Ddeok Ggochi 떡꼬치

Hey guys, so today is the last day for my week long posting. I have enjoyed it and I think that I should do this more often to treat myself ^^

To end this weeks posting I have decided to go for a very easy and in many ways addictive recipe. I am sure that you have all heard of ddeokbokki right? If you haven't heard of it, go and check out the recipe I previously posted for ddeokbokki.

Well this recipe today is something similar. Today I will introducing you to ddeokggochi (떡꼬치). It is fried rice cakes on a skewered and lathered in a layer of gochujang. It is a very simple snack and as you can see it is very similar to ddeokbokki, just much more simple.

The dish is very popular with school; aged children as an after school treat and it is also widely sold throughout Korean by street vendors.

Anyway, moving on to the recipe:

Ingredients
20 Sticky Rice Cakes
10 Skewers
Some Oil for Frying
Sauce
3 Tbsp Ketchup
2 Tbsp Red Pepper Paste
2 Tbsp Honey
1 Tbsp Sugar
1 Tbsp Soy Sauce
2 Tbsp Cooking Wine
1 Tbsp Onion Juice
1 Clove Minced Garlic
1 Tbsp Sesame Oil
1 Tbsp Chopped Peanuts
⅛ tsp Black Pepper

Method
1. Boil frozen rice cakes for 1 minute, or until soft. If not frozen, then boil for 30 seconds. After that, drain water, rinse in cold water, and pull them apart.
2. Cut the rice cakes in half.
3. Put 4 or 5 rice cakes on a skewer. You will get about 10 skewered sticky rice cakes.
4. Place the rice cakes in a heated pan with a little oil.
5. Fry until golden brown.
6. While you are frying the rice cakes, make the sauce. Mix all of the sauce ingredients in a pan.
7. Heat the sauce on medium until it boils, stirring occasionally.
8. Coat the fried rice cakes with the sauce.




And there you have it, a quick snack and if you are really desperate you can make a meal out of it.

That will be it from me this week. I will try my best to post again next week, but I do have one final exam. Maybe I can post after the exam, after all the holidays are after that, look forward to it. Until next time stay healthy and happy ^~^

"Army" Stew 부대찌개

Like I had promised yesterday, here is another post today. Like the title, the dishis going to be 부대찌개, which translate to be ARMY STEW.

The origins of the dish goes back to the end to the Korean War. During the war, Koreans have salvaged any means of food from the American soldiers in which there were an abundance of hot dog, sausages, and spam along with other staples. Due to the scarcity of meat during the war they used these as substitutes for their stews.

Much like kimchi chigae, this soup-based dish contains kimchi, tofu, scallions, onions, gochujang, and much more. Also, to add texture and volume to the soup, it can contain vermicelli as well as ramyun noodles. It is consumed along with a bowl of steamed rice to compliment its spiciness and its abundance in meat such as spam, sausages and pork.

The dish is also referred to as Johnson Tang (존슨 탕), combining the common American surname Johnson and tang (탕) a word meaning soup. The city of Uijeongbu, which is bordered by Seoul to the south and has many army bases, is famous for its budae jjigae. In the late 20th century, the city of Uijeongbu had stipulated that the dish be referred to as Uijeongbu jjigae to remove the military or war-time connotation in the name, though not many restaurants follow this guideline. Some restaurants have begun calling their product Uijeongbu budae jjigae.

That is the history lessen for the dish, but even though it was eaten because of the scarcity of meat it is still enjoyed now by many Koreans because of the many ingredients that you can put into the dish.

I'm going to show you guys my version of army stew, but do keep in mind that you can practically add anything that you want into the dish because it is characterised for having a variety of different ingredients.

Ingredients
Can of Spam
6 Frankfurter sausages
150g of Tofu
1 Instant Noodle (minus the soup base)
handful of Rice cakes (if you want)
1/2 Onion
2 Mushrooms
2 spring onions
Enough water to cover

Sauce
3 Tablespoon of Gochujang
2 Tablespoon of Red Pepper Powder
2 Cloves of crushed garlic
3 Tablespoons of Soy Sauce
Salt to taste

Method
Cut the Spam, sausages and tofu in to slices and cut all the vegetables. In a bowl add all the ingredients for the sauce and mix well, Place the sauce in to the pan and add the other ingredients around it, keep the noodles to on side for now. Add the water so that everything is covered.


Bring the entire mix to boil and cook well, this should take about 15 minutes, the easiest way to check is to see if the onion is soft. At this point add some noodles it is common to use some instant noodles, you could though use any supermarket noodle. This will take a further 3-5 minutes to cook.


Serve in a bowl and enjoy, there should be plenty for up to 5 people and you could serve with rice and some side dishes if you like, however with the noodles there is enough to fill you up.



And there you have it a simple dish that is sure to please everyone. IF you are worried about how spicy the stew is going to be you can adjust the amount of gochujang and pepper powder used.

Anyways, I'll post another recipe soon ^^

Sundae Bokkeum 순대볶음

I'm bacccccckkkkk :D:D

So happy that exams are over and that I get to return to blogging about the things I love, food and especially Korean food. Gosh, there has been so much that I wanted to blog about in the past month but I couldn't blog because I had to study...Now I can blog as much as I like.

