Ddukbokki
Ddukbokki is popular street food in Korea, and as with most street food, my brain kind of ignores the possibility that it can actually be made at home. My brain makes strange food-related categories, most of which don't matter in any practical sense because I generally also don't cook.
But then my best friend made it for me at her home, and I insisted on learning how.
It's a really simple dish. I bought the round tubular rice cakes (dduk) and fishcakes from a Korean grocery store and cut them all into smaller bits. The sauce is a mixture of chili paste to taste (I used 4 generous tablespoons here), soy sauce, sesame oil, and sugar. My friend also adds some minced garlic and hot pepper flakes, but I didn't have any.
Bring water to a boil, dump in sauce, dduk and fishcakes, and stir constantly. I also added green onion to the mix.
Mmm, boiling away in a sea of red-hot spiciness.
The dish is done once the sauce thickens enough to coat the dduk.
Pretty much anything can be added to this really. I made it the way my friend taught me, but others add noodles, beef, other veggies etc to it.
Fairly monochromatic, but delicious! Painfully, tongue-burningly, nose-wateringly delicious. And with the chewiness of the dduk also strangely comforting, for all the pain.
But then my best friend made it for me at her home, and I insisted on learning how.
It's a really simple dish. I bought the round tubular rice cakes (dduk) and fishcakes from a Korean grocery store and cut them all into smaller bits. The sauce is a mixture of chili paste to taste (I used 4 generous tablespoons here), soy sauce, sesame oil, and sugar. My friend also adds some minced garlic and hot pepper flakes, but I didn't have any.
Bring water to a boil, dump in sauce, dduk and fishcakes, and stir constantly. I also added green onion to the mix.
Mmm, boiling away in a sea of red-hot spiciness.
The dish is done once the sauce thickens enough to coat the dduk.
Pretty much anything can be added to this really. I made it the way my friend taught me, but others add noodles, beef, other veggies etc to it.
Fairly monochromatic, but delicious! Painfully, tongue-burningly, nose-wateringly delicious. And with the chewiness of the dduk also strangely comforting, for all the pain.