Happy 2015! Korean Mandu Recipe

Hello 2015! Let’s celebrate the new year with a Korean mandu recipe. 

Thanks so much for all your support and encouragement on the new blog. I’m excited about this creative outlet and hope that you can find a little inspiration to get in the kitchen, create something or discover what it is you love and just do it.

We rang in the new year with some of our closest friends who also happen to be our neighbors. We met up in our pajamas, ate ramen, fatty gourmet popcorn and played cards. #goodtimes #feelingbloatedtoday

Our family tradition during New Years Eve is to make Korean homemade dumplings aka mandu. They are so delicious and good bit of work but it’s worth it especially since we only make it once a year. My parents help us and it’s so much fun watching the kids put them together. Some of them end up looking real wonky but I think it’s important to share these cultural experiences with our kids no matter the results. Since I’ve been cooking a good bit and doing a lot of hosting for different gatherings recently, my sweet parents offered to make the filling at their house and bring it so that we could just partake in making and eating the mandu. I gratefully accepted their offer since I knew I needed a bit of a break. I still want to share the recipe because I want to keep this in my archives for future use. I have some step by step pictures for the most part but they are from 2 years ago! Ha! I knew they would come in handy one day! There are a ton of different mandu recipes out there but this is my mom’s recipe.

Mama Michelle’s Mandu  (makes around 70-100 depending on how much you fill)

• 2lbs ground beef cooked
• 1.5 finely diced onion
• 4 tofu firm (squeeze out the water with a cheese cloth)
• 1 cup finely chopped kimchee (squeeze in cheese cloth)
• 4 cups cooked and finely chopped vermicelli noodles
• 1 bunch of finely chopped chives
• 1 pack of finely chopped green onions (usually 4-5 stems)
• 2 eggs
• 2 tbsp sesame oil
• salt, pepper
• 2 tbsp minced garlic 
• 4 packs of mandu skin

Here are a few pics of the items you need to buy just in case you don’t know what they look like.

You can buy these mandu skins at the Asian stores. I noticed Publix carries the large square skins which are great for eggrolls. One year, we made fried eggrolls and mandu. #wearstretchypants

This is the vermicelli bag also found at Asian stores like Super H-mart.

Instructions:

Cook your ground beef and allow it to cool. After you squeeze the water out of the tofu, mix that in with the beef and add fresh minced garlic. After the meat has cooled, break it all apart with your hands as you mix these ingredients so the beef and tofu have a finer consistency.

Chop your vermicelli and mix that into the bowl. Aww can’t believe this was taken just 2 years ago. My how these two have grown. Add all of the chopped veggies, kim chee, seasoning and sesame oil. (note: when you squeeze the kimchee and tofu, make sure you remove a lot of the water but not so much that it’s completely dry). Taste the filling and add more seasoning if needed. You can modify this to your taste preference. Add the 2 eggs and mix it in after you are happy with the seasoned filling. My dad is the bomb at making mandu!

The rest of these pics were taken yesterday. They are all hard at work including Emmy! You know you’re Korean, when you see a random kimchee jar. #notthatrandomactually

Keep a bowl of water next to you so you can dip your finger and slide across the top of the skin where you will press it against the other side. Add about a tablespoon of filling and fold the edges and make sure they are stuck together and let out any air bubbles.

So fun!

Press the edges down well so that the filling doesn’t fall out.

Look at all the different shapes you can make! If you want to freeze them, place on a tray like above and put the tray in the freezer for about 20 minutes. Afterwards, transfer them to a zip lock bag and place back into the freezer. This step is important so that your mandu doesn’t get all stuck together. My dad made all the really beautiful ones. We joke that he should’ve been a professional mandu maker. 😀

Jules made all of these beauties and we used them for the soup! These are made the same way but you add another step by pressing the two ends together.

JJ made all the fried ones! So good!

You can make mandu for the dduk mandu gook (rice cake and dumpling soup) or fry them up. Freeze them and use them whenever you’re in the mood for some homemade dumplings. We ate this last night with my parents but will be happily partaking in this meal again and sharing it with friends for brunch today. Happy New Year, everyone!

xoxo,

yuni

Let all that you do be done in Love. 1 Corinthians 16:14