• Place the cabbage and 1 teaspoon of salt in a strainer over a bowl. This is done to remove excess water from the cabbage. Allow it to sit for at least 15 minutes. Take the cabbage and squeeze it to remove the excess water.
• In a bowl, combine the pork, cabbage, garlic, water chestnuts, ginger, scallions, and shiitake mushrooms. Add the sesame oil, soy sauce, sake, 1 tsp salt, pepper, and sugar.
  
• To make the dumplings, place a bowl of water next to the area you will be making the dumplings. Take a gyoza wrapper and place 1-2 tsp of the pork filling. Wet your index finger and wet the edges of the wrapper. Pinch one of the ends.
  
• Begin pleating one side to the other side. Pleat all the way through until the dumpling is completely sealed. Continue to do this until all the dumplings are made. You will get about 40-60 dumplings.
  
• To cook the fresh dumplings, heat a pan over medium-high heat with canola oil. Add a single layer of dumplings and cook until the bottoms brown slightly at 1-2 minutes (3-4 minutes if frozen).
  
• Once lightly browned, add the ½ cup of water and cover with a lid. Let the dumpling steam until the water has completely evaporated and the bottoms have crisped up slightly. If you want to brown more sides of the gyoza feel free to move the dumplings around to crisp up the other sides. Place on a plate to serve.
  

Sauce

• Combine the soy sauce, rice vinegar, and sambal oelek. Taste and adjust the spiciness by adding more sambal oelek to increase or soy sauce to decrease the spicy level.