Hmm, for my first dish since returning to blogging...I'm going to teach you guys how to cook Sundae Bokkeum 순대볶음.

Sundae Bokkeum is a Korean Noodle dish. It makes use of the famous korean sausage ( Korean dish made generally by boiling or steaming cow or pig's intestines that are stuffed with various ingredients)and serves it with sweet potato noodles known as dangmun in a spicy sauce.It is usually a stir fry of the sundae, noodles, vegetables and gochujang. You may substitute for other noodles if you are unable to get hold of this type, such as starch noodle, but you should be able to fine it in an asian market.

You may have trouble finding sundae because it is a korean food that may not been exported, but if you really can't fine it then I guess a similar type of blood sausage will be ok, but try to stick to the original.

Anyways, for the recipe.

Ingredients
500g of Korean Sundae
1/4 Cabbage
1 Carrot
1 handful of sweet potato noodles

1 handful of rice cakes
1 tablespoon of gochujang
3 tablespoons of soy sauce
1/2 tablespoon of red pepper powder
1 tablespoon of sugar

Method
1. Begin the dish by boiling the noodles and rice cake in a saucepan.
2. Slice the cabbage and cut the carrot in to chunks and fry in a frying pan, carrots in first until well cooked.
3. In a bowl mix gochujang, soy sauce, red pepper powder and sugar with about 1/2 a cup of water to make a sauce.
4. Cut the Korean Sundae in to slices and add this and the sauce to the frying pan and cook for a few minutes, and then reduce the heat. When the noodles are cooked drain and add to the frying pan and mix well and cook for a final few minutes.

Serve on a plate and enjoy straight away!

So that is that. It really isn't hard to make, I think the most difficult part will actually be finding the sundae.

Until tomorrow...another past tomorrow ^^

Oh gosh it's DDEOKBOKKI (떡볶이)

Boy, has it been a while since I have been on this blog

I have been so busy with the other aspects of my life that I totally forgot about this blog, if it wasn't because I had remembered a blog I used to follow I think I would have forgotten that I ever created this blog.

Now I'm really sorry for not posting for like the past year(?) but I will start again soon, and hopefully I can make it a habit.

So to start things off again...I think I should tell you about the food I had when I was on holidays back in January. Yes, I know that it was AAAAGGGESSS

SS ago...but better late than never. So I went to Hong Kong and Japan, but what I'm gonna tell you is about something that I had when I was in Hong Kong.

When I was in Hong Kong, I had my first ever Korean BBQ. Now being Australia I'm accustomed to have BBQs but a Korean BBQ is actually quite different from the usual Australian one. For one we don't have it outside and the servings of meat are quite...well small. I knew what a Korean BBQ would be like... but it was the flavours that surprised me.

My family can't really eat spicy, only I can. So I was a bit disappointed that I was unable to experience the authentic Korean BBQ. :( But non-the-less, the food was delicious. I loved the meat and especially the sauces that we could have. The side dishes were all amazing....

I wish I had taken photos...but I didn't so I am reserved to have to use photos from Google images, but I'm sure that you get the same idea.

NOW, to move on to the recipe that I will be telling you about this time. I'm going for Korean because well....I was talking about Korean food just then.

I'm gonna introduce to you guys a dish called ddeokbokki (떡볶이). I know that it is usually labelled as a snack...but when I was in Hong Kong I was fortunate to have the whole dish to myself. I have had it before in Australia as well...and lets just say that it is just one of the Korean dishes that I have fallen in love with.

I love the chewy rice cakes and the spicy gochujang (고추장) paste. Now I'm gonna show you guys how to make two variations of this dish, a spicy version and a more mild version for those of you who can't eat spicy things.

Spicy Ddeokbokki

Ingredients

Tube shaped rice cake (300 grams)

Hot pepper paste [gochujang (고추장)]

Dried anchovies (a must for a tasty dish)

Sugar

Water

Green onions

Directions:

1. Separate the tubes of rice cake into individual pieces.
2. In a pan, pour 4 cups of water and add 7 large dried anchovies after removing their heads and intestines. Boil the water for 10 minutes over medium heat.
3. Remove the anchovies and add the rice cakes, 4-6 tbs of hotpepper paste, 1 tbs of sugar, and 1 tbs of hotpepper flakes (optional). Stir it constantly.
4. Cut 7 green onions into 5 cm long pieces, and add them to the pot.
5. Keep stirring until the sauce is thick and the rice cake is shiny.
6. Transfer it to a plate and serve

Now for the mild version

Mild Ddeokbokki

Ingredients:

1 package of rice cake

Beef strips

Soy sauce

Sugar

Garlic

Onion

King oyster mushrooms

water

Directions:

1. Saute 200 grams of beef strips with 2 tbs soy sauce, 1 tbs sugar, 2 cloves minced garlic, and 3 tbs of sliced onion.
2. Add 3-4 sliced king oyster mushrooms and 2 chopped green onions to “1″ and stir it.
3. Add 1 cup of water and put rice cake in it and keep folding until rice cake is soft
4. Serve it on a plate and eat it when it is warm

Now, that is my two recipes for ddeokbokki. I hope you guys like it in this wintery weather in Australia...and I'll try and post a recipe for those of you who are in the Northern hemisphere in the summer :D