Family traditions are a wonderful thing. Now that Jimmy and I have kids I find myself almost forcing or creating traditions, hoping they stick — but growing up traditions happened naturally and weren’t always associated with the holidays or celebrations. When I was young we had house guests often. We had family coming to visit from Korea, Europe, the bay area, etc. It was a great excuse to have big parties. My dad would keep a box out for empty cans and bottles to be recycled but would give me the credit saying that I collected them. At a later date he would take me to the recycling collection site outside of our grocery store and I would get “paid.” We’d use my “earnings” each time to buy the ingredients to make mandu. We made them together at the kitchen counter, just my dad and I, all the while I would be getting credit for picking up the tab for our family meal. It was silly but also gave me a sense of pride and accomplishment. My mom would even tell me the ones I made tasted the best - it was obvious which ones I made because the filling always made their way out of the wrapper in the broth, just as the one Preston made here did …
Even though our kids are still young, I can’t wait to continue the tradition of making dumplings as a family. I hope it gives them the same confidence in the kitchen and sense of accomplishment in being able to contribute to a family meal.
Korean Dashida (amazon affiliate link)
-Jenny
| Prep Time | 1 hour |
| Cook Time | 15 minutes |
| Servings |
people
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- 1/2 lb ground chicken I used thigh meat
- 1/2 lb ground pork
- 1/4 small yellow onion diced
- 2 green onions finely diced whites and greens separated
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 cup packed bean sprouts
- 4 oz firm tofu crumbled and drained let sit on towel or paper towel to drain further
- 1/2 oz sweet potato noodles about the diameter of a dime
- salt
- Pepper
- 1 package dumpling/wonton wrappers
- All purpose flour to dust cookie sheets with
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1/2 teaspoon Gochugaru
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
- 1/2 to 3/4 oz dried anchovies
- 1 teaspoon Korean Dashida see link above (after last photo in post)
Ingredients
For the Filling
For the Pan Fried Dumplings
For the Soup Dumplings
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- Boil a small pot of water. Season water with a pinch of salt and add the bean sprouts. Cook for 3 minutes and rinse in a colander with cold water. Drain and finely chop. Continue to drain the chopped sprouts on a clean towel or paper towels and then add to a large mixing bowl. *You want to eliminate as much moisture in the filling. Heat a medium sized fry pan on over medium heat and add ½ tablespoon of olive oil. Saute onion, garlic, whites of the green onion and ⅛ teaspoon of salt until onions are translucent (about 3-4 minutes). Add mixture to the large mixing bowl. While the onions are cooking, boil a small pot of water and add the sweet potato noodle. Cook uncovered for 6 minutes. Drain and rinse under cold water and finely chop. Add the noodles and the drained crumbled tofu to the same large mixing bowl. Add the meat and 1 teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon black ground pepper and combine the ingredients. Be sure not to overwork the mixture or the meat will become gummy. To compose the mandu open the package of wonton wrappers and prepare a small bowl of cold water. Place 1 tablespoon of mixture at the center of the wonton wrapper
- Use your finger to run water along one edge of the wrapper and pinch along the sides to seal the potsticker
- Be sure to use your fingers to push air bubbles in the wrapper out while you’re pinching
- Place completed potstickers on a cookie sheet lightly dusted with all purpose flour to prevent sticking
- For the dipping sauce combine the gochugaru, soy sauce, and rice wine vinegar. Heat a pan (that has a lid) over medium heat and add 1 tablespoon vegetable oil to the uncovered pan. Place mandu in a heated pan laying on one side. It won’t take long for them to brown on one side. Flip them over using chopsticks or tongs. Add 2-3 tablespoons of water, place the lid on the pan, reduce heat to low and allow finish cooking for another 3-4 minutes. Serve or drizzle with dipping sauce.
- Boil 6 cups of water in medium size pot with the dried anchovies (measurement given in ounces due to various sizes of anchovies). Boil for 20-30 minutes. Strain out dried anchovies and stire in 1 teaspoon dashida while the soup is still hot. In a separate small pot boil water and add raw mandu. When they float to the top add to the stock and finish cooking for an additional 2-3 minutes. Note: I boil the potstickers in a separate pot before adding them to the broth so that the soup is clean and light.
This looks incredible! Have you experimented with other fillings yet?
Jenny says
Thank you, Annie! Yes, over the years I have used both ground chicken breast and ground turkey because they’re almost always available at the local grocery store. The mandu still turn out great but the cooked filling comes out slightly firmer (with less fat content) than when I use the mixture of ground pork with ground chicken thigh meat. Definitely experiment with whatever meats you like. We hope you love the end product.
May I ask which wrapper that you use? Your dumplings look very very soft and delicate. Is it because the tofu that you used in the filling? I would want to steal some of them right now. 🙂
Jenny says
Thanks Juventia! To be honest, I use tofu because that’s the way my family makes them and how I was taught. Some say it’s because it gives a smoother texture, others say it’s because it works as a great binder especially with all the other ingredients that might make the filling more loose. Either way win-win! For this particular recipe I used the wrappers available at our local grocery store, Nasoya wraps.