Step 1

Have a large mixing bowl ready. Add ground beef and pork. Prepare the following ingredients from steps 2 - 7 and add all of them to the bowl.

Step 2

Bean sprouts - Cook mung bean sprouts in salted boiling water for 2-3 min. Transfer to an ice water bath, drain and then grab a handful between your hands and squeeze excess water out as much as possible. Continue until you squeeze excess water from all the bean sprouts. Put the squeezed bean sprout balls on a cutting board and roughly chop into 1/2 inch pieces. see video

Step 3

Noodles - Cook Japchae Noodles according to package directions. Usually, noodle are cooked in boiling water for 6-8 min. Once cooked, drain and drizzle with some sesame oil and 1/4 tsp soy sauce. Cut noodles into 3/4 inch lengths but OK if some are longer.

Step 4

In a food processor, chop onion, garlic and peeled ginger. Chop chives and kimchi. OR you can just chop everything with a knife except the ginger. Peel and grate ginger if you are not using the food processor.

Step 5

Kimchi - Squeeze excess liquid from chopped cabbage kimchi.

Step 6

Tofu - Put tofu in a cheesecloth or hemp cloth and wrap then squeeze and wring out excess liquid out of the tofu.

Step 7

In the same food processor, add tofu, green onions, sesame oil, sea salt and chop until green onions are chopped and everything is mixed with the tofu.

Step 8

You should now have in the mixing bowl from 1, pork, beef, chives, cooked bean sprouts, onion garlic mixture.

Step 9

To the bowl above, add tofu crumble mixture from 5 and the japchae noodles. Gently mix everything with your hands so that everything is evenly mixed.

Step 10

Season the whole mix with cooking sake, guk ganjang, sesame oil, salt, black pepper, and sugar. Mix again.

Step 11

Prepare a tray or large plate with some light sprinkling of flour. Also prepare tin foil or plastic wrap to loosely cover the dumplings while you continue to make mandu. Make dumplings by stuffing 2 tsp to 1 Tbsp of mix in each wrapper (watch video on how) and then lay out the mandu on the tray with enough spacing between them so they don't touch.

Step 12

FREEZE for best storage - once you have a tray full of mandu, put in the freezer, uncovered, for about 1 - 2 hours until the outer skin becomes hard. Transfer the partially frozen mandu into a plastic bag and put it back in the freezer until you are ready to cook them. By pre-freezing them, the mandu will not stick to each other and also keep its shape.

Step 13

Deep Frying Mandu - heat up at least 3 inch of oil in a heavy pot or a fryer until it reaches 340℉ (170℃). Put mandu in oil and fry for 3-4 min until it's golden brown like above.

Step 14

Pan Frying Mandu - heat a frying pan on medium heat with good amount of vegetable oil (1.5 to 2 Tbsp) and brown the mandu on all sides for 3-4 minutes. Then prepare a lid that will cover the pan and then pour 1 Tbsp of water onto the hot pan. COVER IMMEDIATELY and BE CAREFUL it will steam right away!! Let it cook for 1 min or so until the water evaporates.

Step 15

Make Sweet Sour Dipping Sauce by mixing the ingredients - soy sauce, sugar, vinegar, gochugaru, sesame seeds and chives.