An adventure of Korean Pasta:Rice cake in spicy red sauce[ddeok-boggi]

I met Marcel Carreiro at a Korean language school down in Sanjose last month.
When everybody was about to leave, Marcel came up to me and asked if I had a recipe for “Ddeok-boggi”.
“Of course I have…I have been cooking “Ddeok-boggi” all my life ever since
I was a little girl…”..but wait!!!..let me think….
I DO know how to make this dish…but do I have a recipe for it? The answer was an embasassing “no”.
We grow up with this food in Korea. Everybody has a special memory associated
with this dish and boasts about how they cook it better than others.

Most people know how to make it by heart but not many people have recipes for
this dish because it’s a part of our life.When Koreans are old enough to eat spicy Korean food (let’s say elementary school),
this is what we start with for a life-long journey of spicy Korean food.
Some say that Kimchi is the first spicy food to them and gradually they move on to other spicy foods.
To me, it was “Ddeok-boggi” that got me into spicy food for the first time.

I was sitting on a small wooden chair at a snack bar in front of my elementary school.
There were a few of my friends and all of us had a handkerchief pinned to our left side.
We were only 8 years old and those hankerchiefs were a requirement of the school so that we could always clean our runny noses.
I still remember how spicy it was to me. We all had our hands close to our mouths
and tried to create a breeze by shaking them hoping that the small wind would cool down our tongues that were on fire.
I have many fond memories of sharing gossip, secrets, and even math problems over a nice bowl of this dish.

Is it rainning outside? Make this dish.
Are you getting together with friends? Everybody will ask for the recipe.
Are you watching football? It’s a great snack.
Don’t know what to make for dinner? One bowl will make your family happy and full.
Did you get dumped? What do you think I’m going to say?Speaking of occassions associated with “Ddeok-boggi” I remember a time
when my husband John came to visit Korea 5 years ago(We were not married then).
It was about 2:00am in downtown Seoul and after a night of bar hopping we were quite hungry.
No restaurants were open at that time but the street was full of food vendors selling street food in wagons.
Every vendor was selling this dish and John really wanted to try it.
Do you know what he said after having a bite of the rice cake? “Hmmmm, this is like Korean pasta, isn’t it?”
What an interesting concetpt? I have never thought about comparing “Ddeok-boggi” to Italian pasta.
I would have never thought about calling Italian pasta “Italian Ddeok-boggi”.
Well, once you make this dish and taste it, you will understand what I mean…It took longer than I thought to scale down every ingredient I use to make “Ddeok-boggi”.
After struggling with measuring spoons, measuring cups, and scales and going through several kitchen tests,
I proudly present you with a fail-proof recipe for this Korean Mac and Cheese!!!

*Ingredients (4 portions)

Rice Cake: 1.3 Lb (600gm)
Low Sodium chicken stock: 4 cups (32oz)
Fish cake[Eo-mook]: 4 sheets (about 3.5 by 5.5 inch)
Green Cabbage: 1/4 head
Green Onion: 4Red pepper paste[Gochu-jang]
: 2 Tbsp
Red pepper powder[Gochu-garu]: 1 Tbsp
Soybean paste(doen-jang): 1 Tbsp
Garlic: 2 Cloves
Corn Syrup: 3 Tbsp
Sugar: 1 Tbsp
Sesame Oil: 1 tsp
Roasted sesame seeds: 1 tsp

 I want to show you what kind of rice cake and fish cake you should get. For rice cakes, chose the ones about 2inchs in length and thickness of a finger.
For fish cake, you can find flat ones as shown in photos.

Submerge the rice cakes in water for about an hour and drain. You can also blanch them in a pot of boiling water very briefly for about 10 seconds.

 Cut the fish cakes in squares of 1.5 inch length. Cut cabbage into a similar size as the fish cakes.
Cut Green Onions in 2 inch length. Prepare all 8 different seasonings. Garlic needs to be minced

  In a pan, boil chicken stock at very high heat.

When chicken stock boils, add red pepper paste, red pepper powder, garlic, corn syrup, sugar, and soy bean paste.

Stir well until everything dissolves.

 Occasionally, skim the foam. Don’t reduce the heat.

 Add rice cake and fish cake.

 Once it starts boiling again stir with a spoon occasionally to prevent rice cakes from sticking to the bottom of the pan.

You can see the rice cakes are getting softer, fluffy, and chubby from absorbing the liquid. Continue stiring.
 The liquid has reduced by 1/3 and looks thicker due to the starch from rice cakes.
Total cooking time of rice cake and fish cake till this point is about 5 minutes.
Add cabbage and stir for 1 minute. From now on, stir continuously. Be careful not to burn the rice cake on the bottom of the pan.

 

Turn off the heat and add green onions. Mix it all together.Give it a last touch by adding sesame oil and sesame seeds.Mix well.

Soybean sprout rice [Kongnamool-Bab]

A few days ago, I cooked this dish for the first time since I got married and was pleasantly surprised that my American husband liked it so much. I used to make this dish in Korea whenever there was nothing else to eat in the refrigerator. You can easily get this sprout at the corner grocery store of any neighborhood in Korea. All I did was put rice, water, and soybean sprouts in the rice cooker and push the button. When I came home from a 40 minute jog, my dinner was ready to be mixed with the sauce. I like adding ground beef because it gives a nice meaty texture and flavor but if you are a vegetarian, it is still tasty only with the soybean sprouts.

