While living in Taiwan I friendshiped a Vietnamese mail order bride running her husbands family restaurant. One night my companion and I stopped by to say hi and she serves us these wonderful dumplings in thin red sauce.
It was so delicious that I never forgot about it but had never heard what they were called. Makes it hard to track down a recipe but I got lucky and stumbled across it. And the wonderful thing about making it yourself is you can control the spicy level to your own liking. There are two ways this is done, one way is how I described having it in Taiwan and the other is as a soup. To make the soup version, after adding soy sauce, sesame oil, chicken bollion, chopped green onions and homemade chili oil to the bottom of a bowl, pour in 1 cup of soup stock. For an authentic tasting simple Chinese broth simmer chopped daikon in water and strain. You can also add a pork bone, seaweed, and or chicken boullion.
Wontons
40-50 wonton skins
1 pound ground pork
2 Tbsp. grated ginger with juice
1/4 cup minced green onion or leek
3 Tbsp.soy sauce
1/2 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. cornstarch
2 Tbsp. water
Mix all together, stirring clockwise, until it starts to get a gluey look to it. Let it marinate for 15 minutes. Wet the edges of a wonton skin and place 3/4 tsp. filling in the center and flatten the filling out a little. Fold the wonton in half and seal the edges.
Homemade Chili oil
1/3 cup oil
2 slices ginger
1 green onion, cut in segments
1 clove garlic, broke open
1 Tbsp. chili flecks
1 tsp. sichuan peppercorns
2 tsp. sesame seeds
Simmer ginger, green onion and garlic in oil over medium heat until they turn golden brown. Pour the simmering oil through a strainer over chili flecks, sichuan peppercorns and sesame seeds. Cover and let rest overnight if possible. The chili oil will have sesame seeds and chili flecks floating in it.
Presentation
Mix some soy sauce (about 1 Tbsp), a drop or two of sesame oil, a pinch of chicken boullion, 1 tbsp. chopped green onions and chili oil to taste. Place dumplings over top and toss. Alternately you can add 1 cup of homemade broth.
YES!!! Bless you for doing this. My husband teases me that the only reason why I talk about visiting Taiwan is for the food and not as much for the people. I loved the food in Taiwan, and I tell him it's just part of the experience and a big part of it. Of course I love the people and want to see old friends too, but Sam can't ever pass up an opportunity to tease me :)
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