Mandu

Dumplings whose filling is squeezed dry in a cloth before it goes near a wrapper, because water is what bursts them.

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

Ingredients

For the filling

• 300 g minced pork
• 250 g napa cabbage, finely chopped
• 200 g firm tofu
• 100 g beansprouts, chopped
• 4 spring onions, finely chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• black pepper

To wrap

• 40 round dumpling wrappers
• a small bowl of water

Method

1. THE FILLING IS SQUEEZED DRY IN A CLOTH BEFORE IT GOES NEAR A WRAPPER, and this is the step the whole thing depends on. Cabbage, beansprouts and tofu are mostly water. Left in, that water turns to steam in the pot and bursts the dumplings along the seam -- and a burst mandu empties itself into the broth, which is both halves of the dish lost at once. Salt the cabbage, wait, then wring it out in a tea towel, and do the same to the tofu. You will be surprised how much comes out.
2. THE CABBAGE IS SALTED AND LEFT TWENTY MINUTES FIRST. Squeezing unsalted cabbage gets very little; salted, it gives up its water readily and then wrings nearly dry.
3. THE SEAM IS SEALED WITH WATER AND PRESSED FROM THE MIDDLE OUTWARDS. Working out from the centre pushes the air out ahead of your fingers. Sealed from one end to the other, a pocket of air is trapped, and it expands and splits the dumpling.
4. AND THEY ARE NOT OVERFILLED. A rounded teaspoon in a round wrapper. Every instinct says more; more means a seam that will not close and a dumpling that bursts.
5. A SMALL PATTY OF THE FILLING IS FRIED AND TASTED before any of it is wrapped. Nothing can be adjusted afterwards, and raw pork cannot be tasted.
6. Cabbage chopped fine, tossed with the teaspoon of salt, and left 20 MINUTES in a colander.
7. Tofu crumbled into a cloth and squeezed hard over the sink.
8. The cabbage turned into the same cloth and WRUNG OUT until no more water comes.
9. Pork, cabbage, tofu, beansprouts, spring onions, garlic, soy sauce, sesame oil, egg and pepper mixed thoroughly with the hands, in one direction, until it holds together.
10. A SMALL PATTY FRIED AND TASTED. Adjusted for salt.
11. A wrapper held in the palm, a rounded teaspoon of filling in the middle, the rim wetted with a fingertip.
12. Folded over and SEALED FROM THE MIDDLE OUTWARDS, pressing the air out, then pleated or the two corners brought together and pinched.
13. Set on a floured tray, not touching. Frozen on the tray if they are not for today, then bagged -- they cook from frozen and should not be thawed.
14. TO BOIL, for soup: 6 to 7 minutes in gently simmering broth, until they float and the wrapper turns translucent. TO STEAM: 12 minutes over a hard boil. TO FRY: 2 minutes in oil, then 60 ml water added and the lid on for 6 minutes, then the lid off until the water has gone and the base is crisp.

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