Mandu (Korean spring rolls)

This is a fun dish we make with our family or with friends. You will be surprised how healthy, inexpensive and easy to make these pan fried spring rolls or dumplings are! They can be fried, steamed or added to a soup. You can freeze uncooked Mandu if you do not want to use them immediately.

I used a pastry wrapper called “ Mando Pi “, made from flour and water, which you can buy frozen from a Korean supermarket. Here I used only one pack of Mandu Pi which used about 1/3 of the filling. The rest I used with puff pastry to make tarts. Mandu Pi comes frozen so it must be left at room temperature for at least five hours to defrost.

Ingredients from the Korean supermarket

80 g Korean Buchu or Chinese Kow choi (a vegetable like a leek), normally sells 200-300g for a bundle
Frozen Mandu Pi wrappers – one pack (30 pieces) or three packs for 90 pieces
Korean cooking wine, called Cheong ju or you can use Japanese sake.
Toasted sesame seeds

Ingredients

200 g Chicken breast, finely chopped
½ Tofu, squeezed all the water, squashed
80 g Korean buchu, trimmed finely chopped
As an alternative to buchu use 60g leeks (the soft inside skin) and 20g chives, trimmed and finely chopped
50 g baby corns, trimmed finely chopped
50 g carrots, trimmed finely chopped
15 g Parsley, trimmed finely chopped
1 table spoon, grated garlic (2 cloves)
1 medium size red chili, finely chopped
1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
2/3 teaspoon white pepper
1 table spoon Korean cooking wine, Cheong ju alternatively any rice wine or Japanese sake
2/3 table spoon cooking salt
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon sugar
1 egg yolk
1 egg white to seal the Madu Pi or if you want to make 90 pieces of Mando then you need 2 egg whites.
3 packs of Madu Pi if using all the filling for spring rolls

Use a half a pack of tofu cut it into four pieces. Wrap it in some layered kitchen towels and press and squeeze to release all the liquid into the towels.

Do not worry about of the shape of the tofu because next we break it up into very fine pieces.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the smashed tofu, chopped carrots, baby sweetcorn, parsley and chicken breast.

Add the grated garlic, red chilli, 1 egg york, white pepper, the cooking wine, salt, sesame oil, sugar and toasted sesame seeds.

Mix with a spoon to combine.Pan fry a small sample and taste adding salt, pepper or sugar if desired .

Cover with a chopping board with baking paper and then lay one Mandu Pi on it.

Place a spoonful of filling in the centre of the Mandu Pi and then paint the edge all around with egg white to seal.

Fold in half and press the edge firmly to stick it.Repeat to make as many rolls as you want.

Put one tablespoon of olive oil in a frying pan and add some of your Mandu then leave them frying with a closed lid for 1- 2 minutes over a low heat.

Turn them over and fry for another 2 minutes.Open the lid and pan fry them for a further 3-5 minutes with a medium to low heat until they go brown in colour, not forgetting to fry both sides and the thick edge as in the picture.Try to cook with a low heat.

Alternatively you can steam or boil the dumpllings as you wish.

Another use for this filling is to use puff pastry to make a tart. (Korean Mando fillings meet with a Western puff pastry).

After baking the puff pastry, do not forget to garnish with some chilli sauce to give a little kick in your mouth.

You can taste the harmony between oriental and western ingredients.

You can freeze the uncooked puff pastry tarts if you do not want to bake them immediately.

KoreanAnju

Mandu (Korean spring rolls)

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