Friends ask me about the sauce for Chinese dumplings. The dumplings’ filling is itself flavorful and savory. You can enjoy them without any dipping sauce, like my kids do. My husband likes to eat them with Thai Sweet Chili sauce and I like light soy sauce. Some Chinese love to eat them with Chinese vinegar (black, not white like Western vinegar). Yes! Chinese like to eat vinegar. We use “eat vinegar” to imply a person getting jealous. You can combine both light soy sauce and dark vinegar, add a little sesame oil, chopped garlic, green onion and what is available in your kitchen. Chili sauce, chili oil and cilantro add more flavor. I love some Asian cuisine that add lime or lemon juice and fresh chili pepper. There is no right or wrong, and no certain ratio for the ingredients. A lot of the Chinese cooking books I bought in China don’t tell you how many spoons or cups, you just add the portions as you like based on your sense and enjoy. Below are a few simple homemade sauce recipes from the web. Hope they help.
I put the Chinese Chinkiang sauce (zhen jiang xiang cu in Chinese) and the light soy sauce in the picture below, since both are widely used brands in China. You can find them easily at any Asian supper market.
DSC_1285.JPG
ENJOY OUR DUMPLINGS
We have two styles of Chili sauce that sell at our market (Xian style and Sichuan style). They have complicated ingredients and processes. You may want to save time and pay a few dollars to try one.
Shanghai style dumpling sauce
4 tbsp Chinkiang vinegar
2 tbsp ginger (thinly sliced strips)
1 tb sugar
This sauce can used for Shanghai soup dumplings (Xiao long bao) because the soup dumpling has rich soup and the vinegar can cut the grease from the red meat.
Spicy dumpling sauce
1 clove garlic (coarsely chopped)
1 piece ginger (coarsely chopped)
1 sprig cilantro (finely chopped)
2 tbsp Chinkiang vinegar
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tb sesame oil
1-2 tb chili oil or hot sauce
This is my favorite sauce! Can eat with dumplings or wonton soup.
Cantonese style dumpling sauce
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp light soy sauce
3 tbsp chicken stock
1 ½ tb sesame oil
1 ½ tbsp ginger (finely shredded)
1 ½ tbsp green onion (white part, shredded)
1 pinch of white pepper
Let sit for 30 minutes before serving
Asian style dumpling sauce
(with lemon or lime)
¼ cup plus 2 tbsp cup light soy sauce
¼ cup Chinkiang vinegar
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
(add more or less depend on your favorite)
1 tbsp honey or sugar
1 scallion (thinly sliced)
1 cloves garlic (crushed and minced)
1 tb ginger (finely grated)
1 tb sesame oil
1 lemon or lime (squeezed)
1 tbsp water (optional)