*Ingredients (4 portions)

White rice: 2 cups
Water: 2cups
Soybean sprout : 7oz/200g
Ground beef: 1 cup/7oz/200g

BEEF MARINADE
Soy sauce: 2 Tbsp
Green onion – minced: 2 Tbsp
Garlic – minced: 1 Tbsp
Sesame Oil: 2 tsp
Black pepper: 1/2 tsp

FOR SAUCE
Soy sauce: 1/3 cup
Green onion – chopped: 2 Tbsp
Garlic – minced: 1 tsp
Sugar: 2 tsp
Sesame oil: 2 tsp
Sesame seed – roasted and crushed: 1/2 Tbsp
Red pepper powder: 1 tsp

1. Wash rice several times (at least 3 times) by changing water and drain. Ratio of water and rice is 1:1 but conventionally, Koreans measure the amount of water with a finger. Put your index finger right on the surface of rice and fill the water until the water reaches the first segment of your finger.
   Set it aside.
2. Mix ground beef with marinade ingredients and set it aside.
3. Trim off hairy end of bean sprouts, rinse them in the water, and drain.
4. Now it’s time to put bean sprouts into the rice. Take a look at the rice. Do you see the water has been reduced?. Don’t worry. It’s because the rice soaked up the water and you must not add more water. Spread bean sprouts on the rice.
5. Spread marinated ground beef on top of the bean sprouts. Try to make as small a lump as possible.
6. If you have an electronic rice cooker, all you need to do now is cover it and press the “Cook” button. However, if you are cooking in a pot, start with high heat (lid on) and when it comes to a rolling boil, reduce heat to low to medium. After about 5 minutes, open the lid a little and check the taste of the rice. Do you see that most of the water has disappeared and the very center of the rice tastes slightly firm? If so, then it’s time to reduce the heat one more time to VERY VERY low (Again lid on)
7. Meanwhile, mix all the ingredients for the sauce and keep it in the refrigerator.
8. Taste the rice one more time after about 10 minutes. It’s done when rice feels fully bloomed and soft on your tongue.
9. Mix rice gently with a wooden or plastic spatula and serve in a bowl with sauce on the side.

How to cook white rice perfectly [Hin-ssal-bab]

Look at this beautiful snow white rice….doesn’t it look so yummy?
When I was a little girl in 1970s, there was a shortage of rice nationwide. The rice was expensive to many Koreans and not many people could afford it. Korean government even did the campaign nationwide encouraging people to cook rice together with other grains or legumes like Barley,beans,..etc
Every lunch time in my school, teachers went through students’ lunch boxes and anyone with white rice lunch box had to clean school restrooms or classrooms as punishment.
Every meal time at home, I was very careful to finish every single grain of rice in my bowl. Otherwise,my grandmother would yell at me “this is the rice your grandfather harvested only with one hand”.(My grandfather lost one arm by an accident) Nowadays,there is more than enough rice in Korea and everybody can afford it but many people try to cook rice with other grains not for economical reason but for health reason.
Still,white rice is a main starch in Korean diet and I would like to share a tip on how to cook white rice with velvety texture interior and shiny exterior.

*Ingredients (4 portions)
White rice: 2 1/2 cups
Water: 3 cups

1. Washing rice
   Pour water in the rice and using your hand gently make circls around. Becareful not to rub rice grain so hard. Drain the water, get new water,and wash rice with a hand again. Repeat this process several times (at least 4-5times)until the water gets clear.
   Many Koreans try not to wash rice too much for they believe that rice nutritions get diluted into the water. But thoroughly washed rice tastes much better and looks shiner. Save rice rinsed water and use it as a stock for stew.
   You can rinse your face with rice water. It makes your face very moist.
2. Measuring water
   The ratio of rice and water is 1:1.2.
   After washing the rice, you can totally drain the water,put rice in a pot, and pour right amount of water on it.
   However,it can be too much labor and wet rice can be stucked on your corander making it very difficult to get it off. What I do is, and many Koreans do this way, I simply wash rice in a pot I am going to cook rice in and measure water with my hand.,br> Put your hand on top of rice and fill the water until it reached border line of your finger and back side of hand. You can also use your index finger and fill the water up to first segment of the finger.
   Leave it for 30minutes (You will see water has reduced because rice has soaked up water. Don’t add more water!)
3. Cooking rice [5-5-5 minute tactic]
   If you have a electronic rice cooker, all you have to do now is to cover the lid and press the button “Cooking”.
   If you cook rice in a pot,start with very high heat until boiling with lid on. Reduce the heat to medium and leave it for about 5minutes.
   Open the lid a bit and take a look inside…has water almost gone?
   Then,reduce the heat one more time to very very low and leave it for 5-7minutes
   Turn the heat off and leave the rice on the stove for additional 5 minutes.
   Open the lid and ,using plastic or wooden spoon, gently mix it upside down trying not to crush the rice.