I can do mandoo!

A few days ago I figured I would dive in on learning how to cook some Korean dishes (see the post here).  What took me so long to try this? OMG--seriously think it was one of the best dishes I've ever made and the Hubster gave them 2 thumbs up.

I looked at several recipes and made my own. The Kimchibulgogi.com site was a great resource if you are thinking of trying this too. It takes several hours to make, which is mostly lots of chopping and prep work. You could easily do all the prep a day ahead.

There was only one snag in my first try at making these. I only have a metal steamer, so the bottoms of the dumplings stuck to the steamer tray--I think if I used a bamboo steaming screen that would have worked better. I ended up lightly frying them and then doing a steam which seemed to be perfect!

So here's my recipe--

1 cake tofu
8 oz kimchi - chopped
3 garlic cloves - minced
1 1/2 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
2 scallions - chopped
3/4 cup bean sprouts - blanched & chopped
2 oz. glass or cellophane noodles - soaked & chopped (about the length of grain of rice)
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1 tsp salt
1 egg white
2 tsp. sesame oil
2 tbsp. soy sauce
2 packages mandoo wrappers (or Japanese gyoza or Chinese wonton wrappers)

Wrap the tofu in a cheesecloth or towel and squeeze water out. Crumble tofu into a large bowl. Add all the remaining ingredients. Mix well.

Lay out mandoo wrappers and spoon in a tablespoon of the mixture. Don't overfill them or they won't seal well. Wet a finger with water and moisten 2 sides of the wrapper. Fold the wrapper in half and press the edges to seal. I folded them on the bias to make triangles which seemed to work better. Then wrap the two outside points to the center point and squeeze tight.

Put a tiny bit of olive oil into a pan and get the pan nice and hot. Put in the mandoo (don't let them touch one another) and brown both sides lightly. Then add 2-3 tbsp. of water and put a lid on the pan. Let the mandoo steam for 2 minutes.

Eat!

I served them with a light soy sauce dip. Here's the recipe for that.

3 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp rice vinegar
1/2 tsp. sesame oil
1 tsp minced vinegar garlic