Steamed Kimchi Dumplings (Jjin Kimchi Mandu)

The main point of making good mandu is

• Squeezing dry the ingredients completely if it is possible.
• Spreading enough flour on the board where you roll the dough each time and the dish where you put the mandu, so it is easy to separate.

Unfortunately, I got a lot less mandu than last time. I used a similar amount of ingredients but I got half less mandu. I think hand made mandu needs more stuffing than the ones made with a mandu shaper (You need to fill them fairly well to make cute looking mandu for hand made ones, but if you add too much stuffing for mandu shaper ones, it won’t close properly).

Ingredients for 25 dumplings

-Dumpling skins

• All purpose white flour - 3 cups
• Warm water - 1 cup

-Dumpling stuffing

• Kimchi- 1⅔ cups
• 1/2 an onion
• Mung bean sprouts - 200 g
• Tofu - 275 g
• Minced pork - 130 g
• 1 egg
• Minced garlic - 1/2 tsp
• Salt - 1 tsp
• Sesame oil - 1 tsp
• Pepper - 3 sprinkles

Preparation (You can click the picture to see the bigger image)

1. Sieve the flour, add the water, then knead it (my sister kneaded it for nearly 30 minutes).
2. Finely chop the Kimchi, onion, tofu, and pork.
3. Par boil the green bean sprouts and chop them finely too.
4. Squeeze the bean sprouts, tofu, onion, meat, and Kimchi, separately in a straining cloth.
5. Mix all the squeezed ingredients in a big bowl and season it with the garlic, salt, sesame oil, and pepper.
6. Add the eggs and mix them well.

My sister worked so hard being a hand model for this recipe, especially squeezing all those ingredients. It is quite hard work if you want to do it properly. Thanks again Hyunji!

Steps

1. Spread some flour onto the board and plate.
2. Slice a dough piece off.
3. Roll the dough into round shapes, not too thin not too thick.
4. Put the rolled pastry on one hand and add filling on top (you need to fill it with an adequate amount of the stuffing to make a good looking mandu).
5. Seal the pastry then place it on a plate (You can seal it into whatever shape you want, I fold it in half then wrap the ends round to touch each other)
6. Repeat steps 1 to 5 until you use up all the ingredients.
7. Put some kind of cloth on a steamer and put the mandu on top.
8. Steam it for 5-10 minutes.
9. Serve it on a plate with dipping sauce (a mix of; soy sauce - 1 tbsp, sugar - 1/2 tsp, chili powder 1/4 tsp, a dash of vinegar and a dash of sesame oil).

Kimchi Mandu Ingredients

For mandu pastry (It will give you 30 pastries)

• White flour 3 cups
• Water 1 cup

For mandu filling (You can make about 45 mandu with this filling)

- How would I know this? When I was short of hand made pastries, I used left over pastries from my dumpling pizza recipe.

• Kimchi 400 g
• 1/2 an onion
• Green bean sprouts 150 g
• Tofu 140 g
• Minced pork 200 g
• 1 egg
• Minced garlic - 1/2 tsp
• Salt - 1 tsp
• Sesame oil - 1tsp
• Pepper - 3 sprinkles

Preparation

1. Sieve the flour, add the water, then knead. (The more you knead it, the yummier it gets)
2. Finely chop the Kimchi, onion, tofu, and pork.
3. Par boil the green bean sprouts and chop them finely too.
4. Squeeze the Kimchi, onion, sprouts, tofu, and meat separately. (It is the one of the hardest part. If you have a straining cloth, definitely use it. I didn’t have one so it was harder to squeeze with bare hands.)
5. Mix them in a big bowl (salad bowl), add the garlic, salt, sesame oil, pepper, and egg.

Steps

1. Knead the dough, cut it into pieces.
2. Roll the cut pieces. (into round shapes)
3. Put the rolled pastry on one hand and add filling on top. (I used a mandu shaper, but you can just do it with your hands.)
4. Seal the pastry then place it on a plate or clean table.
5. Repeat 1 to 4 until you use up all the ingredients.
6. Steam it.

How to make “successful” mandu

• Make mandu when you have a full day or at least a half day free to spare. (As I said it is a time consuming job, also there is a mess to clean up afterwards too)
• You will need a big open space. Some Koreans spread old news papers on the floor, and make mandu on the floor. It is easy to spread things, also easy to clean up later. (Flour will be everywhere.)
• When you make the dough, using warm water is better apparently. Also leave the dough at room temperature for about 1 hour, before you use it.
• Make an assembly line, and share the job. (You will need at least 3 people, one person to knead the dough, cut the dough, collect fragmented dough and hand out the cut dough to the rolling person, another person to roll the dough, and another person to make the mandu.) I bet kids will love to participate with the kneading.
• Before you start rolling the dough, spread flour on the board and the dish where you put the mandu. (Otherwise it is hard to separate the dough or mandu later.)
• When you roll the dough, make it thin but not to thin. (I know how you would feel about this. If it is thick, mandu wouldn’t taste nice, and if it is too thin, it will tear out.)
• You don’t need any fancy mandu shaper to wrap the filling. I bought a mandu shaper to make it easier, though once you steam it, it doesn’t look as good as hand made mandu.
• When you steam some mandu, lay the white cloth (straining cloth) underneath it, it is easier to take mandu out from a steamer that way. Otherwise it will loose its good shape.

This is a picture of mandu I sealed with my hands. (You can seal it into whatever shape you want, I fold it in half then wrap the ends round to touch each other)

How to enjoy “delicious” Mandu

• Eat it when it is still warm. It doesn’t taste as good when it gets cold.
• Serve it with some sauce (Mix of soy sauce - 1 tbsp, sugar - 1/2 tsp, chili powder 1/4 tsp, a dash of vinegar and sesame oil) and yellow pickled radish (Danmuji in Korean)
• You can enjoy mandu in different ways. You can steam it or fry it, also make some soup with it.

Tuna Salad Sushi Rolls

Ingredients for 12 sushi rolls (Big meal for 1 person, light snack for 2 people)

• Freshly steamed white rice for 1 person
• Tuna 250 g (drained of its oil)
• 1/4 an onion
• 3 crab sticks
• 1 cucumber
• Dashi (mix these together) - Vinegar 1 tbsp, Sugar 2 tsp, Salt 1 tsp, Refined rice wine 1 tsp
• Salad sauce - Mayonnaise 3 tbsp, Pepper 4 sprinkles, Salt 4 sprinkles

Preparation

1. Cool down the rice for about 10 minutes.

2. Finely chop the onion, tuna, and crab sticks.

3. Put them into a bowl.

4. Add the salad sauce and mix it well.

5. Peel the cucumber skin off then thin slice the flesh with a peeler carefully. (Thickness about 0.2 cm)

6. Boil the dashi on the pan for 15 to 20 seconds.

7. Pour half of the dashi on the rice and mix it well. (You can add it more as needed.)

Making

1. Wet your hands in cold water then work rice (12 dough ball of rice).

2. Wrap the rice with cucumber.

3. Put the tuna salad on the rice.
4. Serve the sushi rolls on the plate.

Tips

1. When rice seem to stick on your hand, use cold water. (have a bowl of cold water next to you.)
2. The height of rice’s dough ball should be shallower than the sliced cucumber’s height. (to hold the tuna salad topping)