Ddukbokki (Spicy Rice Cakes)

To be able to cook like my mother one day would be a dream. I'll be starting a series here of her recipes; hope you enjoy them as much as I do!



Ingredients:
1 package of cooked dduk aka 'rice cakes' - not the Quaker dietary rice snack. The ones you want for this dish can be found in the refrigerator or freezer section of a Korean market. (Or you can buy them fresh at some markets). They have different variations, but the ones traditionally used for this dish basically look like white Nerf Gun darts (why this is the only thing I can think to compare it to right now...I do not know). 

Any combination of veggies. We used: 
1/2 onion 
1/4 red pepper
1/4 green pepper
2 green onions
2 handfuls of mushrooms
*all cut in uniform size-about the same size as the rice cakes. Carrots are are good in here as well.

Fish Cakes, sliced. 

For the sauce, combine: 
1 T cooking wine
4 T Oligodang (which is a natural sweetener/syrup of sorts available at the Korean market--you can also substitute with corn syrup)
1 T soy sauce
4 T Red Pepper Paste
1 1/2 t of garlic
1/2 t salt
1/2 t pepper

("T" here equals one heaping spoonful)

And not shown, but an excellent addition, 1-2 hard boiled eggs.

If you're using refrigerated or frozen dduk, soak in water for a few minutes till they break apart. Bring water to a boil and cook dduk just until they start floating to the top (a few minutes). Strain and set aside.

The rest of this cooking process will take just a few minutes. So beautiful.


Heat pan with oil and quickly saute the vegetables and fish cakes, just about 2-3 minutes. The dduk is already soft in texture, so I prefer the veggies to maintain its texture/crunch, but feel free to cook the veggies longer.

Add dduk and give it just a quick stir to mix in with the veggies. (My mom was very emphatic about doing this quickly; otherwise your you get really mushy dduk). Then immediately add the sauce.

 Mix just long enough to get sauce incorporated. Turn off heat. 

Transfer to serving dish, sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds and add sliced hard boiled eggs. Enjoy. :)