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For this recipe, I partnered with Bibigo USA to come up with a fun way to serve their Pork & Vegetable Mini Wontons, in honor of National Dumpling Day (September 26th). I genuinely love how this product is just the perfect bite size, and how they are a lot juicier and more flavorful than most frozen dumplings. So, I thought why not serve them up in a way that really takes advantage of their snackability?

In South Korea, it is common for snack foods and finger foods (like fried chicken) to come in this half-half style of two different flavors that taste great individually but also are better together. I love this, because whenever I am faced with a menu of lots of flavor options, I always get weirdly anxious about having to make a decision and the possibility of choosing the wrong one. Since it is also common in South Korea for snack foods to mix together sweet and savory elements, I wanted to try to do the same thing here.

Honey butter is an extremely popular flavor there, so I decided to capture that in my mini wontons snack platter. Believe it or not, making a good honey butter sauce to toss with Bibigo Pork & Vegetable Mini Wontons, popcorn, almonds, or whatever your heart desires is truly as easy as combining equal parts honey and butter.

I wanted my savory flavor to be a little unique, and to also bring some color to my mini wontons snack platter. I love when snack foods are seasoned with seaweed seasoning, so I wanted to do something in that vein, but with a sorta trendy twist. Here in the States, matcha so popular but typically only associated with sweet drinks and desserts; however, the sweetness only comes from added sugar. Matcha on it’s own, to me, as a bit of a savory quality to it and it is not uncommon in Asian cooking for matcha/green tea to be an ingredient in savory preparations. I often see matcha salt served with Korean BBQ, and love how the matcha adds a fragrant and very subtle grassy component to the salt. So, I decided to season my savory half with matcha salt and roasted seaweed.

Serving up seasoned wontons in the same manner as party wings or popcorn chicken probably would not have occurred to me were it not for this brand partnership, but I am so excited for this recipe now. This is one I will definitely be making over and over again, and I hope you will, too.

Ingredients

35–40 Bibigo Pork & Vegetable Mini Wontons
Vegetable or canola oil, for frying

For the Honey Butter

1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp butter
1/2 tsp sesame seeds, toasted

For the Matcha Salt

3/4 tsp culinary grade matcha powder
1/4 tsp fine Himalayan sea salt
3 sheets roasted seaweed snack

Procedure

Combine matcha and salt in a small bowl until salt is completely coated by the matcha powder. Set aside.

Place seaweed snack sheets into a zip-top bag and crush into small flakes. Set aside.

Fill a small heavy pot about 1.5 inches deep with oil. Heat the oil and work in batches to deep fry the mini wontons. Allow excess oil to drain on paper towels.

While mini wontons are still hot, divide into two equal portions. Sprinkle 1/4 teaspoon of the matcha salt over one portion.

In a small saucepan, heat butter on low until it just finishes melting. Stir in honey and keep stirring until the mixture starts to foam. Pour over the remaining unseasoned mini wontons and gently toss to coat.

Right before serving, toss together matcha salt mini wontons with an additional 1/4 teaspoon matcha salt and the crushed seaweed (you will have some seasoning left over). Plate both sets of wontons on a single plate. Sprinkle sesame seeds on top of the honey butter wontons.

Thank you so much to Bibigo USA for sponsoring this recipe! For more recipe ideas and to learn more about their products, visit their website!