chili oil dumplings

they’re a super easy, super convenient meal. Boil some frozen dumplings, toss it over your sauce, and call it a day.

I haven’t actually done this in a lazy meal in awhile, but I had picked up a few bags of frozen dumplings from 99 ranch and was just so tired after I got home on Friday that I decided to cook them, and while grabbing stuff for a dipping sauce I remembered that this was a thing I could do (and had done a lot of in college)

I used frozen ones but you can make your own dumplings and freeze them too! In fact, this sort of stream-of-consciousness post is half a reminder to myself to go by some napa cabbage so I can make dumplings next weekend

Anyways, to have some actual content - here’s how to make a similar sauce and (roughly) the recipe I use for dumplings

水饺 dumplings (pork & cabbage)

ingredients

  • ~1 lb ground pork
  • ~1 lb napa cabbage (minced)
  • 3/4 cups water
  • soy sauce to taste (1 tbsp)
  • sesame oil to taste (1 tbsp)
  • ~1.5 tablespoons corn starch
  • ~1/2 tsp salt (for pork)
  • prepared dumpling skins, ~1 lb

process

  • add salt to cabbage and wait, squeeze out water
  • add water, soy sauce, sesame oil, corn starch, salt to ground pork, mix
  • combine cabbage and pork mixture - this is your filling
  • test salinity of filling by dropping a bit into boiling water
  • wrap dumplings
  • drop into boiling water, remove when fully cooked (floating)
    • you can add a cup of cold water when it starts boiling so the hard boil doesn’t break the skin. I usually don’t bother

chili oil dumplings sauce

gonna be real I don’t really have a recipe for this insofar as ratios, it’s just a list of ingredients you can mix together and pour over a bowl of dumplings.

  • chinese black vinegar
  • soy sauce
    • either dark or light soy sauce is fine. if using light, add some brown sugar - the sweetness contrasts the vinegar nicely. if using dark, you may want to add some salt to taste
    • worcestershire sauce can work nicely here too (also makes an excellent dipping sauce for potstickers)
  • chili oil
    • I use homemade 油泼辣子, but you can use whatever you enjoy. I would lean away from ‘chili crisp’ though, or try to just use the oil from a jar
    • I also use a few dashes of a sichuan chili oil (fly by jing’s sichuan gold from a hot ones box). If I didn’t have this I’d probably do some ground toasted sichuan peppercorns (optionally grind and pour hot oil on top to release the flavors)
  • minced garlic
  • bit of sesame oil
  • garnish with cilantro and sesame seeds

Also, if you want to just do a simple dipping sauce, do soy sauce/vinegar/water in a 1:2:1 ratio and garnish with cilantro and sesame seeds. Serve with a separate dish of chili oil so people can mix to their own preferences.

anyways, that’s all from me. thanks for reading!