Eo-mandu

Dumplings whose wrapper is a thin slice of white fish rather than dough, dusted with starch and steamed.

Pork, Fish, Egg, Tofu. Not vegetarian — contains fish, pork.

Ingredients

For the wrappers

• 600 g firm white fish fillet, skinless, in one piece
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons rice wine
• 100 g potato starch

For the filling

• the mandu filling, as on its own page, half a batch

To serve

• soy sauce, rice vinegar and gochugaru, for dipping

Method

1. THE WRAPPER IS A SLICE OF FISH AND THERE IS NO DOUGH IN IT. A firm white fillet cut on a long diagonal into sheets two or three millimetres thick, each one a wrapper. That is the only reason this is a separate page from the mandu it is named for -- the filling is the same and comes off that page. Everything difficult here is the fish.
2. IT IS PART-FROZEN FOR THIRTY MINUTES BEFORE SLICING. A raw fillet at fridge temperature tears and rolls under the blade and the best you will get is a ragged lump; firm from the freezer it slices into clean sheets. Same trick as the bulgogi and yukhoe pages, for the same reason.
3. EVERY SURFACE OF THE FISH IS DUSTED WITH POTATO STARCH. Both faces, generously, and the excess tapped off. The starch is what makes a wet slice of fish fold and stick to itself -- undusted, it will not close and it welds to the steamer instead.
4. THEY ARE STEAMED AND NEVER BOILED. A boil batters them apart within a minute; there is no wrapper strength here at all. Eight minutes in a steamer, on oiled paper, not touching.
5. THE FILLING IS USED SPARINGLY AND SQUEEZED DRY, as the mandu page sets out. A fish wrapper tolerates far less than a dough one, so a teaspoon at most.
6. AND THEY ARE FRAGILE WHEN COOKED. Lifted with a flat spoon and served in the steamer basket if you can, rather than transferred twice.
7. The mandu filling made as on its own page, half quantity, and squeezed dry as that page directs.
8. Fish rubbed with the salt and rice wine and left 10 minutes, then patted dry.
9. Wrapped and put in the freezer 30 MINUTES, until firm at the edges.
10. Sliced on a long diagonal into sheets 2 to 3 mm thick, each about 8 cm across.
11. Each sheet laid out and dusted with potato starch on BOTH SIDES, the excess tapped off.
12. A teaspoon of filling placed on one half, and the fish folded over and pressed gently along the edge to seal.
13. The outside dusted once more, lightly.
14. Set on oiled paper in a steamer basket, not touching.
15. Steamed over a hard boil 8 MINUTES, until the fish is opaque and firm. Served in the basket with the dipping sauce, and lifted with a flat spoon.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under South Korea · All recipes