When last I went to the Cardiff Korean and Japanese shop, I bought a pile of gyoza skins so today I slaved for a couple of hours to make 55 mandu!
Mandu are Korean dumplings, very similar to gyoza with a few key differences in ingredients. Mandu uses minced tofu and chopped glass noodles as well as meat as filling. The mix means the filling is fluffy rather than dense. If you can’t find glass noodles, leave out. Make sure your tofu is medium firm and squeezed out of moisture. I wanted to make two kinds of mandu today, one spicy kimchi one and a bulgogi flavoured one, ideal for frying.
They came out super delicious and I froze half and had the other half for dinner!
Really easy recipe if you can get hold of the skins!
Recipe for around 50 mandu:
– 500g of pork mince
– 6 stalks of spring onions, finely chopped
– 4 tbs soy sauce
– 120g of medium tofu (half a block)
– 2 cups of well fermented kimchi, drained and chopped
– 50g of glass noodles chopped (optional)
– 1 Tbs gochugaru
– 4 large cloves of garlic, minced
– pinch of salt and pepper
– 2 tsp sugar
– 2 tbs sesame oil
Boil the noodles until soft, drain, wash under cold water, drain and chop.
Squeeze all juice out of the kimchi, chop finely.
Chopped spring onions finely.
Mash tofu until it’s
Mix everything together in a big bowl.
(Half the recipe if you want to make half bulgogi of course but also leave out gochugaru and kimchi).
Fry a tiny amount in a frying pan to check seasoning. Adjust to your preference, I don’t like them too salty as I have dipping sauces with it.
Take a wrapper and put a heaped tsp of filling in the middle and wet the rim with some water. Crimp the ends together, either in a folded style or you can just straight up fold it into a half moon shape. Make sure its completely sealed and you can even stick the ends together to make a round shape. Half moons and crimped are best for frying.
Make sure you cover finished mandu so they don’t dry out.
They cook in 10 mins in a steamer or 12-14 if from frozen. Make sure to oil the baking sheet if you’re using it for steaming or the surface of a metal steamer.
When frying, add plenty of oil and brown on both sides. Then add 2 tbs of water to the pan, cover and let them steam until all water has evaporated, cook for 10 mins.
My favourite dip for mandu is cho ganjang, which is a sour soy sauce.
Mix 4 tbs of soy sauce with 1 tbs Korean apple cider vinegar, 1 tsp sugar, 1 tsp sesame oil, 1 tsp mirin, 2 chopped garlic and chopped spring onions or white onion. Add chilli if you wish!
