Vegetable, Pork & Leek Dumplings; Dumpling Sauce
Someone wrote me recently saying that she loves Ling Ling Dipping Sauce, yet it’s no longer being sold by the bottle. She asked if I or readers could recommend another similar dipping sauce?
I said fine, I know what it’s like to have a favorite item be discontinued (I’m still upset with you, Sephora!) so let me pick up a bag of dumplings and bottle of dumpling sauce, eat a dozen of the dumplings with the sauce, tell everyone what I thought of the two things, and ask for dumpling sauce recommendations.
This is what I came up with, a bag of Vegetable, Pork, and Leek Dumplings.
And a bottle of Taiwanese dumpling sauce.
Frozen dumplings.
The vegetable filling peeking out.
The dumplings after I simply boiled them, along with the sauce (soy sauce, sugar, vinegar, garlic juice, sesame oil, and salt. Can you see how the sesame oil separates from the soy sauce and vinegar?).
The sauce is somewhat full-bodied because of the sesame oil, which can definitely be tasted. After the sesame oil, I taste soy sauce and vinegar.
The dumplings are okay (they’ll never compare to freshly made ones). The flavor of chives and cabbage is predominant. I do have two complaints about the dumplings: the filling is mushy and they fall apart too easily.
I like the sauce well enough to recommend it, but I realize it’s different from the sauce for Ling Ling Potstickers, which I seem to recall as being sweet and thick.
So can you help a fellow food lover out and recommend another dumpling sauce? Or heck, do you even make your own?
OMG
These pictures are so vivid. I’m hungry now.
I make a potsticker sauce from rice vinegar, dark soy sauce (Pearl River Brand here), and homemade plum jelly that I added 1 little flat Domino’s Pizza delivery containers of red pepper per each pint. You could fake it with a squirt of rooster sauce. I don’t measure, but I figure 2 TBL jelly, 1 part soy, 1 part vinegar, stir until thin enough for you and then spice to taste.
YUM!
FYI, I put the red pepper flakes in the jelly before I water bathed it, so the pepper is throughout.
You should eat Ajinomoto dumplings. (Gyoza). Mmm…Japanese brand dumplings. I love getting the seafood flavor. (Ajinomoto Dumplings with Shrimp). I don’t think I’ve ever found a satisfactory vegetarian dumpling. Seafood counts as Pescatarian! Anyway, when I make dumplings, I almost always prepare my own sauce. Just dice some garlic, put it in a little bowl, pour soy sauce, add some asian barbeque sauce, and lastly, the sesame oil. Stir stir, and it’s a fragrant delicious complement to your dumplings. (I also love to pan fry my dumplings.)
Also, I have good memories of my family making dumplings together. (My mom would prepare everything first. She’d scoop the filling onto the wrappers and us kids wrapped them.) I’m an expert wrapper!
im with Lian on the panfrying thing. I usually “steam” my dumplings in a frypan with some water and stick the lid on. when almost all the water is gone i throw in some oil and just sear each side.
Juju: I don’t think I ever look at food photos without wanting to eat something, even if I’ve just eaten!
StoneMaven: Oooh, (homemade!) plum jelly to lend some sweetness to the sauce—your version is probably closer to the Ling Ling one. Thanks for sharing the recipe!
Lian: I saw the Ajinomoto gyoza and debated whether to get it, but thought that for the purposes of cooking and photographing, it was better to get a bag of dumplings (I tend to have a lot of trial and error in the process). I don’t think I’ve ever tried Asian barbecue sauce, and certainly wouldn’t have thought to include it as a dipping sauce ingredient; thanks for sharing your recipe. I pan-fried the rest of the dumplings and liked them better than boiling them. I ate the dumplings sans sauce because they were oily and flavorful enough (I suppose I could’ve used Sambal Oelek as a sauce).
I’m impressed that you’re an expert dumpling wrapper.
I suck at rolling egg rolls but I am an expert at eating them. 
Chelle: I followed the directions on the bag and pan-fried the dumplings by first browning them in oil, and then adding water and cooking the dumplings until the water evaporated. Although the dumplings were good this way, they were a bit too wet for me, so maybe I’ll try it your way next time and see if it works better. Thanks for the tip!
I usually just use hot sauce for my dipping sauce but I make the dough and filling from scratch and also pan fry them. HATE them boiled. LOL!
Slammie: I think pan-fried dumplings taste the best, too. It’s like, dang, why do they have to be so small and able to be eaten in three bites?! Because I can eat a lot of ‘em.
AA: Thanks for this post; I’m the one who asked for a Ling Ling dipping sauce substitute! (I also wrote them an unhappy email, and they sent me some coupons - and said they’d reconsider selling the bottled sauce.) Thanks for the dipping sauce recipe suggestions - guess I need to start experimenting. Have found a number of recipes online to use as a starting point.
I first boil my dumplings, then pan fry them. You can also cook them in a little water, then when it’s mostly boiled off, dump out the rest, add sesame oil, and fry. Carefully. Sesame oil burns easily.
There are a zillion types of pre-made dumplings in the freezer section of any Asian food store - unfortunately, most of them are not my cup of tea at all. Home-made are the best, LingLing comes in a close second. I’ll have to give Aginomoto gyoza a try!!
Thanks again!
Akindofmagick: I’m happy to be of a little help.
Hopefully you’ll be able to find or recreate a similar dipping sauce. And I’m glad that you received what sounds like a personal reply from the company.
FINALLY!! We’ve found a dipping sauce we like!! Read about it here: http://akindofmagick1.blogspot.com/2009/09/day-247-potsticker-dipping-sauce.html
HOORAY!!!
Akindofmagick: Yay, I’m glad you found a suitable replacement!
I’m actually very familiar with Maggi Seasoning; I use it in place of soy sauce as a dipping sauce sometimes. I’ve thought about doing a post on it. Sooner or later, I guess.