Yinyin sauce
I can't help myself, ever so often I just NEED to eat jiaozi, Chinese dumplings. Or the fried kind, called guotie or potstickers. I put in the usual chopped pork, chinese cabbage, ginger, soaked dried shiitake mushroom, shredded spring onion and soy sauce and sesame oil for the filling, but added an extra leaf or two of the cime di rape I had a couple of days before. That made it really tasty!! I fried them in a pan but they stuck a little to well to the bottom.
Anyway, I made a salad like I had in Beijing: with a sauce of vinegar and sugar, plus an extra tablespoon dark Chinese vinegar. I soaked the cucumber in this vinaigrette for half an hour and added shredded lettuce and fried peanuts. Now for the jiaozi-sauce, I was taught this by a Chinese friend who cooks extremely well, and my family has called this sauce 'Yinyin sauce' ever since.
First make a hot sauce by putting dried chili pepper flakes, white sesame seeds, a little salt and a handful of huajiao (Sichuan pepper) in a fireproof bowl. Heat oil until really hot and pour carefully on the mixture; it will look like it will explode and a lot of hot steam escapes. Careful! When cooled off, you will have a dark red spicy oil. For the Yinyin sauce, mash 2 cloves of garlic, add 4 tablespoons or so of sugar, add as much dark Chinese aromatic vinegar until all the sugar is absorbed - stir, then add soy sauce and 3 or more tablespoons of the hot chili oil. Taste for spicyness and adapt to your liking. It tasted extremely well with the just fried potstickers and the salad will cool you off. Powerful.
Anyway, I made a salad like I had in Beijing: with a sauce of vinegar and sugar, plus an extra tablespoon dark Chinese vinegar. I soaked the cucumber in this vinaigrette for half an hour and added shredded lettuce and fried peanuts. Now for the jiaozi-sauce, I was taught this by a Chinese friend who cooks extremely well, and my family has called this sauce 'Yinyin sauce' ever since.
First make a hot sauce by putting dried chili pepper flakes, white sesame seeds, a little salt and a handful of huajiao (Sichuan pepper) in a fireproof bowl. Heat oil until really hot and pour carefully on the mixture; it will look like it will explode and a lot of hot steam escapes. Careful! When cooled off, you will have a dark red spicy oil. For the Yinyin sauce, mash 2 cloves of garlic, add 4 tablespoons or so of sugar, add as much dark Chinese aromatic vinegar until all the sugar is absorbed - stir, then add soy sauce and 3 or more tablespoons of the hot chili oil. Taste for spicyness and adapt to your liking. It tasted extremely well with the just fried potstickers and the salad will cool you off. Powerful.
Labels: chinese, dumplings, jiaozi, sauce, spicy, yinyin sauce
