Asian cuisine is always fascinating since it uses and creates the diverse exotic flavors that cannot be made from the typical “western” recipes. If you are the type who likes to try some new flavors, you’ve come to the right place. As growing up, I spent half of my adolescent life in east Asia and for those who have traveled there would know that these places are filled with tasteful yet affordable street foods! mmmm
This particular dish is another favorite from my childhood collections; spicy yet sweet korean hot pepper sauce delivers the right sensation to your tongue and the chewiness of the rice cake stick is absolute joy to your mouth. This recipe does contain boiled fish paste(Uh-mook/ fishcake) but trust me, the dish does not (and it will not) taste fishy at all.
Amy’s Ingredients
(you can easily find these ingredients at your local Asian store, not just the Korean ones)
- Korean rice cake (preferably in a stick form, white colour)
- 1 Onion
- 1 Green onion
- 1 Tsp of sugar
- 2 Tsp of Korean hot pepper paste
- 1 Tsp of soy sauce
- 1 tsp of fresh minced garlic (can be replaced with 2 tsp of garlic powder)
- A pinch of salt and pepper
- 1 small portion of the dried sea tangle (can be excluded)
- small portion of dried anchovy (4~5 in number) (can be excluded)
- 1/2 package of Uh-mook (pre-boiled fish paste in a sheet form/fishcake)*
*refer to the pic above; the pre-boiled fish paste should have the light brown colour and can be found in the freezers at the frozen section of the grocery
- Boil about 5~6 cups of water in a pot
- In meanwhile dice the onions, the green onions and mince the garlic cloves*
Note: You can replace the Garlic cloves with the garlic powder - Once the water is boiled, place the dried sea tangle, 4~5 dried anchovies and the root (the white part) of the green onions into the boiling water. Leave it boiling until the water turns golden colour.
Note: You can exclude this step but it will result in not so flavorful dish at the end. As the water is boiling, you will notice a sheet of white residues forming on top. Remove the residues periodically with a spoon, carefully only picking up the whites, until the water turns into a golden shade - With a soup scooper, or a big spoon, transfer some of the broth into the frying pan. You don’t have to add all the water since we will be adding more ingredients to the broth in the pan and fry them as we go.
Note: Depending on your pan’s size, fill it up to about a halfway. Let it boil continuously - Once the transferred broth starts boiling again, add the sheets of pre-boiled fish paste (Uh-mook/fishcake) into the pan and let it boil again about 5~10 minutes
Note: This is to add in more flavour at the end however, this wouldn’t give you the fishy taste as much as you might anticipate it to be. You can put the Uh-mook without cutting or place it after you’ve cut it into edible size . I prefer slicing but some people do prefer to have it sized just the way they are - Add in the Korean hot pepper paste sauce (aka Ddeok bbok gi sauce)
Note: The sauce consists of following items; Korean hot pepper sauce+Sugar+pinch of salt and peppers+say sauce+ garlic. You can adjust the taste by adding more of less of those ingredients to fit your personal liking. I personally like use the amount stated above (in the ingredients section)
You can also add some sprite to give more sweet taste along with the use of sugar - Add in the rice cakes and stir fry it until you cannot see the liquid as much.
Note: You can choose to add in the chopped green onions in the midst or use it as a garnish at the end. - Serve it on a dish and enjoy! You can also add hard-boiled eggs or fried mandoo (dumplings) as a garnish to add more flavours to your dish
The Kitchen 