Southwest Dippers with Sweet & Spicy Dipping Sauce

It was a sunny Saturday and Sunday.  It was beautiful here in Stockton Ca.  We really do need the rain for the farmers. My husband already started irrigating this past week. I hear the rain is coming soon. Cold rainy days are for soups and salads with home made bread Mm Mm. Though this has nothing to do with my recipe today, I just thought I would share with you.

 So, I am making appetizers for this evening. Something light that doesn't have to be heated constantly. I have this great idea for a recipe. I'm making a Southwest Dipper. This is a stuffed wonton shell, fried. It has many bold colors and tastes great.  As I always say, you can make some adjustments, use your imagination and have fun with this recipe.

Southwest Dippers
with Sweet & Spicy Dipping Sauce

Ingredients:
4 green onions finely sliced
1 cup diced small cooked potatoes(I used Simply Potatoes with onions and diced even smaller)
1 cup black beans(drained and rinsed from can)
1/2 cup yellow corn(drained from can)
1/2 cup  red bell pepper diced small
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 black pepper
1/2 tsp  garlic salt (optional)
3/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese(optional)
1 package round wonton wrappers
Oil (for frying)


Sweet & Spicy Dipping Sauce

Ingredients:

1/2  cup white vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup cocktail sauce(or 1/2 cup ketchup and 1/8 tsp horseradish)
1 tsp dried crushed red pepper

Dipping Sauce
In a medium frying pan or pan, combine vinegar, cocktail sauce, sugar and crushed red pepper.  Place on medium low heat.  Watching so it doesn't boil to fast. Stir until reduced down to a thicker consistency, about 5-7 minutes. Then turn off heat, and let stand till you are ready to plate your dippers.

Dippers

In a large bowl combine onions, potatoes, black beans, corn, red bell pepper, salt, pepper, cheese and garlic salt.  Mix well and season to taste if needed. Next, take your wonton wrappers and place out on working area (I used two wrappers together for each dipper, they kind of stick together anyway when you take them out of the package). Brush a little water around the outer edge of half a wrapper( this will help seal the sides after you fill them). Now take a teaspoon of the mixture and place in the center of the wrapper. Then bring the two sides together, pressing the edges together as you go down from one side to the other.  Be careful not to over fill, the sides won't close or they will come apart in the fryer. This part  is the longest part if you are doing this alone and your doing whole pack of wrappers(doubled there are 30). From filling, to sealing, to frying, it takes about 45 minutes. If you have help, it's even faster. When you double the wrappers like this recipe, you have some filling left over. Which you can make many things with.  You can fill a tortilla shell, phillo dough, use as a relish or side dish.

 

Now for frying, you can use a frying pan with oil or a deep fryer ( which I chose to use).  If you are pan frying, place on medium heat. When hot, fry dippers in oil (about 5 at a time) until golden brown on each side. Use the same frying instructions for the deep fryer. When done, place on a plate lined with paper towels to absorb any access oil.

When you take your first batch out of the oil, you are going to want to take one, and dip it in the sauce that's sitting on the stove.  Oh, so tempting, but you do have to taste it, right. This a perfect blend to me, you taste all the flavors. Then when you dip it into the sauce, oh boy...it's so sweet and then you get that spicy tangy flavor from vinegar and pepper.

Next, take the dipping sauce an place it a small condiment cup or container. Place sauce on the serving platter you are going to use. Then arrange dippers around the sauce (You can plate this however you like).

I added some onion greens and strips of bell pepper for garnish on edges of platter.
Servings per recipe is 6. Serving size is 5 dippers(for the doubled wrapped).

 Use your imagination and enjoy!


Remember, have fun and make it yours.



And that's the "DISH" for today!