Small Eureka Moment

[akirlu]

I've puddled around with trying to make a decent own dipping sauce for Trader Joe's gyoza, and never been quite happy with the result, but I think having knuckled under and finally added sugar, I may be closer to something like what I was wanting. Here, mostly for my own reference, and that of anyone else who may care, is today's recipe:



Pretty Good Dipping Sauce

1/4 C Soy Sauce
Juice of 1/2 good sized lime
2 heaping tsps minced garlic
1 tsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp Gourmet Garden Ginger Spice Blend (or comparable quantity fresh grated ginger, if you got it)

Whisk all ingredients together. Dip your damn' gyoza. Nom.

Comments

[seawasp]

My sauce is somewhat similar, but instead of sugar I use honey, and I add a *tiny* splash of rice wine, some sesame oil, a bit of red pepper, and green onions (scallions). Instead of lime juice one can use vinegar, too.

[billeyler.livejournal.com]

When we have potstickers, it's all about the dippin' sauce to me. It needs just that perfect tang of sweet, sour, salty to make them heaven.

I use the same brand of minced garlic you do, mostly because I use SO MUCH GARLIC in my cooking that I need quantities. But the downside is that it doesn't really taste like fresh garlic--I don't have the patience to deal with whole cloves and the crushing, peeling and dicing.

[carbonel]

I make almost the same dipping sauce, except that I use a splash of rice wine vinegar in place of the lime. I also add a shake or two of hot chili oil.

[replyhazy.livejournal.com]

Gyoza! YUM!

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

All sound like good choices. I will definitely consider green onions next time, if I happen to have them. This was just a quick-and-dirty of what I had to hand because I didn't feel like either a)shopping or b)doing anything complicated for dinner.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Oh, I totally hate peeling garlic, but most of my local markets now carry pre-peeled fresh garlic cloves, vacuum sealed in groups roughly the quantity of a head of garlic and then bagged together, so I get that, too. When I want the fresh! garlic! flavor I use those and mash them with the flat of my handy, all purpose Chinese cleaver, and when I want zero fuss, I use the stuff in a jar. Because, yeah, I'm all about the garlic.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

I thought about rice wine vinegar instead, and probably would have gone with that except I already had a half a lime in the fridge leftover from the broiled cod earlier in the week. Chili oil is a great suggestion.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Damn betcha. Especially with a decent dipping sauce. Next time, adding green onion and chili oil.

[k6rfm.livejournal.com]

Peeling garlic is no trouble to me, I just pound it flat and pick out the skins. Solves the dicing problem too. For the TJs gyoza we seem to get by just fine with plain fish sauce, though ginger and a bit of sugar (or maybe mirin) does sound good. The terrifying thing is I went to TJs today and they had no pork gyoza, only the wimpy chicken ones. I hope it's just a minor interruption and not the end of them. (Non-chocolate-dipped biscotti disappeared last year, and I miss them.)