Simply Dressed

I always keep some of my mom’s wontons on hand in the freezer. It makes for a quick solution to a meal when I come home and am too tired to cook, or makes for a yummy and healthy snack in the middle of the night.



I get my mom to make me the northern-style wontons, since they’re the only kind I’ll eat. It’s filled with a mix of ground pork and shrimp and shredded napa cabbage, versus its Cantonese counterpart, which usually contain just large chunks of shrimp and maybe some bamboo shoots and shiitake mushrooms. It’s just a lot of shrimp for me, and I like the balance of the meat and shrimp in the northern-style wontons.

Usually I just throw them in some boiling water and serve with some lo-mein (boiled egg noodles tossed with some oyster sauce, soy sauce and sesame oil), but I decided to make a dressing for them the other day. It’s based off a dipping sauce my mom actually makes for dumplings, but I figured it would go just as well with wontons. A great combination of flavours, from the sweetness of the sugar, the saltiness of the soy sauce, the sourness of the vinegar and the spicy kick of the ginger and chilli sauce. The leftover dressing tastes great drizzled over some steamed baby bok choy as well!



Soy, Vinegar and Ginger Dressing

1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp grated ginger
1 tbsp thinly sliced green onions
1 tbsp Chinese black vinegar (Chinkiang)
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
¼ tsp chilli sauce (or chilli oil)

Mix everything in a bowl, and drizzle over wontons, dumplings or steamed greens. Or simply serve on the side as a dip.