's okay if some of the meat mixture peeks out.
   🕒 05:29
10. In the empty spaces of the frying pan where the shumai are placed, arrange the leftover cabbage leaves.
    🕒 06:51
11. Heat the frying pan over medium heat until the bottoms of the shumai sizzle audibly.
    🕒 07:10
12. Once sizzling, add 2 tbsp of water for steaming, cover with a lid, and steam over low heat.
    🕒 07:25
13. Remove the lid. Drizzle with sesame oil if desired, and crisp up the bottoms of the shumai and leftover cabbage to create 'grilled cabbage'.
    🕒 07:45
14. Plate the cooked shumai and grilled cabbage.
    🕒 08:24
15. Prepare soy sauce (to taste), Japanese mustard (paste) (to taste), vinegar (to taste), and sesame oil (to taste) as accompaniments.
    🕒 08:56