[Korean] Yubu mandu (fried tofu dumplings)

Yubu mandu is a dumpling with skin made of fried tofu. You can eat it alone or in a soup with other things. The picture above shows yubu mandu in a fish cake soup.

Ingedients:

fried tofu pouches (As many as you need. Probably about 6. See below for picture)

1/2 tofu brick (9 oz.)

1/3 pound beef (any cut is fine)

1 finger-loop of Korean vermicelli

1 large green onion stalk, minced

2-3 cloves minced garlic

1 Tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp sesame oil

salt and pepper to taste

Method:

First, soak the vermicelli in water to make it soft (it should take about 15 minutes).

Meanwhile, mince the beef, green onions, and garlic, and mix with the tofu, soy sauce, salt, pepper, and sesame oil. When the vermicelli is soft, mince that too and mix it in with everything else. It should look like this when you're done.

Now, cut one side of the fried tofu pouches open. The pouches look like this:

You can find these in the freezer at a Korean grocery.

Stuff the tofu pouches with the filling you made. Use as many as you need. Be careful not to tear the tofu pouches while you're filling them.

Usually you tie the open end of the tofu pouches with parsley sprigs, but if you don't have any of those or something similar you can just be gentle with the mandu while you're cooking it. Cook the dumplings by boiling or steaming them until the meat is done (probably 10 minutes or so). You can cook them and eat them alone, or put them into a soup.

If you want to make a soup, yubu mandu goes well with Korean fish cakes. To make this kind of soup, first you'll need to make the stock.

Boil some anchovies, Korean-style radish, green onion, dried kelp, shiitake mushrooms and a little pepper for about 10-15 minutes. 

After you boil these together, take out and discard everything except the mushrooms and add various fish cakes (there are many to choose from at any Korean grocery. They will be in the freezer) and vegetables.

Shown here: green onions, shiitake mushrooms, mock crab, three types of fish cake, cabbage, carrots, mugwort, and yubu mandu.

Add some soy sauce (about 3 Tbsp, or to taste)

...and dry white wine (around 1 Tbsp).

Now let it cook! Boil everything together. 

The fish cakes should swell to 1.5-2 times their original size.

Once the fish cakes have swollen, your soup is ready to eat. This dish is good on its own, with rice, or as a drinking side dish.

[Korean] Fried Tofu Boiled in Soy Sauce

Fried Tofu Boiled in Soy Sauce (Dubu Jorim), presented by Mr. Sgoi

This is a nice and easy dish for two people that you can eat with rice and whatever Korean side dishes you may have (or whatever vegetables you have in your fridge). You could also use this dish itself as a Korean-style side dish, in which case this recipe would make enough for a party of 6-8 people. 

Cooking/prep. Time: c. 30 minutes

Ingredients [click here for details]

18 oz. (510 g.) package of (medium firm) tofu

2 Tbsp olive or canola oil 

Half an onion, sliced

Sauce:

4-6 cloves of garlic, chopped

5 Tbsp soy sauce

Half a cup of water

1.5 Tbsp sugar

1 Tbsp red pepper flakes

1 Tbsp dry white wine

1 tsp. sesame oil

3 green onion stalks, chopped

A pinch or two of sesame seeds

Cooking Instructions

1. Slice the tofu brick into segments about 1.5 cm. thick.

2. Heat the olive or canola oil in a frying pan and fry the tofu segments over medium-high heat. I sliced my tofu brick into seven segments, but could only fit four comfortably into the pan. Sad story!

Here's what the tofu should look like when it's done with the frying stage. Plan on about five minutes per side. You can mix the sauce while you're waiting for the tofu to brown up.

3. When you've fully fried the tofu, take it out of the pan. At this point you would normally fry the onion slices in the leftover oil. I was, however, sadly out of onions today, so I substituted garlic slices. (edit- if you use garlic slices instead of onion, you should reduce the soy sauce to about 3 Tbsp. or it will be too salty!)

4. After you've browned the onion or garlic a little, put the tofu back into the pan and add the sauce you mixed up. 

Let it cook for a while. I didn't adjust the fire at all throughout this whole process. When most of the sauce has boiled off, it's ready to eat.

I took this picture a couple of minutes before it was done. 

If you're eating this as or with a meal, put it on a single plate for the table or on individual plates, depending on how Korean-like you want your experience to be, and alternately take bites of it, your rice, and whatever else you've got on the table. 

This would also be a good side dish for drinking (the "ahnjoo" you've heard so much about) in my opinion. I think it would go well with lousy but cold beer or with soju, but you know better than me. Geonbae ("cheers")!

[Korean]Tofu Stew with Soy Bean Paste

There are number of tofu stews with soy bean paste from watery stew to thick paste. This recipe makes slightly watery stew.  Generally, you can put tofu, mushrooms, squash, potatoes, clams, shrimp, onions, green onions, and meat in the stew.


Tofu Stew with Soy Bean Paste (serves 3~4)
    Korean name : gang-dwen-jang
     soy bean paste : dwen-jang

 

Ingredients [click here for details]
1 medium potato, cut into cubes
1/3 medium onion, cut into cubes
1/2~1 tofu (about 4*4*3 cubic inch size), cut into cubes
2Tbsp soy bean paste
0.2 lb ground beef
2 shrimp
1/2 red pepper flake
1 Tbsp minced garlic
1 Tbsp sesame seed oil
2 cups of rice water
[optional]1/2 Tbsp anchovy powder
[optional]1~2 dried kelp
[optional]2 Thai peppers
[optional]mushrooms, squash, etc.

Cooking Instruction

1. Stir fry anchovy powder and 1 or 2 dried kelp with 1 Tbsp of sesame seed oil in a pot. When you have no anchovy powder or dried kelp, just skip this step.


2. Add cubed potatoes, ground beef, shrimp and  diced onions into the pot, and cook till vegetables are half-cooked. Add any other vegetables you like to use in this step.


3. Add 2 cups of rice water from the 3rd rinsing of the rice you will be eating with this dish. Remember this dish serves with steamed rice.


4. Bring it to boil.


5. When it is boiling, add 2 Tbsp of soy bean paste, 1/2 Tbsp of red pepper flakes and 1 Tbsp of minced garlic. Bring it to boil, again. When you add soy bean paste, crush it to dissolve it in the stew.


6. When it is boiling again, add cubed tofu and slashed Thai peppers.


How to Serve
Put this in a large serving bowl. This dish is shared by everyone, but you can serve it individually. Before serving, put some fresh chopped green onions.
Koreans always eat this with steamed rice.