Gogi-mandu (고기만두, Meat Dumplings)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Large mixing bowl
• •Clean kitchen towel or cheesecloth
• •Rimmed tray dusted lightly with starch or flour
• •Wide lidded skillet, 10 to 12 inches
• •Basket or rack for jjin-mandu
• •Instant-read thermometer

Instructions

1. 1

   Salt the cabbage

   Toss the chopped napa cabbage with 1 teaspoon kosher salt and let it sit 15 minutes. The salt pulls out water now so the wrapper does not split later. Squeeze the cabbage hard in a clean towel until it gives up about 2 to 3 tablespoons liquid and feels limp, not wet.

2. 2

   Dry the tofu

   Wrap the tofu in a clean towel and press it under a plate for 10 minutes, then twist the towel and squeeze. A 300g block should leave you with about 180 to 200g squeezed tofu. This is not tidiness. Wet tofu makes a loose filling, and loose filling breaks mandu.

3. 3

   Cook the noodles

   Boil the dangmyeon until just tender, usually 5 to 6 minutes, then rinse briefly under cold water and drain very well. Chop into 1/2-inch pieces. Do not leave long strands in the filling; they pull out of the wrapper when someone bites, which is an undignified little disaster.

4. 4

   Mix the filling

   In a large bowl, combine the pork, squeezed tofu, squeezed cabbage, chopped noodles, garlic chives, scallions, garlic, ginger, egg, soy sauce, sesame oil, fine sea salt, and black pepper. Mix with one hand in the same direction for 2 full minutes, until the filling turns sticky and holds together. That stickiness is the pork protein binding the vegetables, so the mandu stays juicy instead of crumbly.

   Keep the filling cold while you work. If your kitchen is warm, set the bowl over a larger bowl of ice and fold in smaller batches.
5. 5

   Test the seasoning

   Heat a small skillet and fry 1 teaspoon of filling until fully cooked. Taste it before you fold a tray of mandu. Raw pork filling cannot be judged safely, and a sealed dumpling cannot be corrected. It should taste savory, garlicky, and green from the chives, with the pork still clearly itself. Add up to 1/4 teaspoon more salt only if the test bite tastes flat.

6. 6

   Fold the mandu

   Set out a tray lightly dusted with starch or flour. Put 1 level tablespoon filling, about 18g, in the center of each wrapper. Wet the edge with water, fold into a half-moon, press out trapped air, and seal firmly. Pleat if you like, or bring the two corners together for the round mandu shape. Notebook 31 says 18g for a 9 to 10cm wrapper. More looks generous until it tears.

   Cover unused wrappers with a barely damp towel. Dry edges crack, and cracked edges leak.
7. 7

   Pan-fry a batch

   For gun-mandu, heat 1 tablespoon neutral oil in a wide lidded skillet over medium heat. Set 10 to 12 mandu in the pan with space between them and cook 2 to 3 minutes, until the bottoms are deep golden. Add 1/3 cup water, cover, and cook 5 to 6 minutes. Uncover and cook 1 to 2 minutes more, until the bottoms crisp again and the filling reaches 160°F, or 71°C.

8. 8

   Cook other ways

   For jjin-mandu, arrange fresh mandu in a lined basket over boiling water and cook 8 to 10 minutes, or 12 minutes from frozen, until the wrappers turn glossy and the pork reaches 160°F, or 71°C. For mandu-guk, simmer them gently in broth, 5 to 6 minutes fresh or 8 to 9 minutes frozen. Do not boil hard; rough water opens seams.

9. 9

   Make dipping sauce

   Stir together 3 tablespoons soy sauce, 1 1/2 tablespoons rice vinegar, 1 tablespoon water, sesame seeds, sliced scallion, and gochugaru if you want it. The sauce should sharpen the mandu, not cover the filling. Serve the mandu at once, or freeze the uncooked ones in a single layer for later.

Chef Tips

• •Buy pork with some fat. Lean pork makes a dry mandu no matter how carefully you fold it. An 80/20 grind is plain and correct.
• •Store-bought wrappers are a safe shortcut. Wet filling is not. 시대가 바뀌면 음식도 바뀌어야 해요. When times change, food must change too, so buy the wrapper if you need to, but squeeze the tofu and cabbage properly.
• •If you want a cleaner vegetable bite, replace half the cabbage with blanched mung bean sprouts. Chop them, squeeze them dry, and measure 100g after squeezing.
• •Freeze uncooked mandu on a tray before bagging. If you pile them soft into a bag, they become one block, and then dinner has already started badly.
• •Cook from frozen without thawing. Thawed mandu wrappers turn sticky and tear before the filling heats through.

Advance Preparation

• •The tofu can be pressed and the cabbage salted and squeezed up to 1 day ahead. Keep them covered in the refrigerator and mix the filling when you are ready to fold.
• •The mixed raw filling can be refrigerated up to 12 hours. After that, the chives grow stronger and the vegetables start releasing water.
• •Folded uncooked mandu can be refrigerated on a covered tray for 4 hours, or frozen solid on a tray and stored in freezer bags for up to 2 months.
• •The dipping sauce keeps 3 days in the refrigerator. Add the sliced scallion on the day you serve it so it stays clean and sharp.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 360g)