Korean pork and kimchi dumplings (Mandu)

1. Cook the glass noodles for 10 minutes, rinse and chop finely; blanch the sprouts for 1 minute, chop finely and squeeze dry together with the kimchi. Press the tofu dry in a cloth.

2. In a bowl, knead together the minced pork, noodles, sprouts, kimchi, crumbled tofu, grated garlic, finely chopped spring onion, soy sauce, sesame oil, salt and pepper.

3. Put a heaped teaspoon of filling in the middle of each dumpling wrapper, moisten the edges with water, fold into half-moons, then pinch the two corners together to make a round dumpling.

4. Steam half of the dumplings on baking paper in a steamer for 10-12 minutes; fry the other half in a little oil in a frying pan for 2 minutes until golden on the bottom, then pour 50 ml of water underneath, cover and steam for 5-6 minutes until the water has evaporated.

5. For the dipping sauce, mix the soy sauce, rice vinegar and gochugaru.

6. Serve hot with the dipping sauce.

Tip: In Korea, mandu are made at family dumpling-folding sessions at New Year and at weekends, often a hundred at a time. Squeeze all the moisture out of the filling, or the wrappers will get soggy and tear. Raw dumplings frozen on a tray keep for months.