Izakaya-Style Gyoza Dipping Sauce with Quick Chili Sesame Oil

By Sprig Originals ✓ · cooked up in Sprig

The little dish of sauce next to a plate of pan-fried gyoza does more work than people realise, and the good izakaya versions are never just soy sauce and vinegar poured together. This one is built in two parts: a five-minute chili sesame oil made by pouring hot oil over gochugaru, garlic and sesame, and a balanced soy-vinegar base with freshly grated ginger and ground toasted sesame seeds for body. Spoon the chili oil on top so it floats in glossy red beads, then let everyone stir their own. It takes fifteen minutes, keeps for two weeks, and makes frozen supermarket dumplings taste like they came out of a proper kitchen.

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup neutral oil, such as grapeseed or canola
• 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
• 1 1/2 tablespoons gochugaru or Japanese ichimi togarashi (coarse Korean/Japanese chili flakes)
• 1 clove garlic, very thinly sliced
• 1 teaspoon toasted sesame seeds
• 1 pinch fine sea salt

• 1/4 cup soy sauce (Japanese koikuchi, such as Kikkoman)
• 3 tablespoons unseasoned rice vinegar
• 1 tablespoon water
• 2 teaspoons mirin
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon finely grated fresh ginger, with its juice
• 1 teaspoon toasted sesame seeds, coarsely ground
• 1 tablespoon thinly sliced scallion, white and pale green parts
• 1/2 teaspoon toasted sesame oil

Instructions

1. Make the chili oil first so it has time to cool. Put the gochugaru, the 1 teaspoon whole sesame seeds and the pinch of salt in a small heatproof bowl (a metal or ceramic bowl, not thin glass) and set it next to the stove.
2. Combine the 1/4 cup neutral oil, the 1 tablespoon sesame oil and the sliced garlic in the smallest saucepan you have. Set over medium-low heat and cook 3 to 4 minutes, until the garlic edges turn pale gold and the oil is around 250–275°F on an instant-read thermometer. Do not let the garlic brown past light tan or the oil will taste bitter.
3. Immediately pour the hot oil and garlic over the chili flakes — it should sizzle and foam for a few seconds and smell toasty, not acrid. Stir once and set aside to cool for at least 10 minutes. If it sizzles violently and the flakes darken instantly, the oil was too hot; strain out the flakes right away and start over with fresh chili.
4. While that cools, grind the remaining 1 teaspoon sesame seeds coarsely in a mortar and pestle or crush them under the flat of a knife. You want about half broken open — that's where the nutty body of the sauce comes from.
5. In a small bowl or jar, whisk together the soy sauce, rice vinegar, water, mirin and sugar until the sugar dissolves, about 30 seconds.
6. Grate the ginger on a microplane directly into the sauce so you catch all the juice. Stir in the crushed sesame seeds, sliced scallion and the 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil.
7. Let the sauce sit at room temperature for at least 15 minutes (30 is better) so the ginger and scallion bloom into the soy. Taste: it should hit sharp and salty first, then round out. Add water 1 teaspoon at a time if it's too aggressive, or a few more drops of vinegar if it tastes flat.
8. Divide the sauce among small dipping dishes and spoon 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of the chili sesame oil, flakes and all, over the surface of each. Serve alongside hot pan-fried gyoza and let each person stir the chili oil in to taste.

Chef's tips

Nutrition (per serving, estimated)

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