Mandu

March 15, 2018 JMORE Staff

Tony Nam as Ray (Photo by Stan Barouh)

Cornelia mentions mandu briefly during [“Aubergine,”] at the top of Act 2. “My mother would make mandu by the hundreds and freeze them for quick thawing and cooking later. They were present for nearly every special occasion: birthdays, Christmas, New Years, Thanksgiving. ..And we devoured them!” –Tony Nam (Ray)

Mandu

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Course Appetizer, Main Dish

Cuisine Asian, Korean

Servings 50 mandu

Ingredients

1 whole cabbage
1 package rice vermicelli or bean thread (12 oz.)
1 large white onion diced small
1 medium-large carrot minced
1 bunch green scallion chopped small
1 thumb-sized piece fresh ginger peeled and mined (optional)
1 block firm tofu rinsed, dried, and diced
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
2 tbs. soy sauce
1 tbs. sesame oil
2 tsp. toasted sesame seeds
2 eggs beaten
salt to taste
2 packages thawed, pre-made dumpling wrappers round or square, approx. 3-inches across
plastic wrap
wide-rimmed bowl of water

Instructions

Filling

Peel away outer leaves of cabbage and cut into quarters.
Boil water and par-boil the quarters of cabbage until cooked, but not over-cooked (about 5 minutes).
Use tongs to carefully remove cabbage from boiling water and drain/cool in colander.
Add vermicelli to hot water (not boiling), and cook for 3 minutes.
Strain vermicelli and run cold water over the noodles to cool, allowing to strain as vegetables are prepared.
Mince cooked, cooled cabbage into small dice (1 cm or less).
Put diced cabbage in clean cheese cloth or kitchen towel and ring out all the water, then place in large mixing bowl. Add prepped onion, carrot, scallion, ginger and tofu to bowl.
Stir in peanut butter, soy sauce, sesame oil, toasted sesame seeds and eggs. Mix with gloved hands or wooden spoon until all ingredients are thoroughly incorporated. Add salt to taste.

Assembly

Have a freezer-safe tray ready (a large, glass oven dish will also work), along with sheets of plastic wrap or wax paper and bowl of water.
Place a dumpling wrapper on flat surface, dip finger into water, and trace dampened finger around the outer sides of wrapper.
Place 1/2 teaspoon of filling mixture in the middle of wrapper and crimp wrapper closed with hands (crimping can be a simple flat seal or crimping can be made more elaborate as desired).
Repeat with additional dumpling wrappers, placing each on prepared tray, leaving at least 1/2-inch space around each mandu.
After tray is filled with one full layer, place plastic wrap or wax paper atop and begin next layer of mandu (hint: place next layer of mandu in the previous layer’s gaps in order to fit more mandu).
When all mandu are made, tray can be covered with plastic and frozen or cooked immediately.

Cooking

Dumplings can be deep fried, pan fried, steamed or added to a soup. If the mandu are frozen, they do not need to be fully thawed to use, but be careful of oil splatter.